Author Topic: Gear Noise  (Read 6692 times)

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Offline awbikes

Gear Noise
« on: April 20, 2012, 08:12:37 pm »
Just put a SRAM PG970 11-32 cassette PC971 chain and a Shimano STX derailleur on my bike. All three are new from the box. Shifters are STI and a year old. All shifts up and down are smooth an there is no unusual noise in any gear except the middle (5th) gear which happens to be my favorite gear. There is a tick which is in time with my cadence and and the level of noise increases with peddle effort. When my peddling decreases the ticking stops. Even the best tuning of the rear dérailleur won't remove the noise. My LBS mechanic (who I have complete confidence) tells me the ticking will disappear with use. I guess I can live with the noise or work around it by using my large chain ring but I'm wondering if I just have a finicky component.

Offline DaveB

Re: Gear Noise
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2012, 09:04:28 am »
Check the clearance of your FRONT derailleur cage in that combination.  The ticking may be the chain rubbing on one side of it.

Offline johnsondasw

Re: Gear Noise
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2012, 01:25:28 pm »
I had a Sram casette on a brand new Trek Madone that made all kinds of weird noises, especially a metallic clunking noise that was irritating and irregular.  This was one of those models that had a missing tooth on each of the gears in a groove pattern so shifting would be "easier".  It wasn't.  I did everything, especially repeatedly adjustments of the derauiller.  I had the pros check it out, etc. Everyone told me it was nothing, but it definitely was not nothing.  Finally, after a year, I put a new casette on it and the problem was gone.  Go figure.  I'm done with Sram.  I also had the brake/gear level snap in half on the the same bike.  Sram again.
May the wind be at your back!

Offline bogiesan

Re: Gear Noise
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2012, 09:37:00 am »
Just put a SRAM PG970 11-32 cassette PC971 chain and a Shimano STX derailleur on my bike. All three are new from the box. Shifters are STI and a year old. All shifts up and down are smooth an there is no unusual noise in any gear except the middle (5th) gear which happens to be my favorite gear. There is a tick which is in time with my cadence and and the level of noise increases with peddle effort. When my peddling decreases the ticking stops. Even the best tuning of the rear dérailleur won't remove the noise. My LBS mechanic (who I have complete confidence) tells me the ticking will disappear with use. I guess I can live with the noise or work around it by using my large chain ring but I'm wondering if I just have a finicky component.

The tick happens with each stroke so it's got nothing to do with the chain or the rear cogs.
Since it goes away on the center cog, it must be related to the diagonal chanin line.
The chain has only one object with which it has contact, your front deraileur cage.
Since pedal exertion changes the noise, you must be altering the chainring's parallelism. You're either deforming the rings or the bottom bracket is twisting in the frame.

Without seeing your bike, the above are the worst kind of idle speculation but they represent a logical approach to finding a mechanical problem by eliminating that which simply cannot be. When you eliminate the obvious and the logical, of course, the only thing left is the impossible or the magical.
I play go. I use Macintosh. Of course I ride a recumbent

Offline awbikes

Re: Gear Noise
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2012, 07:46:11 pm »
Thanks for the feedback but I happened to be looking at my derailluer and noticed it had an obvious twist to the outside of the chain line. (opposite of when it gets bent inward from a fall on the right side). I don't know how or when this happened. I replaced my derailluer hanger and my noise problem was gone.