# Chain noise, how do a I fix it.



## SFTifoso

I've been having some chain noise with my Trek 1.2. I know it's the noise is coming from the chain and the rear cassette. As the I shift into the smaller gears the noise increases, as I shift into the bigger gears the noise decreases. I've observed my chain and the way it engages the teeth of the smaller gears, and it appears that the chain rings don't go in so smoothly into the some of the teeth. Some chain rings will get stuck as they start to engage a tooth, but as they move upwards then the chain rings and teeth will engage properly, but will make a click noise as they do. How do I solve this?


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## odyofael

When was the last time you cleaned or lubed your chain. A clean chain makes a lot of difference. How about a tune-up? How old is your chain and are you using the correct chain for your cassette?


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## SFTifoso

It's a bone stock new 2011 trek 1.2 that I bought about 2 weeks ago. It seems to make the noise on the narrower of the chainrings. Can you recommend me a good chain cleaner and lube?


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## odyofael

I don't think, re-lubing would help. It's a new bike. Bring it back to the shop and have it tuned.


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## Camilo

SFTifoso said:


> It's a bone stock new 2011 trek 1.2 that I bought about 2 weeks ago. It seems to make the noise on the narrower of the chainrings. Can you recommend me a good chain cleaner and lube?


The simplest and method that is really pretty much as effective as much more involved methods (IMHO of course) is to just buy a little bottle of chain oil or Tri Flow, drip a couple of drops onto each roller so that it kind of flushes through, and then wipe the outside of the chain thoroughly with a rag to make it look clean. The simple act of flushing the rollers w/ clean oil does just about as much to clean it as any other more involved method. The simple act of wiping off the excess oil from the outside of the chain does as much as almost anything for cleaning it. Use a brush to scrub it if you need to, but if you don't let it get out of hand, just flushing and wiping is pretty darn good.

You do all this dripping and wiping on the lower run of the chain while you're circling the pedals backwards. When you do it, you'll see why that works better than using the upper run of the chain and/or forward pedaling.

Repeat the wiping again after you ride the bike and after that the outside of the chain will stay pretty dry and clean.

Do this and see if it helps, but it might need shift cable adjustment - which is common after the bike has a few 100 miles on it. Take it back to the bike shop for tweaking - they shouldn't charge you for that, and have them show/explain how the tweaking is done.


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## frdfandc

Which chain ring are you in (front gears) when you are noticing the noise?

If your in the small or middle up front (since its a triple) then the chain line is off at an angle, therefore increasing in noise. Once the chain line straightens out, noise is reduced. 

All you have to do is try to keep the chain line as straight as possible. This keeps noise and premature wear down to a minimum.


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## Kerry Irons

*Terminology*



SFTifoso said:


> It's a bone stock new 2011 trek 1.2 that I bought about 2 weeks ago. It seems to make the noise on the narrower of the chainrings. Can you recommend me a good chain cleaner and lube?


For your reference, the gears on the back wheel (the cassette) are called cogs. We talk about smaller and larger cogs, not narrower cogs. The big gears on the crank are called chainrings. We always talk about the number of teeth on either the cogs or the chainrings - typically they are stamped on the parts somewhere.

The most likely cause of your problem, as mentioned by others, is that with a new bike the cables and casings "bed in" in the first few days of riding and so you need to tweak the barrel adjuster on the rear derailleur. Turn it 1/4 turn in either direction and see if the problem improves or worsens. If it improves, give it another 1/4 turn in that direction and check it again. Keep going until it worsens again and then go back to the sweet spot. If it worsens on the first 1/4 turn, turn the opposite direction and repeat as above.


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## SFTifoso

More info: The problem is the chain is getting stuck with the adjacent sprockets. It's not a problem if the chain is in a perfect straight line form the crank to the rear cassette, but as change gears, the angle of the chain increases, and it starts to get caught slightly with the adjacent sprockets. The noise gets worse while I'm on the largest front chainring.

I've also noticed that the teeth on all my sprockets are not perfectly uniform. Some are thicker than others, and others are sticking out a little to the sides. 

I don't know if these problems are normal that will go away as the bike breaks in, or just a result of buying a lower end bike. Would replacing the cassette and chain to a higher quality spec fix the problem?


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## Mr Evil

Kerry Irons said:


> For your reference, the gears on the back wheel (the cassette) are called cogs...


