Chinese Click Torture

Saddle rails/seatpost a bit dry?

Clicks when pedalling have been seatposts for me this week.

One reverb installed 50 miles ago with what I thought was enough grease stopped clicking with a load more grease.

I thought it was the saddle on another bike, it was also a dry seatpost.

I’d take the cranks off, clean the splines and re put them back on with copious amounts of copper anti-seize grease. Almost always the cause of the noise I get from cranksets regardless of brand.

If that doesn’t work then it might just be the gxp bb.....

I’m almost certain its low down but no harm in some carbon paste on rails and seatpost.

I’m also pretty heavy on BB’s and rarely get more than 12mths out of one - on ir off road. Salt, water and grit inevitably gets the bearings.

Fingers crossed in the spindle grease as I hope for more than 3 weeks of the BB!! Race face i’d expect 3 rides before bearings seize. But SRAM?!!’

The click is always on the drive side power stroke between 3&5 o’clock which rules out anything like wheels or chain where pedal rpm wont be in sync all the time.

Just to be certain i would check the rear axle and wheel, last time i had a click, i was sure it was from the bottom bracket area but it was fixed by greasing and setting the axle to the correct torque.

Check it’s not chain suck on the chainring…

Any shoe laces ?

Cleats?

No shoe laces!!! Wish it were that simple. Cleats are new.

I shall hit the garage armed with plenty of grease tomorrow and see what happens.

Clicks like this - regardless of where the noise “seems” to come from - have always been for me either seat/seat post/seat rails. Or cracked frame. Hopefully the former.

Does clicking continue if you stand on the pedals (not sitting)?

How are your knees feeling?

I had this, also on SRAM 1x. Drive side only. Did come a go a bit. Checked/greased just about everything (including seat post and saddle), swapped shoes, pedals, etc... decided it must be the deffo-rubbish-'cos-the-internet-says-so SRAM BB and replaced it with the spendy Hope one.

Still clicked. :Grrrr:

Eventually I put time aside and started going through the whole bike a piece at a time. Got to the back wheel and, although the thru-axle was done up ok, it could be a bit tighter. And maybe a bit tighter still. Click gone.

So an extra 120' turn could have saved me a £100 BB... oh well 😉

FWIW I’ve had four sram bbs over the years, 3 pf42 and the most recent a dub bsa. All ****ing shit of the highest order. Seized bearings on all after v little riding, compared to 3.5yrs and thousands of rides on my main bike on a 30mm hope bb that I am finally going to change the bearings on.

However, on Monday I discovered the click on my Pole I’ve been chasing was months was… the stem faceplate contacting the stem. What a relief.

Just to add to this - I spent about a month tracking down a creak. It wasn’t the bottom bracket (which I refitted several times), or the saddle, or the seat collar, or the cranks, or the chainring, or the rear mech, or the axle. It was a stem bolt.

On my last 3 frames I have replaced the seat collars because the originals all caused a creak.

I was going to say handlebar/stem area too

The last two times i had a strange click, first was the end of the front gear cable catching on the crank arm the other was the speed sensor magnet on the rear wheel catching on the sensor. Also check shorts dont have a button clashing with the frame.

Cleats?

I was going to say this also. How old are the pedals?

As the doc points out loose rear axle clamping can also cause some odd noises on some bikes.

It can be literally anything on the bike, the smallest piece or grit or a dirt, a tiny bit of movement in a random part. Definitely not a sign of a badly made product. Id guess every single bike park has clicked or creaked at one time or another. Strip, clean, degrease and re-grease then try again.
Sometimes you just have to live with it. Noises on bikes come and go, unless you ride the bike in a vacuum parts will get contaminated, surfaces will rub on each other and you'll get noise.

Can you ride it round the block with flat shoes, not clipped in, just to rule out clicks coming from pedal+cleat interface? I know you said they're new cleats, but....

+1 for re-greasing and tightening the rear axle...if you have a thru axle on the road bike that is!

Having been through something similar, I'd definitely check axles, handlebar/ stem, saddle, seatclamp, etc.

In my case it was (and remains) the BB - basically if it's not completely greased up on the threads, there's just enough movement under load for it to move infinitesimally and squeak. And the greatest amount of load is when the pedal's around the 2-4 position, I'd guess

In my case it was (and remains) the BB – basically if it’s not completely greased up on the threads, there’s just enough movement under load for it to move infinitesimally and squeak

PTFE tape will sort that for you. Make sure you wrap it on the right way on the reverse tread.

As i expected - BB is unhealthy. Took the seatpost out and noticed a fair bit of rain water down the seatpost. Cranks off and clicky shell side out. Water inside the BB and the bearings are stiff through 1/4 of the turn, spin freely round the rest so bearing fubar’d. Not enough to grind yet but still not spinning freely.

Was sort of expecting it when i took the cranks out as the drive side has that telltale rust ring round the spindle where the bearings sit.

The joys of all weather riding.

I’m going to put some inner tube around the seatpost collar / seattube gap to try and waterproof it slightly but is there any way to get water to drain out easily? There’s a small hole on the BB shell but its obviously not big enough. But really dont want to be drilling holes in my titanium frame !!

Grease the seatpost. Really shouldn't be getting water in the BB shell

One of the many benefits of internal cable routing?

I’ve been suffering this for a couple of weeks after replacing drive chain and cables. Last night I replaced my worn cleats, click gone. They weren’t even loose.

Really shouldn’t be getting water in the BB shell

Sealed is completely different to waterproof and theres no way you can keep water out of the shell. Bikes arent waterproof and riding all weathers water is going to get in somewhere.

Even with grease on the seat post it’ll still get in. Plus also along the spindle into the inside of the BB and if there’s a sleeve between the cups then it doesnt get out so slowly rots the bearings from the inside.

The GXP i’ve just taken off looks particularly crap as the top hat is plastic against the spindle so no decent seal.

When they fail I always fit WheelsMFG. They have a proper rubber seal against the bearings and spindle.