I pulled the cranks off my 70's Schwinn road bike last June so I could get the
bike into my vehicle for a trip to VT. During three weeks there I rode only
about 50 miles, but didn't notice any noise from the cranks. Pulled cranks
again to pack and come home; reinstalled cranks when I got here. Rode this bike
260 miles during the fall and put it away for the season in late November.
Again, no noises from the vicinity of the cranks.
This spring I took the beater bike I'd ridden all winter off the road for a tear
down, cleaning & lube, and pulled out the fair weather bike (the one I'd taken
to VT). That was four weeks ago. Last week noticed a click! coming from the
vicinity of the left crank. Pulled that crank and inspected it and the
spindle. Looked perfect. Reinstalled, with torque wrench, of course. Click!
was still there. So I checked the other crank .... and eventually just about
everything else I could poke or pry or prod! &*^%$! click woukdn't go away.
Then a friend spun the left pedal and remarked that the reflectors mounted in
each side were loose and slipping around. That was it! Then I remembered
having biffed that pedal against a rock (don't ask) during the first ride of
this season. Inspection showed that the pedal took a heck of a whack, is now a
parallelogram instead of a rectangle.
Got a crank click that torquing doesn't fix? Got reflectors in your pedals?
Check those!
Oh ... I scrubbed the reflectors (in situ) with a toothbrush and, when all had
dried, shot a little clear RTV between reflectors and their mountings. No more
"crank click".
--
Michael