• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

Chain making noise after removing rear wheel

RachelV

Administrator
Staff member
So I just fixed a flat on my rear tire. I got the wheel back on fine and everything is shifting fine, but now the chain makes noise when I pedal, kind of a "click-click-click-click" as if it's hitting up against something. For what it's worth, it was making this noise before, too, but only on the hardest gear, whereas now it's making it all the time.

I did the wheel removal/install just like he suggests here, with the chain on the smallest sprocket when taking it off and putting it back on, and everything went fine:
https://bicycletutor.com/remove-install-wheels/

Anyone know why this might be happening? Is something misaligned? The sound is definitely coming from somewhere in the rear cassette/derailer area, but I can't quite pinpoint where.

p.s. https://bicycletutor.com/ is my new favorite website.
 

geargrrl

Angel Diva
your derailler might need adjusting. Are you sure it's not your chain just barely trying to skip. It may have been off just a hair before, but the work you did may have made it worse. Do you know how do adjust the rear derailler? You might try and just turn the barrel adjuster a half turn and see what happens.
 

abc

Banned
Can you SEE where the noise is coming from? (Turn the pedal by hand and watch)

There're quite many possible causes. It's really hard to diagnose noise on the internet...
 

RachelV

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, I realize it's tough to figure out what going on from just a description, but I was hoping there was some obvious, "oh, every time people take off the back wheel for the first time they always do this wrong". Guess not. :smile:

I'll see if there's some obvious way to adjust the rear derailer tonight. My friend also suggested that if the wheel is seated just slightly differently than how it was the first time, that could be doing it, so I'll jiggle the wheel around a bit as well. If neither of those things make a difference I'll take it to the shop and have them show me what they do. :smile:

Thanks for taking a shot at it!
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah - it could be that the axle isn't totally seated in there right - that would do it for sure.

Or that you tweaked the derailleur in the process of taking it on and off and it needs adjusting - that doesn't happen much but if it was slightly off before, you could have made it move just a hair more off and that would make a clacking noise as the chain skips trying to move between gears. You would be able to see the chain doing this though if that's where the noise is coming from - it would look like it's trying to shift gears but then going back and forth.

Other than that - follow the chain along it's path to see if it's rubbing anywhere. If you can isolate where the noise is coming from, that would help too. Is it from the front (by the pedals) or back by the rear derailleur?

To start though I would loosen the rear axle again, jiggle it around and make sure it's seated evenly in the dropouts and tighten it back up and see if your noise is still there. Do you have disc brakes?
 

Robyn

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
No disc brakes on her bike. :smile: I'm guessing it's not seated right. After you try reseating if that doesn't work maybe take a close up pic for us to look at?
 

RachelV

Administrator
Staff member
If you can isolate where the noise is coming from, that would help too. Is it from the front (by the pedals) or back by the rear derailleur?

To start though I would loosen the rear axle again, jiggle it around and make sure it's seated evenly in the dropouts and tighten it back up and see if your noise is still there. Do you have disc brakes?

Definitely coming from back by the derailer. And as Robyn said, no disc brakes on my bike.

Nothing is happening visibly that I can see -- I can just hear it.

Thanks again for the suggestions. I'll let you know if I make any progress tonight.
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Definitely coming from back by the derailer. And as Robyn said, no disc brakes on my bike.

Nothing is happening visibly that I can see -- I can just hear it.

Thanks again for the suggestions. I'll let you know if I make any progress tonight.

So when you re-attached the brake does that seem centered right when you spin the wheel? Basically - if you re-seat the axle and the brakes seem normal (or at least as normal as they were before...) then that's not it.

The next most likely thing is that your derailleur needs adjusting.



There are a lot of adustments on your derailleur, but 99% of the time once it's installed and set up properly in the first place, the barrel adjuster is all you need to correct the problem. So you have two barrel adjusters on each derailleur - one is on the derailleur where the cable comes out of it, and the other is on the shifter where the cable goes in. They can look a little different depending on brand but typically they are designed so you can get your fingertips on it and twist it either direction.

And actually - I was just looking for a picture but this article explains it perfectly without going into so much detail to give you a headache and make it not seem like it's worth attempting like most articles on derailleurs do. ;)

https://www.mountain-bike-scotland.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=177

And if that doesn't work - I'd head to the bike shop for some assistance. Hope that helps!
 

RachelV

Administrator
Staff member
So when you re-attached the brake does that seem centered right when you spin the wheel? Basically - if you re-seat the axle and the brakes seem normal (or at least as normal as they were before...) then that's not it.

Yeah, the brake looks centered and is working fine. Everything looks the same as before as far as I can tell, except for the new sound.

And actually - I was just looking for a picture but this article explains it perfectly without going into so much detail to give you a headache and make it not seem like it's worth attempting like most articles on derailleurs do. ;)

https://www.mountain-bike-scotland.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=177

And if that doesn't work - I'd head to the bike shop for some assistance. Hope that helps!

