[Closed] Who here has a 'silent' bike?

My belt-drive bike is silent. Although the Hope freewheel makes a well-known noise, and the Maverick SC32 forks make lovely "whoomph" noise when compressing.

Road bike is full of annoying clicks and creaks at the moment and will be stripped down this week to try and remedy some of them...

I struggle to hear mine over the wheezing going up hill and the squeaks of fear going down.

Mine has been creaking for a while now but I've had it in bits replacing the lower link box.
I've stripped/regreased the pedals
Cleaned BB
Thoroughly cleaned chain/mechs

Now put all back together and, after the car park test, no creaks (apart from the chain but that was dry) so keeping my fingers crossed. I do hate creaks..

I have an annoying creak from the seat post / seat rails at the moment, and they were greased on assembly too ?

My bike is silent because i cant ride it 🙁

The Alfine'd Spesh is.
The Rohloff makes a variety of charming noises and the Hope Pro 2 and screaming gives away the MTB on the downhills.

I also talk a lot 🙂

My Whyte 19 Ti SS is pretty much silent, the SC32's don't make any "whoomph" noises and the well used and well lubricated CK SS rear hub doesn't make any "angry bee" noises.

wasn't really referring to the hub noises, as they are to be expected/part and parcel of the product

just meant moreso people who's bikes creak and click etc and dont seem bothered, or do as in my case

I finally found my (latest) creak last week - a full strip & regrease of the BB sorted it. My Pro2's etc still make a noise but that's OK with me. But while I was out for a pootle to make sure it had finally stopped creaking I followed a chap who sounded like he was dragging a bag of spanners along with him. He did have headphones in so I guessed he just turned up the volume until he couldn't hear his bike any more.

My singlespeed is absolutely stealth.

My FS has Crank brothers hubs so don't need a bell.

My Mongoose Deuce Pro hardtail clicks from headset and headtube, but part of the adjustable head angle set up, they all do it. But it has Shadow+ mech which makes up for it.

[IMG] [/IMG]

...otherwise nothing as I keep everything well adjusted and lubed, but I am amazed at some of the clunkin', rattling monstrosities I hear on the trails.

Mine is almost totally silent now (mind you, it needed a new frame and about three weeks of maintneace to achieve that) - one thing I'm noticing is a tiny noise from the Mavic spokes on the rear wheel, has probably been there all along but amidst the cacophony I didn't notice it.

I'm with you on this, creaks etc. Do my head in big time.Also like my bikes to pass the 'drop test' whereby they can be dropped from 20cm or so (on to the tyres) without any undue noise.

Tell this to the people I did my last two mechanical-filled week night group rides with and they'd laugh like a drain.

Blissfully silent aside from hope rear; 17years old too. Can't stand creaks, but equally I can't ride for toffee.

I aspire for silent although if something starts creaking and you give it a strip, clean and re-grease etc it will always come back eventually. Once you have had your bike a while it becomes a case of various bits at various stages of maintenance and various points in their life cycle and always something I am eeking out the last miles on before fully replacing.

Having recently replaced most of my drive train and not long before that the pads were changed and headset stripped rebuilt, my bike is running well. BB will be next for attention and the forks haven’t been touched in years although they appear in A1 condition. Right now only slight occasional squeaks from the seat / seat tube clamp but mostly good.

SS is nearly quiet, gets a bit louder as the chain dries. The top headset cup has started to creak a little, it's moving ever so slightly in the frame. A wee bottle of Loctite 641 arrived in the post this morning, so that'll sort that out!

The commuter is all sorts of creaky, though. It could be the 14 year old BB bearings, the 14 y.o. crank square tapers, or the 13 y.o. V8 bearings.

I've decided I don't care enough to find out which it is. The bike goes forward when I press on the pedals just as much as it would without the clicks and creaks. Maybe some newer bits might be in order if it gets pressed into service as a long ride road bike. No plans yet though.

Road bike is silent (appart from rubbing in top, but any more adjustment and the chain falls off).

SS is silent (appart form the hope hub and the bell*)

Pitch is silent appart from a slight whir from the chain device

Can't stand noise

*which is fekin irritateing, but does alert the riff-raff at Swinley that I'm coming up fast 😛

me - ive been known to turn round and go back to the house and take another bike out if I identify an irritating noise as I ride away from the house - and banish it to the back of the shed till ive fixed the noise.

My Alpine 160 is silent now I've fitted a new X9 Type 2 mech. I know people believe that all Orane's sound like a bag of spanners but the Alpine doesn't have the massive down tube or swing arm that other models have. The only noise now is the Hope Hub when freewheeling.
One of the quietest bike on les agents Main Red Run this week.

But then I do spend quite a bit of time sortin out any creaks, speaks and noises as they p##s me off no end.

trail_rat - Member
me - ive been known to turn round and go back to the house and take another bike out if I identify an irritating noise as I ride away from the house...

