Wild click hunt - 4 hours of my life lost or lessons learnt?

[robjh]

Last week my bike suddenly developed a clicky-fluttery noise whenever I was on the saddle, pedalling or not.
So yesterday I changed the seatpost - result! The noise stopped....until 5 minutes from home this morning when it was as bad as ever.
So home I came, and over the next four hours switched saddles, removed rack and mudguard, adjusted unscrewed greased and retightened seatpost clamp, front derailleur, bottom bracket, cleaned and lubed cables and housing under the BB, taking a little ride up and down the road between each fix...... and all to no avail.

The final brainwave - maybe : I noticed the inside of the seat post has what looks like a shim in it, too tightly fixed in to move but I dribbled a bit of oil on it, and tonight the bike is noise free. But only tomorrow will tell if it's really sorted.

I can't decide if those 4 hours were a useful learning experience or just a waste of my bl**dy time. But I do know that the more maintenance I do on the bike, the more obsessive I get and the more time I spend on it.

 

[User6179]

We all need a hobby

 

[ColinJ]

I was a bit lazy about tracking down clicking and creaking noises on my bikes until the day that one of the 2 bolts holding the front plate on my handlebar stem pulled the thread out of it ... I had just done a fast descent, then slowed down, and suddenly my bars rotated through 90 degrees!

I had heard warning noises for about an hour, but ignored them.

 

[robjh]

In the old days I had similar noises that would last for weeks at a time, then disappear without having caused anything more serious than a bit of swearing from me. However these days they really really bug me, and I am convinced that if only I beaver away for long enough I will be able to find and cure them. But I don't feel like a natural mechanic and it can be a very long and lonely process, but I just cannot let it go.....

 

[Alembicbassman]

Creak creak creak .....snap !

Ooops...pedal broke off.

I was only 10 though, no idea about bike maintenance - that was dad's department.

 

[KneesUp]

I've not got any creaks yet (not from the bike anyway) since I took up this most noble form of transportation again. I do hope it's not as common as it seems.

@Alembicbassman my pedal fell off roughly midway between Sheffield and Manchester some years ago, at the bottom of a dip in the A57. Fortunately it was just the end bearing that had broken so I put it back on the axle and rode as smoothly as I could back to Manchester. I had toe clips, and only once did I take the whole pedal off when I stopped at traffic lights. Getting it back on the spindle was a lot harder than getting in to the toe clip.

 

[EltonFrog]

Bloody noises drive one up the wall don't they? Last year, a couple of days before my first FRNttC I collected my bike from the LBS after they gave it a full and not cheap service. About 10 miles in to the midnight ride my bikes started to rattle, more like a loud buzz, at first I ignored but as the ride went on through the delightful quite Kent country side. The noise started to grate, and it got louder, and I started to curse the LBS owner, his family and the everything to to with him, the noise was like someone playing a washboard, but it only did it on rough roads, when the road was smoothish it would stop. I tried to find the rattle on the ride but to no avail. Once we got to Whitstable and in the daylight I found the bastid cause. The tension nut on the Brooks saddle was rattling up and down the bolt! Feckin thing!