OK, I’ve noticed in the past few weeks that my nimbus 29 muni is making a lot of clinking noised related mostly to changes in torque at the crank: accelerations/decelerations. At first I thought it was spokes so I tightened them and even put some oil where they rub together. Then I thought maybe at the bearing clamps so I switched frames (already had the 2nd frame) and I greased the pedal threads too. The cranks recently were installed so the isis spindle shouldn’t be so noisy but who knows? I suppose I should grease that surface up as well. Additionally I’ve tried other pedals. Yet it feels like each pedal is binding a bit but no matter which pedals are installed… it just feels like they have sticky bearings that are binding a bit. I guess vibrations can move through the unicycle so feeling something at the pedals isn’t very diagnostic, could be from the wheel or cranks.
Any ideas? Do I just need to “turn up the radio” per Click and Clack…? But I really would like to get back to being a silent ninja! My fear is that it’s something like the hub and it’s going to fail catastrophically. Best thing would be a common problem w/ an easy fix!
When I hear a click like that, it’s usually a shoelace tip flapping against a crank. But it sounds like you’re doing the right thing, swapping parts around until you isolate it. What hub does it have? Kris Holm Moment hubs have been reported as doing that many times, although I’ve got one that hasn’t had the problem–yet perhaps. I guess any two-piece design could do it if relative motion developed between the parts. That seems to be the tricky part of it.
Good luck figuring it out. Things like that drive me crazy.
I ended up waiting for the ticking to start then I would pull the cranks off and then grease and re-instal them with a slight rotation. Ticking would be absent for 2-4 weeks depending on exposure I guess.
My bearings also failed prematurely. Related?
Hub failure, in my experience, is not catastrophic, as it tends to be a gradual process, though replacing your hub is expensive if no longer covered by warranty, and time-consuming if you’ve never re-built a wheel before.
Clicking hubs that eventually failed were a KH thing for a number of years, but the problem was finally fixed in 2015, or so I heard. Someone did once tell me about having a Nimbus hub that clicked, but with Nimbus that problem seems to be extremely rare.
You have checked most of the things I would check. Next on my list would be saddle bolt tightness (more felt than heard, usually) or one or more loose spokes.
I have also run into two pairs of clicky pedals (brand new) such that if I didn’t have a third, known non-clicky, pair, debugging would have been even more problematic. In a similar vein, if your pedals have come loose and been ridden that way (running the wheel backwards or riding backwards can cause such loosening), the crank threads could be messed up, causing problems with multiple, perfectly fine, sets of pedals.
Not exactly sure if you are hearing a creak. But a creak when changing torque on cranks is usually when your cranks no longer have a good fit on the ISIS hub. Usually the cranks surface wears down a bit and no longer fits super snug and you get a very noticeable creak.
I once used a pair of aluminum cranks with steel threaded inserts. One of the inserts came loose and made an annoying creaking sound. Took a while to isolate/identify, too. (I also put chain lube on my spoke crossing points. That helps keep things quiet. I like the paraffin type.)
Good luck!
Add clinking noises to the travesties of ISIS! I broke out the big gun and slathered Bel-Ray assembly lube on the cranks and isis thru axle. Prob solved! Thx CHTed! Assembly lube is nasty stuff but it really works. We’ll see if it lasts for longer than CHT’s 2-4 weeks. I have been riding the uni in snow, mud, rain, and general muck so I suppose the surfaces got stripped of their lube but the Bel-Ray is quasi-permanent stuff, bonds to the metal or something (bonds to my shirt, esp ).
Pinoclean: did the red loctite cause any probs w/ removing/replacing the cranks later on? I’ve used red loctite on bicycle headsets and it became a permanent mod, no unpressing that bearing race…
Thanks everybody for the ideas. Great response that guided me to the fix! So happy to be stealth again YAY!
Another source for clicking/creaking could be in your seat/post assembly. My Nimbus Shadow handle will start to click before I see any signs of failure. The central part of those used to break but I believe current versions have corrected this. Never had any problems with the bars themselves, even though they are very light!
I’ve also had noises come from at least one of my other seat/post setups, which I never identified. Sometimes it’s hard to tell where the sound is originating.
You should try some of that assembly lube stuff, it sounds like lots of fun! Wear a crappy shirt.
A bit late, bit I’ve had almost same issue - clicking and creaking on-torque due to loose connection between the crank and ISIS spindle (on new hub and new crank even). clicking came through the pedal and really felt like a pedal issue.
Ill def try the solutions here - thx!
Another possible source for the issue is the ISIS spacer (aluminum ring between crank and bearing). If the spacers are deformed/scratched, too narrow, or too wide they can lead to a loose fit of the crank on the ISIS splines. You can buy spacers of various widths at low cost from UDC.
Now I think I’m getting a little bit of click and pop from my pedals: odyssey twisted and nimbus plastic pedals. Is this just an artifact of plastic pedals; do they eventually deform enough for the bearings to move around a little bit w/in the plastic body of the pedal? It feels kind of like the ball bearings are binding sometimes, then when they break the bind there’s a pop or tick or something. And sometimes it feels like they move a tiny bit w/in the pedal body.
Is it time for metal pedals? I like to ride w/o shin protection and have shied away from metal pedals to avoid shin carnage but perhaps its time to bite the pin and invest in some metal and protection?
I get the feeling that chasing after annoying noises will be a persistent thing w/ uni. Just like bikes I suppose. At least the ISIS creak is gone now. Fixing the rest is just icing on the cake.
I got that. With two brand new sets of (plastic) pedals. One of them is Odyssey Twisted PCs. I rebuilt both sets with new grease and the noise/feeling went away. The Odyssey pedals are spares, but the others have been in use for awhile now (I’m guessing at least a year), and the problem has not returned.
Yup, I do need to pack them w/ grease. They do seem a little dry and grabby, both the Welgos and the Odysseys.
But now I think the main tick or pop I’m feeling is the wheel bearings. I feel it at the pedal and seat handle equally and it follows the side load of free-mounting. And perhaps the occasional times I put a significant side load on the hub while scrambling to regain my balance. So I’m thinking now the bearings have a certain bit of lateral slop in them and that gap is traversed when I free mount the uni. So I’ll try new bearings, it’s a cheap enough experiment to run… Radial bearings seem pretty inappropriate for uni, there’s too much lateral component to the stresses the bearing encounters. Too bad there isn’t some kind of sealed axial cartridge bearing.
I had same problem, off putting when learning to idle.I just took pedal arm bolt out, greased it put back in, never had a problem since.i also took the pedal arm off crank, and greased that to, after wiping it down first. Hope this helps, it did me, VERY WELL !!!
Finally had the wheel bearings swapped out as the last possible source of the popping, creaking, pinging stuff. The LBS charged me $20 to knock the bearings off and knock the new ones on. Press fit means that I’ve got to have someone do it. Maybe that $45 nimbus bearing extractor tool isn’t such a bad deal after all?
Nevertheless, the good news is that my Muni is now back to its silent ninja ways! I LUV the quiet ride! I went out last night and roosted around for a few hours. It was so much fun. The Muni even feels more capable with tight and silent bearings! I think it must be psychological but its still a real effect and I’m really digging it!
That’s all! Just wanted to share that I finally got to the bottom of the problem and solved it. These things can take time but if you stick with it you’ll eventually locate the problem and solve it! Ride on!
But it sounds like you’re doing the right thing, swapping parts around until you isolate it. What hub does it have? Kris Holm Moment hubs have been reported as doing that many times, although I’ve got one that hasn’t had the problem–yet perhaps. I guess any two-piece design could do it if relative motion developed between the parts. That seems to be the tricky part of it.
).