Actually, they are more correctly called sprockets. The difference is that cogs engage other cogs, whereas sprockets engage a chain.


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## sherlock

SFTifoso said:


> More info: The problem is the chain is getting stuck with the adjacent sprockets. It's not a problem if the chain is in a perfect straight line form the crank to the rear cassette, but as change gears, the angle of the chain increases, and it starts to get caught slightly with the adjacent sprockets. The noise gets worse while I'm on the largest front chainring.


As said above, the more of an angle on your chain, the more noise and wear. If you're running it at a high angle, consider changing to a different front ring.


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## Mr. Versatile

Re: the teeth on the gears not being uniform: They're not supposed to be. The reason they vary is to assist shifting to a larger or smaller cog.


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## SFTifoso

Well while the chain is on the largest front chainring and smallest cog in the rear, that's when the noise is at it's worst.

Mr. Versatile thank you for the info. I was thinking about filing the teeth to make them straight.


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## dmong2

It sounds like the cables may have stretched. Was it noisy when you first got it? Also, it appears that the bike comes with a sram pg 950 cassette and shimano derailleurs. That might be a tad noisier, but not like you are describing. Your lbs should readjust your cables (ask them to show you how or read the instructions from the shimano tech docs on their site). Maybe have them look at the length of your chain as well. As far as lubes go, I just started using Rock and Roll Gold and it is hands down the best lube I've ever used.


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## SFTifoso

dmong2 said:


> It sounds like the cables may have stretched. Was it noisy when you first got it? Also, it appears that the bike comes with a sram pg 950 cassette and shimano derailleurs. That might be a tad noisier, but not like you are describing. Your lbs should readjust your cables (ask them to show you how or read the instructions from the shimano tech docs on their site). Maybe have them look at the length of your chain as well. As far as lubes go, I just started using Rock and Roll Gold and it is hands down the best lube I've ever used.


The bike is getting noisier the more I use it. I've looked up the Shimano tech docs and found one about adjusting the rear derailleur cable's outer barrel, so I did, and that has minimized the noise. Taking my bike to the shop where I bought it is a bit of a hassle for me because I have a small car and they're very far away. I'm pretty good with mechanical things though, it's just a matter of getting my head around bike mechanics, and terminology (you could probably tell). :mad2:

Is that the way you adjust tension on the rear derailleur cable? By turning this outer barrel?

http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/t...RD-4500/SI_5VX0A_En_v1_m56577569830607047.pdf

Also, is chain lube supposed to be sticky, like grease? I'm not sure if my chain has lube or that sticky stuff they put on metal things to prevent corrosion.

Thanks for all your help guys, I really appreciate it.


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## dmong2

Those are the directions. When you make adjustments to the rear derailleur, make sure to shift to the small chainring and the smallest cog. That will take the tension off the cable. In this gear, the derailleur cable (check where it runs down the downtube) should be kinda loose, but definitely not tight. 

If you venture to release the cable nut, then make sure your shifter is all the way to the smallest cog and pull the cable with your fingers as much slack you can take out, then re-tighten the nut. 

With bikes, it is just about always best to under tighten, rather than over tighten. So, be careful if you used to workin on other things llike cars or motorcycles. 

The grease on the chain is manufacturers grease. Unfortunately, all chains arrive that way. The grease is good for about a week of riding. Get some Simple green concentrate and soak a rag and your chain, wipe all the grease off (and all the collected dirt) then relube with a real chain lube. I llike Rock and Roll Gold which cleans and lubes at the same time and works best when you wipe the chain down after each ride, stays super clean and your drivetrain will last three times as long. 

You will pick up lots of knowledge on the web and through trial and error. Looks like a nice starter bike though!


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## Camilo

SFTifoso said:


> The bike is getting noisier the more I use it. I've looked up the Shimano tech docs and found one about adjusting the rear derailleur cable's outer barrel, so I did, and that has minimized the noise. Taking my bike to the shop where I bought it is a bit of a hassle for me because I have a small car and they're very far away. I'm pretty good with mechanical things though, it's just a matter of getting my head around bike mechanics, and terminology (you could probably tell). :mad2:
> 
> Is that the way you adjust tension on the rear derailleur cable? By turning this outer barrel?
> 
> http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/t...RD-4500/SI_5VX0A_En_v1_m56577569830607047.pdf


Follow this procedure (there's other ways to do it, but this works for me). It really only takes a minute or two, about as long as it takes you to read about it. It really helps if you have a repair stand or some way to pedal the bike in gear while it's stationary where you can work on it. You can flip the bike upside down, that's just a little more difficult.

