Ridden maybe 20 miles with this brand new chainring, which I installed with a new EAI cog and new chain ($30 KMC chain). I never installed a chain before and I’m wondering if I fucked up somehow and it damaged the chainring?? I mean there’s not a lot to it – you measure the length, break the extra links off, and snap it together with the master link and pliers. I was quite happy with it because I ordered a Super Toughness chain but they sent the wrong one so I bought a cheaper chain at the LBS. I installed it myself with a little help from them. It was very smooth and very quiet which I liked having heard Izumis can be loud. Well the other day I started to hear a click sound every time my right crank arm was at 12 o’clock. I took it to the LBS and someone rode it and said it sounded like maybe the BB and that it hadn’t been torqued enough. But I did torque it (Sugino says 50-70 Nm and I did like 68-69). While disassembling to take it off and re-torque it I noticed this chip in the chainring. It’s about exactly opposite of the crank arm so when the crank arm is up at 12 o’clock (aka pi/2 radians) the chipped tooth is pointing down at 6 o’clock (aka -pi/2 radians). Because I wasn’t sure if I had torques the BB I took all this shit apart but as I was taking the cups out I remembered “hey wait a second I definitely did torque this putting it in” and so now I’m thinking it’s the chain/chipped chainring?
This sucks because that chainring is brand new, was $250, and has maybe 20 miles on it. I used a $30 chain and did it myself instead of just paying them to do it – but I have tools and I want to learn so I guess I’m learning the hard way? Did I fuck up? Was it the cheap chain? Is the chipped tooth location and sound timing a coincidence? What else could cause that consistent clicking sound?
by turned_wand
3 Comments
Naw, you’re good.
if cog, chainring and chain is all new and installed same time, the drivetrain with have a gnawing sound, give it 300 miles and it will be like butter
Pretty sure you’re fine, but you can try putting your crank arm at 12 so that the chip is at 6, then remove and rotate your chainring so that the chip is at a different location when the crank is at 12. Now test and see if the click happens at a different spot in the rotation. If it still happens at the same spot, it’s probably not the chip in the tooth causing it.