I’m basically out of ideas on this one so could do with some outside help / opinions.

I’m getting a weird ticking noise intermittently when peddling. It’s specifically there when peddling, not when coasting and it doesn’t happen when it’s in the stand – only when I’m on the bike (seated or standing). I’ve gone through the usual suspects like swapping the saddle/seatpost over, tried a new chainring, checked dropout/wheel alignment (though it’s bolt-through rear end with direct mount hanger). Happens in any gear but seems to happen more when going uphill so with more torque but unfortunately not at any particular point in the cycle.
I’ve tried changing the rear mech, checking the BB is done up and running smooth as well. Doesn’t seem to manifest itself as anything other than an annoying and slightly unsettling noise.

Bike setup:
Santa cruz bronson, arch ex rims on hope, XT chainset with fat/thin ring running 1×10 with a hope 40t expander. XT chain, XT mech on direct mount.

Any advice on things to check greatly appreciated.

Which gears doe this happen?

Sadly any – or at least any I use, which is normally the 11-25 sort of range. It’s not noticeably worse in any one gear

Have you checked the freehub.

It’s yer knees. 😉

It’s all ‘new’ kit with going to 650b and I swapped the freehub body as soon as I got the wheels for a steel one – I could try popping the alu one back on and seeing if it goes away, that’s not a bad shout at all. Honestly it seems fine though and there’s no freewheeling issues at all, nice and smooth.

Pedals ok? No play in them? Done up nice and tight?

Pedals (shimano saint MX80’s) are done up nice and tight, there seems to be a bit of what I’d call tight play in them – so they do move around the axle a bit but it takes some effort to do it. Not entirely sure if this is normal but it’s the same on another set I’ve got and that bike doesn’t have the noise issue

Pedals could be the one, I’d have a look in the freehub too, see if everything is as it should be.

Possibly silly but definitely no cables sticking out and catching on crank arms?

Hey at this point, I’ll check things no matter how silly – but no, nothing like that at all.

Think I’ll pop another set of pedals on it tonight and see if that cures it and whack the freehub off and check that over.

Maybe try putting a bit of copper grease on the threads before tightening.

From symptoms i’d say bearings. Change BB and pedals and see if it goes away, that or if you are FS it could be rear triangle bearings from the pedalling bob.

Very unlikely to be the bearings on the pivots as it only happens under peddling and I’d get more bob than that pointing it downhill.

BB may get swapped it the rest of this doesn’t fix it but it’s one of those “this is unlikely to go wrong” bits as it’s a Chris King and torque on that has been checked, as has bearing play – flushed the grease out as well.

Possibly silly but definitely no cables sticking out and catching on crank arms?

Not silly! I spent the last few weeks chasing a creak on my roadbike. New BB, nope, didn’t fix it, then found loose chainring bolt, which wouldn’t tighten up completely and shouldered the rear nut with the stupid little slot in it trying to tighten one. Managed to eliminate it I thought and went for a long ride on Saturday. Halfway up the first hill and the creak morphed into a regular tick.creak.

I ordered a set of Aerozine chainring bolts cos they have hex slots instead of the stupid little slots. They arrived yesterday and I went to fit them to discover the front mech cable tail was pushed over and catching on the crank arm every revolution!

Try re-fitting your BB.. take off the cups, clean all the threads, re-grease and re-assemble. Dont over tighten. Also check your pedals and chain ring bolts.

check splines on NDS crank arm aren’t worn ever so slightly

Chain ring bolts are good – and I swapped the chainring last night just to rule out it being a fat/thin chainring issue so I know they’re fine. That and I lost my chainring t’other week in swinley as the bolts came undone so I’m becoming a fan of threadlock recently.

Well, not pedals – just swapped over to some DMR Vaults and it’s still there. I’m pinning money on it involving that t-rex at the back now. God knows how, but it wouldn’t surprise me that another hope part which isn’t their hubs (which I love) causes problems.

Sorry to threadjack gardron, but I’m after some of your bits listed here: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-fox-bits-and-other-random-stuff-from-the-shed and I can’t find your email address.

Cheers!

chain joined correctly?

B-screw set correctly?

Weird ticking noise could be broken pawl springs in Hope freehub. I’ve had it on Hope Pro2 hubs numerous times.

Yeah, chain is joined correctly – just a KMC quicklink, no stiff links, etc etc. B-screw been checked by 3 mechanics now due to my paranoia that I’d have got it wrong.

The pawl springs is an interesting one, not heard of that before but it’s definitely worth a check

How frequent is the ticking, once or twice per crank revouloution. Is it erratic or does it have a rhythm .

