Help - Bizarre Clicking Noise

[punkypossum]

As the title says, my bike seems to have developed a strange clicking noise. It's been there over the past 2 days and started out of nowhere, the ride before that was perfectly silent.

It's definitely a click, not a creak - sounds like a piece of plastic or wire is hitting the frame. It definitely appears to be coming from the front end of the bike, but strangely enough is not there when I'm riding out of the saddle. Also, if the road is perfectly smooth it often stops, but the slightest bump tends to set it off. It clicks with the forks locked out or normal and whether I'm pedalling or not and does it in all gears.

I've tightened every bolt I can think of and also checked to see if I could find any obvious loose spokes, nothing... I even held on to various cables, fixings, etc while riding to see if it would stop, but it hasn't.

I'm running out of ideas, but it is a bit disconcerting - problem is, I have to be on the bike for it to do it, just spinning the wheels or bouncing it on the ground won't make it click, so it's even harder to locate.

Anybody got any bright ideas what this could be? Does it sound worrying and/or expensive?

Please help!!!

 

[punkypossum]

Ooops, just read willhub's post further down - we seem to have simultaneously develop a rather similar problem...maybe I should slap some grease on the seatpost to see if that cures it...

 

[Radius]

I was about to say, seatpost, until you answered it yourself! Just wiggle your bum and see if you hear anything!

 

[Marin Maniac]

Tried tightening you cleat screws for your spd's?

 

[punkypossum]

Tried tightening you cleat screws for your spd's?

Yes! Don't think there is anything left I haven't tightened...

Anyway, seatpost greased, minor disaster fixed when I unscrewed the saddleclamp to give that a good lube and promptly lost a piece - it reappeared under a bag of cat litter and I worked out where it went! Now it's just a case of seeing if the click has disappeared...

 

[betty swollocks]

Does the bike have mudguards. Is it aluminium?
Clicking noises seem to be amplified through alu frames.
I had a friend whose alu bike (cannondale) made strange clicking noises which were absent when she was out of the saddle.
Turns out it was tiny particles of grit thrown up by the tyre getting between the seatpost and seat tube. A good clean of both sorted it immediately!

 

[punkypossum]

It is aluminium, and yes, it was a bit gritty in there...Not been back on the bike yet, so the verdict on the click cure is still out, hopefully it's worked...

 

[Yellow Fang]

Apart from the seatpost or saddle, the other thing that springs to mind is the magnetic thingy on your wheel spokes for your cycle computer.

 

[PatrickPending]

annoying isn't it, I've had one puzzling one which turned out to be the keys in my pocket

 

[Deleted member 1258]

annoying isn't it, I've had one puzzling one which turned out to be the keys in my pocket

I had one a few years ago on a Raleigh Aveo, cheap 14 speed, which turned out, after I had almost completely dismantled the bike over several evenings, to be my metal watch strap rattling against the handle bars, I had chopped and flopped the bars.

 

[Big John]

You'd think finding the source of a noise would be easy but it often isn't. I had a clicking noise that I couldn't shift for love nor money. Tried everything. Turned out to be one of the Look clipless pedals. Think I just sprayed oil or packed it with grease and it stopped. I've now got one coming from the back wheel..........hey ho

 

[punkypossum]

Well, just as an update: The click is gone!!! My bike had indeed decided to copy willhub's problem - it's amazing what a wipe and a generous blob of purple grease can achieve!!!!