Need HELP ! VERY weird noise !

[BikeyGuy]

My buddy has a very weird noise coming from his bike. It's a ratchety sound.
It only happens when there is an extreme amount of torque applied to the bike. When he is out of the saddle and climbing, on each power stroke, there is this clicking, ratchety sound.
The is NO slippage of the crank or anything else. He feels constant and normal resistance when climbing. This sound is loud. There is no mistaking it.
Crack is snug, cassette tight, peddles, brakes, you name it. We checked everything. We maintain our bikes well. We're both pretty good in trouble shooting problems. We've never heard a noise like this one.

He has a TI frame with 2004 Dura-Ace 10 speed.
The wheels are Mavic Ksyrium SL.
Sure could use some of your thoughts.....Thanks.

 

[neil0502]

My buddy has a very weird noise coming from his bike. It's a ratchety sound.
It only happens when there is an extreme amount of torque applied to the bike. When he is out of the saddle and climbing, on each power stroke, there is this clicking, ratchety sound.
The is NO slippage of the crank or anything else. He feels constant and normal resistance when climbing. This sound is loud. There is no mistaking it.
Crack is snug, cassette tight, peddles, brakes, you name it. We checked everything. We maintain our bikes well. We're both pretty good in trouble shooting problems. We've never heard a noise like this one.

He has a TI frame with 2004 Dura-Ace 10 speed.
The wheels are Mavic Ksyrium SL.
Sure could use some of your thoughts.....Thanks.

Is the derailleur setup perfect? Is he cross-chain? The 'ratchety' idea makes it sounds like drivetrain to me. Cranking like you describe can induce just enough flex in the BB shell to change the chainline. Could be chain hitting FD cage.

Is the BB greased and tight??

Some good stuff lives here:

http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/creaking_and_squeaking.shtml

Also, I'm not that interested in your friend's crack, but thanks for sharing

 

[el Ingles]

My buddy has a very weird noise coming from his bike. It's a ratchety sound.
It only happens when there is an extreme amount of torque applied to the bike. When he is out of the saddle and climbing, on each power stroke, there is this clicking, ratchety sound.
The is NO slippage of the crank or anything else. He feels constant and normal resistance when climbing. This sound is loud. There is no mistaking it.
Crack is snug, cassette tight, peddles, brakes, you name it. We checked everything. We maintain our bikes well. We're both pretty good in trouble shooting problems. We've never heard a noise like this one.

He has a TI frame with 2004 Dura-Ace 10 speed.
The wheels are Mavic Ksyrium SL.
Sure could use some of your thoughts.....Thanks.

a friend who owns a cycle shop ( that I don´t go to ) had a noise he could not find and it turned out to be the front wheel ( kysrium ) , something to do with the spokes - try swapping wheels with your mate and see if the problem continues .

 

[dhk]

My buddy has a very weird noise coming from his bike. It's a ratchety sound.
It only happens when there is an extreme amount of torque applied to the bike. When he is out of the saddle and climbing, on each power stroke, there is this clicking, ratchety sound.
The is NO slippage of the crank or anything else. He feels constant and normal resistance when climbing. This sound is loud. There is no mistaking it.
Crack is snug, cassette tight, peddles, brakes, you name it. We checked everything. We maintain our bikes well. We're both pretty good in trouble shooting problems. We've never heard a noise like this one.

He has a TI frame with 2004 Dura-Ace 10 speed.
The wheels are Mavic Ksyrium SL.
Sure could use some of your thoughts.....Thanks.

If you swap wheels and rule that out, I'd pull the crankarms, make sure anti-seize or grease is covering the axle splines evenly, and then re-torque them carefully.

My bike has a Ti ISIS axle and the crankarms loosened after the first couple thousand miles....started creaking up hills. Just checking the tightness of the bolts didn't fix it; needed to pull the arms, reapply the anti-seize evenly to all splines, and retorque.

 

[mises]

In my experience a noise that appears only with each pedal revolution is almost always from the BB, then pedals, cleats and chainrings. But BB is far away in the lead since the advent of cartridge style BB's. I have had great noise removal luck using marine grease and teflon tape together, but sometimes it works so well the adjustable cup won't stay tight.

 

[dhk]

In my experience a noise that appears only with each pedal revolution is almost always from the BB, then pedals, cleats and chainrings. But BB is far away in the lead since the advent of cartridge style BB's. I have had great noise removal luck using marine grease and teflon tape together, but sometimes it works so well the adjustable cup won't stay tight.

Good point, but maybe it's time to "uninvent" the cartridge BB. My bike uses the Megatech BB, where the bearings are directly pressed into an OS BB shell; no cartridge or threads to worry about.