Snap 🙂

My most silent bike was my Pompino with a belt drive. Made my SS chain bike sound noisy.

Did a triathlon at the weekend and a guy came past me (alright but he was hauling ass!) with the squakiest driest sounding bike I've ever heard.
Not like it was a cheap one either, fully pimped out TT bike. All it needed was a bit of lube, maybe he thought it would be to much resistance so prefered to run it dry as a bone

My Wolf Ridge has always creaked from new. In a pique of rage, I dismantled the bike, greased all four axles, stripped the bearings, re-greased, re-greased the dropout bolts, greased the seat post and even the steerer.

It still creaked.

So I dismantled the cranks, re-greased the axle, tightened the crank arm up and guess what?

Creak.

The penny finally dropped when I realised that the pedals were threaded into steel inserts in the crankset (SLX double), so I removed the pedals and refitted.

Voilà.

Mine creaked for ages. Sorted it out are various bits got swapped/greased/etc. Got the bike serviced and he creak's back! Will sort it out when I remember, always forget and then go on a ride and instantly remember I forgot to sort it.

All my bikes have had proII hubs and squeaky brakes as well as rattling from normal mechs and rubbing. Never bothered me.

Bought my new kona explosif. Revelation! Love how silent it is. Unbelievable really. Silent drivetrain, silent brakes, silent dropper & silent hub. Lovely. No way am I going back to a pro 2.

my halfords special is as quiet as a mouse, a boardman urban mtb team, mainly because ive serviced it, rather than let halfords mess about with it, having your bike making creaking noises, its just a matter of elimination, and patience you will get there in the end, if you grease and lube enough parts, i had a creak earlier in the year turned out to be the charge spoon saddle rails where they go into the saddle, a quick spray of gt 85 hasnt made a noise since.

Strive for silence, got a really weird metallic creak at the moment which I'm fairly sure is my pivot bearings, or my skewer's about to snap! Road bike is silent

My Ragley's pretty quiet when it's being pedalled... All the rest of my bikes creak and groan all the time. But I do have an uncannilly quiet 224, it sounds like they took[i] most[/i] of the spoons out of the swingarm.

MTB makes a variety of ungodly noises - I've identified one as a dying bottom bracket which I'm using as a an excuse to buy new cranks. Bike is due stripping down for a full service anyway which should help with the others.

Road Bike was pleasingly stealth until last night when I inexplicably took it down a rooty bridleway to see 'how it would handle' - the sun must have got to me. I think I may need to re-true the front wheel.

My SB66 is stealthy quiet now I've put a new chain & cassette on it. Previously it was a bit rattley as both were on their last legs. I imagine after 2 weeks solid in the Alpes it's going to be a bit hanging when we get back...

All the mountain bikes are quiet - the one that really infuriates me is the road bike. It's the one that doesn't get bashed about yet the drivetrain is always noisy..

I abandon rides if my bike starts making any sound. Its one of the reasons I almost always ride SS. I love just the sound of the tyres over the ground.

I take a lot of time making sure BB cups are lubricated, my SQT BB has a coating of grease over it, I use steel chain ring bolts not aluminium ones, and take care to make sure all mated surfaces are suitable dressed.

XTR freehubs are silent too.

After years of using Pro IIs front and rear, I finally ditched the rear for XT (kept the front Pro II for flexibility) and wonder why I didn't do it sooner.

So nice to be able to do long highland descents or mince around forests without the click click click click click click following me around 🙂

Since greasing up my seat rails, the bike is now almost silent.

My commuter and touring bike are both immensely stealthy since they've got no creaks or suspension and have Ultegra hubs. On the commuter this can be dangerous on the dirt tracks I ride on when people don;t hear me. i;ve got a little bell for such occasions.

Silence is a sign of a well maintained bike.

My new Nicolai runs silent as a mouse on new XX1. Seriously impressively silent....

I've never had a silent bike! and have spent many ££££'s trying! but then I am on the side of Fat G!t territory at 15stone 😯 ....... maybe its me not the bike that creaks....... 😆

My ss would be if it weren't for the ebb clicking.

well its good to know its not just me that strives to have a silent bike

it is pretty annoying, especially when you think you've done everything possible to erradicate it

the lbs were saying yesterday that they get no end of people in when it gets stupiduly hot like this saying that there bikes are creaking and that there brakes are not working properly and squeaking 😆 usually the rain,wet,mud,puddles etc will often lube (or at least disguise/take away some noise) areas of the bike to take noises away

i guess keeping a good amount of lube on the chain in these temps is a good idea for a smoother drivertrain, ill be bunging loads on mine tonight to see if that was the actual cause of last rides clicking!

if not im going to strip the bike down or get the lbs to do it, they built it up for me from new and it was silent, and boy did it run smooth and quiet 🙁

im pretty good at maintaining it (and looking after it), and i enjoy doing it too, so its not as if mine is just dumped away after everyride

sure ill track it down in the end, but i am glad to know its not just me, all i wanna do is go out (especially when on your own) and have fun and have a nice peaceful ride

Clicks and creaks and brake shing-shing are a no-go but more importantly I like to work on silent descents.