Awesome article. Thanks so much!
 

RachelV

Administrator
Staff member
Hm, ok -- so I played with the wheel a bit and it looks like it's seated properly.

The rear derailer adjustment is definitely part of the problem. I can make the noise much worse (heh) by loosening the barrel adjuster, and I can see the derailer moving out of line with the cassette. I can't tighten it enough to eliminate the noise completely, though -- I tighten the barrel adjuster all the way and the noise still happens, even though everything looks like it's aligned properly.

I'm going to play with it a bit more, but will likely take it to the shop tomorrow or the day after. It's fine to ride it the ~5 miles to the shop, right? If I try to take my bike on the subway at rush hour the hordes will kill me, and I'd rather not make a special trip down there since the shop is right by where I work.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!
 

abc

Banned
Yeah, it's usually ok to ride for a few miles with the issue.

I'm surprise though that you can't "see" it by turning the pedal. Something is rubbing and you should be able to see where...

Unless, of course, you have a bad link on your chain. And it's just a coincident that it happens right after you fix the rear flat... :(
 

geargrrl

Angel Diva
Hm, ok -- so I played with the wheel a bit and it looks like it's seated properly.

The rear derailer adjustment is definitely part of the problem. I can make the noise much worse (heh) by loosening the barrel adjuster, and I can see the derailer moving out of line with the cassette. I can't tighten it enough to eliminate the noise completely, though -- I tighten the barrel adjuster all the way and the noise still happens, even though everything looks like it's aligned properly.

I'm going to play with it a bit more, but will likely take it to the shop tomorrow or the day after. It's fine to ride it the ~5 miles to the shop, right? If I try to take my bike on the subway at rush hour the hordes will kill me, and I'd rather not make a special trip down there since the shop is right by where I work.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!


It might be that your cable stretched, and that is why the barrel adjuster isn't working. Typically that rattling noise is the chain not quite lining up with the cog. The barrel adjuster is for fine tuning, but you may have more than a fine tune situations. Loosening the barrel adjuster lets out cable, makes it longer so that the derailler can move to a bigger cog ( lower gear) and tightening it, does the opposite, shortens the cable so it moves to a smaller cog ( higher gear) If you can isolate which exact cog on the cassette that is not quite meshing with the chain it can make the process more simple.

For the longer time I thought rear deraillers and deraillers in general were very mysterious and beyond my understanding. I saw some really good demos where the relationship of cable loosening/tightening to chain movement was very carefully explained and demo'ed.
 

volklgirl

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
If this is a newish bike, I'd guess cable stretch as well. Anytime cables are put on a bike, they'll stretch from being under tension all the time. After the first stretch and adjustment, the barrel adjuster should work for any remaining stretch.
 

itri

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
You're probably about due for a cable tightening. My bike shop told me to bring my bike after about 30 days or 50 miles, or sooner if I noticed it needed it, and they would check all the cables and tighten them up for me.
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
You're probably about due for a cable tightening. My bike shop told me to bring my bike after about 30 days or 50 miles, or sooner if I noticed it needed it, and they would check all the cables and tighten them up for me.

You can do that yourself if you want to (or if your bike isn't new and the shop won't do it for free).

Basically you take as much tension off the cable as you can, then loosen the screw that you should see is holding the end of the cable in place on the derailleur (the screw usually clamps it down into a little groove). Use a pair of pliers to hold the end of the cable and then pull it a little tighter (keeping it in the groove) and tighten it back down. Now go through the process of messing with the barrel adjuster again until everything is shifting/running smoothly. If all of the sudden you can't use the biggest or smallest cog, you probably made it too loose or too tight. (Limit screws will also do that, but it's unlikely those changed once they were set up initially).

If you have weird problems where it's working in some gears but not in others, your derailleur hanger or derailleur itself may be bent. (if it's fallen on the derailleur or been banged into a rock or something, that's pretty typical). You can try to straighten it out by hand by gently bending it back, or take it to a shop and they should have a tool to try to get it straighter. Or just get a new one - hangers are usually cheap (and you should carry a spare in your pack just in case anyway). Put the new one on the bike and put the bent one in your pack as a spare - bent is better than broken in an emergency!

Weird (erratic) shifting problems can also be caused by smashed or really old cable housing (the black outer part to the shifter cable). If it gets crushed it can rub on the inner cable that should be moving freely inside and that messes things up. If it's looking beat up, replace it. I can get into how to do that later if anyone is interested.
 

RachelV

Administrator
Staff member
Oooh, it is a new bike, and I'm right around 50 miles, actually. I thought the break-in period was longer than that. I guess on my last bike it took me a lot longer to hit the 50 mile mark, so my timeframe was out of whack.

altagirl, thanks so much for all the info -- and it actually makes sense! :smile: I'm going to have the shop walk me through what they do when I bring it in.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
26,235
Messages
497,602
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top