Help: Strange pinging noise from bike

mp31

Folks, over the last few rides the bike is making strange sounds... rather like the sound of spokes being pinged/flexed whilst riding.

The bike is a Giant Rapid 3 2011, 18 months old, owned from new, covered approx 6,500 kms, converted to drops - standard wheelset i.e. Giant SR2 with 36 spokes per wheel in a 3 cross lacing pattern (I think).

- The frequency is random and not related to speed or cadence
- It appears to be from the front but not completely sure.
- It is marginally more noisy when going over bumpy surfaces but not all the time
- It does not increase if I shift my weight over the front or back of the bike

I tried squeezing all the spokes (in pairs) of each wheel and none appear to be loose - although the front spokes appear to be slightly less taught than the back.

Bike maintained by myself (weekly wash, chain cleaned & lubed every 3/4 weeks), no play in the headset & wheel bearings or BB (at least not that I can feel any) and chain/cassette wear within tolerances.

Any advice would be very welcome... the ride in this morning was rather fretful with all the pinging/crackling noises emanating from the bike

and

Tenzor07

I'm no expert mechanic, but I would take off the cassette and freehub body, check the pawls on the hub, could be a faulty spring...

n-dawg

Freehub body is a good contender...

I had a similar problem a while back and turned out the noise was the saddle creaking... Random noises can be a pain to track down

Boardnashea

Is it wifi enabled?:D

smacl

Could be the magnet for your speedo is a bit to close to the sensor, and hitting it on bumpy surfaces.

Hungrycol

It's me behind you going "ping....ping..ping.......ping". Drives you nuts but makes me giggle

piston

Do you have a bell on it?

mp31

Thanks for the replies folks.. even the funny ones

I don't have WiFi, magnet based speedo or bell and I didn't see you behind me HungryCol.... you must have been using your Romulan cloaking device

I'll check the freehub at the weekend and see what gives.

biketard

A cheap and easy thing to try first is to put a wee spot of grease in-between where all the spokes cross over each other.

hardCopy

I know you squeezed the spokes already, but maybe try tapping each one with a screw driver and see does anyone sound different?

biomech

excess cable on your front derailleur clipping the inside of your right crank???

mp31

Interestingly this morning... very few pinging sounds at all... the only thing I did last night was to rub down the chain and apply some lube simply because the thing started squealing on the way home and I didn't want to ride in today with a noisy chain.

I suspect it's not the chain though and biketard maybe onto something with his idea of grease.

The last few rides I did resulted in the bike being covered in cow sh*t ... farmers round our way must be out with slurry or something coz it stinks. Normally the drivetrain, wheels etc are covered in brown stuff and I didn't get a chance to clean the bike properly from the last ride and I suspect this stuff is getting in between the spokes and then making them stick together... hence the noise.

Anyway I'll clean the bike properly over the w/e and see what happens.