Shift into one of the middle cogs. Doesn't matter which one. Doesn't matter if it's a little noisy at this time. Doesn't matter if it's the large or small front chainring. Use the middle one if it's a triple.

While pedaling the bike, turn the cable adjuster that is on the rear derailleur counterclockwise (tightening the cable) slowly to cause the derailleur to shift on it's own to one cog larger. In other words, you're not doing anything with the shifter, just tightening the cable while you're pedaling. Stop adjusting as soon as it shifts.

Then, moving the barrel adjuster 1/4 turn at a time the other way - clockwise - turn the adjuster in small steps until it shifts down to the "correct" cog, and then keep turning it clockwise in small steps until it just shifts onto the next smaller cog. Again, stop right when it shifts. _Count the 1/4 turns while you are doing this._ From the "larger" to the "smaller" cogs it will probably come to something like 15-18 1/4 turns, but that number doesn't really matter as long as you count. It's easy to count, because that barrel adjuster at the rear derailleur usually has detents every 1/4 turn.

Then, again while pedaling, turn the adjuster back the other way - counter clockwise - counting your 1/4 turns and stop at 1/2 the number you counted earlier. This will cause the derailleur to move back to the "correct" cog, but it will be exactly in the middle of the correct cog, not a little one side or the other. This should give you perfect shifting. 

Test it by shifting through the sprockets from smallest to largest and back. Do the smaller 5 sprockets with the large chain ring and the larger 5 sprockets with the small chain ring. If it's sluggish shifting inward (to a larger sprocket), tighten (counterclockwise) the barrel adjuster 1/4 turn. If it's sluggish shifting outward (to a smaller sprocket), loosen (clockwise) the barrel adjuster 1/4 turn. I've never had to tweak at all after following the steps listed above though.

If that isn't your problem, then you need to start at step one and follow the shimano and/or park tool directions for derailleur installation, cable routing and initial adjustment very carefully step by step, even if you have done an RD install before. Then fine tune it with the above.

Pay close attention to your cable condition and especially routing



> Also, is chain lube supposed to be sticky, like grease? I'm not sure if my chain has lube or that sticky stuff they put on metal things to prevent corrosion.
> 
> Thanks for all your help guys, I really appreciate it.


Factory chain lube is usually pretty sticky. There is a sort of on-going debate whether this stuff is "lube" or "corrosion inhibitor" (like you said), but it doesn't matter whether you think it's good lube or not (I do, but some don't). Either way, don't worry about that. Just follow the simple/basic chain lubing instructions above and you'll be good. The oil and wiping will clean away any sticky residue and lube the chain. By the way, a step I forgot: after you drip the oil onto the rollers: rotate the pedals for a minute or so to get the oil to get into the rollers and it will also lube up the cassette and derailleur jockey wheels. Shift through the gears up and down also. Then, wipe clean the outside of the chain thoroughly and clean it again the next day and the day after if the oily residue reappears.


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## pdxr

Some great info for newbies on this thread. I removed my chain to clean it over the weekend (guessing it's the original chain on my '89 cannondale), and after putting it back on I've noticed I need to trim more carefully to get the right gear without noise. I'm also getting more frequent slippage. I will try this adjustment process and see I can solve it.


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## Kerry Irons

*Correctness*



Mr Evil said:


> Actually, they are more correctly called sprockets. The difference is that cogs engage other cogs, whereas sprockets engage a chain.


Yeah, except a very large fraction of cyclists in the English speaking world calls them cogs. Don't know why, but there it is.


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## milkbaby

What the Shimano tech document and Camilo said are the way to go... If that don't work, it could also be possible your derailleur hanger is bent such that you have decent chainline and shifting towards the larger cogs of your cassette but worse towards the small cogs. You can eyeball it by seeing if the cog, chain, and the 2 derailleur wheels line up perfectly straight vertically.

For pdxr's old chain, if it's original, it may be that the chain is very worn especially if it skips. If you get a new chain, there is also a good chance it will skip because the cogs are too worn, and the new chain will not mate with the worn teeth on the old cogs. So you might need a new cassette or freewheel (depending on what your bike uses).


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