Advice: Campy BB 'clicking' sound

[cgolvin]

Last week I noticed a regular click sound, clearly tied to crank rotation, reliably present during greater intensity effort like climbing. SR UT crankset.

As I prepare to remove cranks and examine the BB, beyond planning to re-lube and check for rough spots in the bearings, I'm not really sure what to look for.

I recognize the challenge in diagnosing annoying noises via text, but would very much welcome any suggestions on where to focus my attention.

thanks in advance

[Mark McM]

What kind of BB shell does your frame have?

[cgolvin]

English (d'oh)

[jemoryl]

You have ruled out things like the crank arm brushing against the FD or the end of the FD cable?

[cgolvin]

Originally Posted by jemoryl

You have ruled out things like the crank arm brushing against the FD or the end of the FD cable?

Yes. While the cranks do in some circumstances touch the FD cable (overdue in trimming that, thanks for the reminder) the sound also occurs during hard effort in the big ring, when the cable is far away from the crank arm.

[NoMoreParagon]

very rare to have english BB cup system clicking with campy in my experience.
Last time something similar happened to me the culprit were the following
1) skewers
2) seatpost

Since both of them are kind of coming from the rear of the bike they often get confused with BB creaks...

[dddd]

Pedals should be checked for serious torque into the crankarms, and pedals and shoes/cleats should perhaps be ruled out before attacking your bottom bracket or crank assembly.

I would try to stand on the pedals while stationary, turning the cranks to different positions while listening for the noise to occur. This may result in observations that lead to a logical conclusion.

My seatpost in my Colnago CX-Zero was dry enough to make noises that I thought were coming from the bb area, but I realized that I could not make the noise occur while standing off of the saddle!

Rear quick release lever that is not gripping the dropouts tightly enough will also produce those synchronous (with pedaling) clicks that seem to be originating near the bb.

Good luck, and let us know if this resolves.

[jtakeda]

Do the shoes you wear have laces?

[Calnago]

When you remove the cranks, look for signs of wear on the cup surface. Anodization worn through, etc. If you see that, replace the cups. Not that expensive. If you still experience the clicking, your bearings may need replacing although oddly enough, I’ve never had to replace any CULT bearings.
So, here’s what happens... if the cups and/or bearings are worn, the lateral movement of the crank becomes much easier to initiate through pedal forces. When not worn, this lateral movement is virtually nil and preload is always kept in check by the wavy washer. When everything is torqued down properly, there is about 0.2mm of clearance between the drive side bearing and the ends of the C-clip. Those ends protruding are the stops that prevent any excessive lateral movement beyond 0.2mm. But if the cups/bearings get worn, then it is easy for the crank to move laterally with each pedal stroke and cause the drive side bearing to hit up against the C-clip ends, creating the incessant click on each revolution, especially under force.
Here’s an experiment you can do... from the non drive side, push hard and quick against the left crank arm at the center of the spindle area, as if you want to push the whole crank out the drive side. It will compress the wavy washer and stop when it hits the C-clip. Is it fairly easy to push in? Can you make the “clicking” sound by doing so? My guess is new cups as a minimum are in order, maybe bearings, but it’s easy to try out the new cups first. How old is the installation?

And oh yes, I just saw the post before mine, make sure your shoe laces aren’t hitting against something. Ha. Funny as it may sound, sometimes it’s the simplest things that get overlooked.

[Hindmost]

What vintage are your bb cups? Early versions were prone to noise-making.

[josephr]

my suggestion is to clean/regrease pedal bearings and spindles. especially if speedplay or shimano.

[Ralph]

Skewers? A creaking rear skewer will sound like it's coming from BB. Easy to swap a wheel or skewer out to see. Before you tear a BB out.

[oldpotatoe]

Ride bike without Cycling shoes(same pedals)
Swap pedals
Swap rear wheel
Grease QRs
Then open BB

[rousseau]

In my experience this is a clear case of needing to replace the bearings on the crankset.

[cgolvin]

Thanks all. Yet another opportunity to express my love of Paceline. Condensing responses…

- Yes, my shoes have laces but they are well secured.
- I first noticed this last week on my standard wheels, recurred yesterday while testing some carbon tubulars. However, I used the same QR in both cases so will double check tightness.
- Installation is about 6 months old but the groupset was used (bought here) and I don't know the mileage at purchase.
- Not sure exact vintage, it's white label SR and I think it's ~2010 (paging Clean39T).

I just took Calnago's advice and I am, indeed, able to compress the non-drive side and produce a noise that does sound very similar to what I'm hearing. However, and I should have said this originally, I don't have a big torque wrench so when installing I simply gave it full gas and hoped to get in the vicinity of 45nm. So…

Before disassembling to check the cups, should I first ensure that the cranks are adequately torqued? Or should I go ahead and take it apart?