Dont dismiss the FS pivot bearings too easily..

I spent ages chasing down a click which only happened under drive train load. It sounded and acted EXACTLY like a BB click. It never happened when just bouncing on the bike so I assumed it could not be the pivots. It turned out to be the main pivot near the BB. I guess, loading the drive train will put stress on the pivot in a different direction to the normal forces from suspension movement.

Before you waste too much time or money messing about with the BB (like I did) just check all of your pivot bolts!

Same problem here and its a right pita……….but on the positive side i have learnt how to pedal at a certain torque before clicking starts and know what volume to play ipod to drown out the clicking. So slow down and turn your music up, problem sorted.

I will be watching this thread with interest though, have tried all the above recommendations but clicking persists.

Does it do it when standing up? Pedalling with one foot? Pedalling without hands on the bars? These all quickly rule out areas without swapping parts.

Checked the frame for cracks?

chip: reasonably erratic, definitely no discernible rhythm. I can get one tick every 5 revolutions or 3 per revolution

ichabod: I checked torques in all the bearings/collets last night, everything seems bang on, which you’d hope as well given that the frame is only a couple of months old. Can’t rule it out at this point but I think the next points of attack are:

1) Take the existing drivetrain back to 11-36 from 11-40 and see if it goes away
2) check freehub & pawls / springs
3) try a new cassette (I’ve got a spare at home)

If all that fails then I think I’m back to pivots. It’s sounding like it’s around the back wheel now but I’m willing to believe that’s my ears playing tricks on me

I’d start from the front and work back. Stem, steerer, grips,brake mounts, cables, seat, post, pedals, bb, cranks, rings, chain, cassette, pivots.

My money is on the bb or rear hub/cassette interface.

Don`t you just hate these annoying bike noises….. Fell for that one with the front mech cable hitting the crank arm. 😳
But the worst one i ever had was a vibrating noise, all the time. Looked at the wheels and any cable that was potentially touching anywhere, nothing. After a week of looking and head scratching, i was washing the bike and found a very small stone resting on top of the rear brake pads…. 🙄

Tipped bike upside down and the problem was solved….. 💡

Sounds like it might be your freehub. Several of our locals have hopes and i know that the pawl springs can be noisey.

New cassette on, moved b-screw back to normal, no difference
New freehub body on, no difference
Replaced directmount hanger with normal hanger, no difference
New bottom bracket in, no difference.
Checked spoke tension, seems even on each side, if a little low overall but maybe that’s how hope build them
Took brakes pads out the rear end to make sure it wasn’t rubbing there, no difference
gone over the frame looking for cracks but can’t see anything (I’d hope not as well for a couple of month old santa cruz which hasn’t been crashed)

This is doing my nut in.

sazter – Member
Possibly silly but definitely no cables sticking out and catching on crank arms?

took me nearly 3 months to realise my front mech cable “tail” was touching my shoe every revolution. the slight tick nearly drove me mad.

Pedal axle threads. Unscrew from cranks, grease up and torque up properly. Win.

I had the same noise for ages, changed pedals and still have the tick. Finally decided to regrease and torque up the pedals tight, and it went away. The titanium pedal axle seems to move in the alu crank arms.

Check spoke tension

It’ll be going down to my LBS tomorrow for a check of the rear wheels tension to make sure I haven’t measured it badly.

I can’t see anything where the cable routing would cause the issue and running 1×10 and a stealth reverb there’s not a lot of tails to catch

Pedals are always greased, brand new today too, all torqued properly. I haven’t swapped the cranks yet though, so that’s about the last thing I can try if it’s not spoke tension. God, I hope it is.

I had exactly the same problem on my road bike that had been going on for some time before being resolved yesterday. Really off putting, erratic tick that I (and LBS) was convinced was coming from the bottom bracket area was actually a small crack in the seat post clamp.

It’s such a lovely thing to ride again without that Chinese water torture of distraction detracting from my enjoyment of just riding the bike.

Well, I have a Solo and i did have that annoying noise going uphill. After changing a lot of parts and not fixing it, I just used the grease gun to refresh the bearings. It did help as the noise has almost gone now. It re-appears sometime when it’s a steep climb and I have to push harder.

Cheers Gilles, I’ll break out the greasegun tonight and see if that makes a difference.

Sorry if anyone else has already put this: Have you checked the B tension on the RD?

Yep, B-tension all fine. Had both a wide-range 11-40 and a standard 11-36 on there now so been changing b-tension between the two to adjust. It is that sort of a noise but no difference whatsoever.