drivetrain clicking

[GoldSpanner]

My dura ace 9 speed has recently developed a sort of clicking sound somewhere on the drivetrain. Only occurs when I'm on the bike and applying power. It there's through all the rear gears, and on both chainrings, so I'm thinking that the bottom bracket might be knackered, or perhaps the pedal bearings. The clicking coincided with when I started using a SRAM powerlink, so that's another possibility. Obviously it's very difficult to figure out exactly where it's coming from if I'm riding the bike, so has this happened to anyone else?

Any help would be very much appreciated!

 

[originalshinkicker]

Bearings such as bottom brackets generally cluck or creak. Dry pedal threads may click so check them. A click may be a chain problem. Is the powerlink ok, are there any stiff links. Look carefully at the chain and check that you haven't lost a roller.

 

[dnbmatt28]

I had a click sound when cranking out of the saddle - one of the chainring bolts had come loose and fallen out
(4 bolt) causing the ring to lift and snap back under load.

CHeers
Matt

 

[Ian Raleigh]

I've had two bikes which developed irritating 'clicking noises'

One of my bikes developed a clicking in all gears and became more noisily when I was
out of the saddle, tired of this noise I went through everything and found that my
drive-side bearing in the BB was pretty well shagged, replacement found, noise gone.

On another bike I had a constant clicking from the rear, upper pulley wheel was knackered, replaced and clicking went.

 

[bugloss]

I've got a creaking sound, but I think it's my knees.

 

[hamster]

Firstly check if it happens when you are out of the saddle to eliminate saddle / seatpost.
These can be awful to find, the sound seems to travel along the frame and appear elsewhere. I would check:
chainring bolts, crank bolts, pedal tightness, stem and bars.
Remove wheels, clean dropouts and refit.

My long-standing click on my Litespeed turned out to be a little corrosion on the rear axle stub (Campag Record) in the dropout. A wipe with a finger to remove the residue and it disappeared.

Happy hunting, it's not fun. Be methodical.

 

[Ian Raleigh]

Here's an idea! You have access to training rollers ? You could ride on the rollers and get a friend to pin point the noise!

 

[GoldSpanner]

Wish I could get on some rollers! I had thought of that too Well I removed the crank earlier, took the chainrings and checked everything, but that hasn't done it. I reckon I'll take out the Powerlink and replace it with the KMC missing link and see if that does the trick. Many thanks for all your help so far!

 

[Johnsqual]

Happy hunting, it's not fun. Be methodical.

+1 on this! I would suggest you start with the most simple possibilities, like loose bolts.

When my cyclocross bike started creaking, I once went through the whole misery of replacing a bottom bracket only to find that the actual problem was just one loose chain ring bolt

 

[benjy]

if it was fine before the link it points to that, is it the right speed for your bike? has it made a tightspot in the chain? is it on the right way round ( some are directional) is the chain gearset old an worn an the link being new is effecting it? is it catching on anything as it moves around ( derailer / mech ect?