Frame/suspension noises, chain slap and wobbly cables all have to be attended to.

There is no such mythical thing. My unicogger was 'quiet' but Years of neglect have chef that. It now creaks, clicks and groans as a bike should.

[roadie]There is just occasionally a magical moment when a tail wind matches the speed of your progress. This perfectly cancels out the wind buffeting past your ears. When this is combined with a well maintained single speed bike running slick tyres on smooth tarmac, riding a bike feels like flying.[/roadie]

1x10 with XTR clutch mech, quieter than a sparrows fart, until the freewheel kicks in ofcourse.

Hadn't realized how much so until cycling next to my friend yesterday who was on 2x9 with a chain device, thought i was being chased by a combine harvester!

Did have a phantom click a couple of years ago on the last bike, really hard to pin down where it was coming from as it only developed at speed, eneded up stripping the crank, pedals and stem before discovering a tiny grain of sand caught between the saddle rail and the clamp...

SS is silent, apart from the pro 2 hub
Road bike is silent
FS is as quiet as a freight train thanks to a king hub, non clutched rear mech and a chain that's a bit long.

The day my bike is silent will be a very very good day indeed.

Road bike is full of annoying clicks and creaks at the moment and will be stripped down this week to try and remedy some of them...

Bottom bracket bearing needs replacing. That's 6 months and about 2000km of road riding (including a couple of very, very wet ones). I'll get genuine Hope ones this time, rather than Enduro...

My Fixie is about as silent as I can imagine any bike ever being, it did have a creak that seemed to reverberate through the frame for one day, a couple of weeks ago but I traced that to the Seat post, tightened up the rail clamp and it's as quiet as a very, very quiet thing again...

My SS MTB isn't bad, but it's only when you get on that road fixie and all you really hear is tyres on tarmac that you realise just how many little noises you filter out, freewheel, cable outers tinging on tubes, the odd chain rattle...

My 2x9 Geared HT and my DH bike both sound like a bag of spanners, which is fine, unless I start to get a rubbing rotor or a mystery creak, then it just drives me up the wall until I can trace and cure the cause.

Mine was fine 3 weeks ago with just the chain rolling over the chain device roller making a noise. Then I went to scotland for the weekend.

Last Tuesdays ride very nearly ended up with me having a massive tantrum about my bike being noisy and not working properly. There was a creak coming from the crank or pedals and the seatpost stopped moving when I pushed the button. This caused me to bounce on the fully extended post and rotate the saddle to an angle that was crushing my plumbs. My gears were all over the place and I just couldn't get a consistent shift no matter what I did. I was well annoyed, I hate noisy bikes and I hate bikes that arn't working properly.

Turned out the axle of one of the pedals was full of gunk and that was rubbing between the axle and the bushings, I also cleaned the crank axle splines up to be sure. And rounded one of pinch bolts for good measure. The cable in my command post was almost totally seized, I don't know why its only been on there a month or so, so that got swapped and I filled the outer with chain lube. The gears are worn out so I ordered a whole new 2x10 setup and am ditching the chain device. This will hopefully get to me today but I don't think I will have time to get it fitted before tonights DH session, who needs gears for DH anyway?

Oh and the HT is spot on.

All my bikes are silent and any noise gets investigated and sorted. As somebody else wrote, a noisy bike is a badly-maintained bike.

Last one was a creak when climbing out of the saddle on the roadie. I soon realised it was coming from the crankset; tapped out the RH Ultegra crank, put Copaslip on the areas in contact with the BB bearings and.... silence.

My bike is slient, till I stop pedalling and the Hope Pro II Evo "sings"

My enduro was super silent until the weekend, turned out I had 3 broken pawls in my pro 2 hub and I have just added the chain device for the Alps. Clickity click click.

Had a period when my front brake caliper was sticking and I'd get this rising whiney hum which would get louder and louder until the whole frame was resonating. A quick tap on the lever would sort it for a few seconds but then it would start building up again.

Even when I couldn't hear it I was tensed, listening for it to start again - like a new parent with a restless baby.

I ended up riding about 15 miles home with the brake almost full on because it was driving me ABSOLUTELY F***ING CRAZY APES**T!!!! AAAAAARGH!

And relax ...

I think my blood pressure's gone up just remembering it.

jackthedog - agreed, lovely!

Until that moment when you turn back and you realise exactly why the ride had been so blissful!

and cheezpleez - had that too - NOT lovely!