Author Topic: noises off

sam · « **on:** January 22, 2009 »

iPod aside, I am a sentinel for the sound of silence. An unwanted noise has the power to ruin a perfectly good ride. This thread will serve as a diary for campaigns and, hopefully, victories. It comes a little late: many undocumented battles have already been fought. war metaphor overload

This man heard rustling.

Sue Darlow photo

Handy tip: Start by checking the things you want it to be. This works as well as anything.

See also Jim Langley's site.

sam · « **Reply #1 on:** January 22, 2009 »

Scraping on the rear rim. An easy diagnosis:

It's also clear from the shelf at the bottom of the seriously worn pad that I didn't have it seated properly in the first place.

sam · « **Reply #2 on:** January 22, 2009 »

Unbearable creaking on my Dahon, which still awaits a proper ode. No noise when honking, thus pointing suspicion at the seatpost/saddle area.

I changed post & saddle (fortunately I had a spare Dahon, as you do) with no luck. Then I replaced them and merely cleaned the sleeve, shown here partly removed and not entirely pristine, but better than it was.

Creaking gone.

The worst of it, anyway. It still creaks a bit up front, and makes odd popping sounds now and then, perhaps out of sheer joy when I put it through its paces in London.

It's not the first time dirt has proved noisy.

sam · « **Reply #3 on:** March 07, 2009 »

Creaking returned. I tried cleaning the sleeve again, but haven't found a solvent strong enough for what's built up.

However, the noise seems to abate when the clamp is adjusted like so.

Go figure.

sam · « **Reply #4 on:** March 07, 2009 »

Next up: clunky drivetrain. Doesn't happen all the time, and can be temporarily stopped when I freewheel, only to start again later. Weird. Case still open.

on edit: Case closed

sam · « **Reply #5 on:** June 02, 2009 »

The things you own end up owning you - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Another !?>###<£! noise has cropped up on the bike above, this one quite loud and seemingly from the bottom bracket. The relatively new bottom bracket. Investigations are commencing.

sam · « **Reply #6 on:** June 03, 2009 »

It was the bracket. Either that or the act of changing it cleared out the noise, though it was tight enough and not particularly gritty. Perhaps the feng shui was off. I've gone back to the old one, which I'd removed as part of the process of elimination last time around...

sam · « **Reply #7 on:** November 24, 2009 »

Scraping/whirring as the wheel rotates on my wife's newest bike (which replaces this one - bad bike!) The elementary deduction was that the mudguard was touching the wheel due to traumatized stays, probably thanks to a recent tumble.

This highlights a design flaw: mudguards which cannot be adjusted

like so

Why do they make them like that? Because it looks neater? (Or did.) Mudguards are notoriously fiddly and cry out for easy adjustability. Something better than bending them, which is hardly ideal. The temporary(?) fix was taping the stay to the rack, as I didn't have any zip ties handy. Sheesh.

- CORRECTION -

The design flaw was evidently somewhere between my eyes and my brain. And yes, this variety of fitting does look neater, though it's ever so slightly less adjustable than the other one.

sam · « **Reply #8 on:** March 18, 2010 »

Problem: racket coming from newly built wheel on braking. 'Racket' being subjective.
Solution: brake block adjusted slightly downward so it's not traversing gouges in rim.

sam · « **Reply #9 on:** January 20, 2011 »

Blessed relief @ 1.07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKbKfxu5_oQ

with thanks to the good samaritan who compiled this clip

sam · « **Reply #10 on:** November 19, 2011 »

Chainguard clacking against motor on this.