Why is my drivetrain so loud?

[miniwill58]

Had my Ridley road bike a while now but its still relatively new, less than 1000 miles.

Shimano 105 5800, can't get it as quiet as I'd like. I've put a couple of links below.

Adjusting barrel adjuster either direction seems to make it worse and its not a sound like it is trying to shift up or down. If anything it sounds like it's coming from bottom cog on the derailleur but can't figure out why, all seems straight!

Any help or suggestions please?

Videos:
https://bit.ly/2U0jtWg
https://bit.ly/2HUg7wL

ETA: Its all degreased and re lubed so hope that isn't the issue...

[Watchman]

You have to start from the beginning and check the hanger for "straightness" although if it's indexing OK, that usually means the hanger is OK.

I've seen new derailleurs which have visually twisted cages, leading to noise. A tweak in one direction or another cures that but be careful - you can test it by gently flexing the derailleur with an adjustable spanner.

Also check the derailleur is far enough away from the cassette - there's a screw that manages this distance but don't go messing with it willy nilly. If it is too close that the upper jockey wheel is touching the cassette, it will need adjusting but that will affect your indexing too.

[miniwill58]

Thanks for your reply.

Yeah - I am stumped on this one. Looking from rear of the bike the derailleur and hanger etc all look straight and no twist in it.

It shifts absolutely fine, no problems what so ever other than being louder than I think it should be.

I don't think clearance to cassette is the problem either, not sure how clear it is in the videos but I think it is more than enough, certainly not close to touching.

[Watchman]

I've looked at your videos now - the last one looks as though the skewer lever isn't tight. Can I see the axle thread?

It also looks as though the upper jockey wheel is close to the cassette - which is good for chain "wrap" - but can be too close.

[miniwill58]

Skewer is tight, I think some marking on cassette is making it look loose (assuming that's where you're looking)
I'll recheck tonight but confident it's tight, it's in a trainer at the moment as you see from videos.

Will also recheck how close top jockey wheel is and maybe try backing it off slightly. Thanks

[Watchman]

Oh, it's a trainer - OK that explains the skewer thing.

Before adjusting it, see if you can just pull the derailleur away towards the back of the bike with your hand (carefully - I lost a lot of blood in a chain/chainwheel accident some years ago) and listen for any difference. I am conscious that that screw does affect indexing leading to a right PITA to get it right again.

[miniwill58]

Thanks - will give that a go.

Will be careful of course. I'm used to fiddling with fixed gear bikes and know all too well about fingers, chains and chainrings!

[miniwill58]

OK, tried it, no real difference when moving derailleur

[outnumbered]

It definitely sounds like something's out of alignment, it's worth checking the hanger alignment with the proper tool.

Any possibility that you've got a 10 speed chain on it ? (I'm not sure it would work at all in that case, but if it did, it'd be noisy)

[miniwill58]

I agree, I'm not sure it would work with 10 speed chain but to be honest I'm close to swapping the chain just to try something else.

Not a great picture, dark in the shed! Looks quite straight and aligned to me though, open to other ideas though

[anonymous-user]

Long shot, but is the chain threaded through the jockey wheel cage properly? Not going over the cage guide?

[miniwill58]

Not sure I've got a picture to show that or whether you can see it from the videos. I'm confident it's routed right, not touching anything other than jockey wheels through the derailleur

[bigdom]

It sounds (to me) not aligned, sort of inbetween gears and ready to jump. Have you tried undoing the cable, and reconnecting with a little less tension, and then adjusting out with the barrel adjuster. I have that derailleur on the rear of my commuter, and it certainly doesn’t make that noise.

The other thing, although I’d have thought more of an issue on the road, is the chain the correct length for your crankset/cassette ratios?

[Fletch79]

Check your chain wear?

My Ultegra gets noisy as the chain reaches its stretch limit

[Nick67]

Try disconnecting the cable and manually push the derailleur in to change gears and see if that makes any difference. I had a noisy setup and it transpired that the cable had been caked up with mud under the bottom bracket so wasn't changing gears correctly and trying to change under load.

[GOATever]

It looks remarkably like your jockey wheels are in the wrong positions. The one at the top should have “Guide” written on it, the one at the bottom should have “T-pulley” or “Tension” written on it. They are different for a reason. The guide pulley is supposed to have more play and Chamfer, to allow it to transition with the chain across the cassette, the Tension or ‘T-pulley’ is more rigid and there to keep the tension. They also have an arrow to mark direction of rotation, so make sure they aren’t arse about face. If the hanger is out of alignment on yaw, it can make the drivetrain noisy as well, this has a bigger effect than it being out of alignment on roll, as far as noise is concerned.

Edited by GOATever on Thursday 28th March 06:14

[miniwill58]

GOATever said:

It looks remarkably like your jockey wheels are in the wrong positions. The one at the top should have “Guide” written on it, the one at the bottom should have “T-pulley” or “Tension” written on it. They are different for a reason. The guide pulley is supposed to have more play and Chamfer, to allow it to transition with the chain across the cassette, the Tension or ‘T-pulley’ is more rigid and there to keep the tension. They also have an arrow to mark direction of rotation, so make sure they aren’t arse about face. If the hanger is out of alignment on yaw, it can make the drivetrain noisy as well, this has a bigger effect than it being out of alignment on roll, as far as noise is concerned.

Edited by GOATever on Thursday 28th March 06:14

Interesting. Will check this.
They've never been apart but that's not to say they weren't put in wrong to begin with...

[miniwill58]

Pulleys are correct orientation and correct order.

Stumped... Some more videos:
https://goo.gl/HYG4M3
https://goo.gl/JXTPq3
https://goo.gl/6VGZBB

[Nick67]

Did you try my suggestion?

[miniwill58]

Nick67 said:

Did you try my suggestion?

Not yet, sorry. Tried all the obvious things now without disconbecting or taking anything apart. Will have some more time at the weekend to start disconnecting and removing parts looking for noises one by one...