My best clicking noise when turning the pedal was the plastic end of a badly stowed shoe lace hitting the crank arm twice each time round.

no not a HT, its a f/s – its just had new bearings too so rules out anything untowards with that, plus it was there before etc.

it doesn’t do it as bad seated, due to less power being put through, and continues more so out of the saddle so not the saddle/rails/seatpost

Are all your chainring bolts tight? I had a clicking sound once when one of the bolts was not tight so when I was in a low gear and the loose bolt was near the top the chain pulled the ring away from the spider slightly and when it sprung back it made a clicking sound. Also possible if your bolts have bottomed out so they feel tight but the ring is still slightly loose.

cheers duir, was it constant though even on flat? or just under load? it does point towards the pedals I guess

That’s the weird thing, sometimes all the time, flat or uphill then it would go away a bit or not appear at all. The clicking was driving me nuts and I changed tonnes of things on the bike before I worked it out. Then at the world cup at Fort William I asked one of the Hope Tech mechanics if he thought the creaking was coming from my Hope bottom bracket. I explained the clicking and he said “pedals”! So I bought a new set of M530 trail pedals and the click went away for a couple of months. Then it returned so I went for XT instead and 2 years later still no issues.

Can you put some cheap or spare pedals on to see if it’s that?

What fs is it? I had this on my yeti and it turned out to be the removable dropout plates creaking. Removed them, cleaned them up and put a bit of paste between them before refitting

Cheers duir it’s worth a shot, I’ll try these now ive regreased them etc but if still there wil get a cheap pair to test out, could well be the pedals though they’ve lasted and had a pasting mileage wise with no maintenance etc for 2 years

Will check the mech hanger though think it’s pretty clean etc, but an easy thing to clean/test

My guess would be BB, especially if you’ve tightened and greased everything. I have what seems to be a perfectly sound ultegra BB that to oily fingers seems buttery smooth, but I also had a regular clicking noise under power. Swapped to a new one and noise gone. For about a tenner, it’s worth changing. And if it’s not that, well at least you’ll have a spare.