Rear Derailleur Noise

Derrick Allen in South Africa is a very lucky guy as his Bianchi 928 T Cube frame has the new Campagnolo Super Record11 speed drive chain fitted, but he has an annoying noise problem from the back end. With a bike like this you want it perfect

Question:

I have just upgraded to Campag 11 sp Super Record. I ride A Bianchi 928 T Cube. The problem I have is that no matter how we try and align the rear derailleur, the lower 4 (14, 13, 12, 11) are very noisy. Sounds like chain and jockey wheels out of alignment?

Hi Derrick,

Yes I would agree with your thoughts on an alignment problem, as the rear derailleur is new then we have to think that there isn’t a problem with it, so I would suggest that you have your frame checked for the rear gear derailleur hanger alignment. All good bike shops should have a tool for straitening and checking the alignment of the rear hanger, the tool is not very expensive and a must for all mechanics. The tool screws into the hanger where the rear derailleur goes and has a bar coming from the hanger that should be the same distance from the rim of the wheel all the way round, showing that the hanger is perfectly straight. Buy a replacement gear hanger and try that, handy to have a spare anyway. Park tools make one of the best hanger tools and many other tools.

If this proves not to be the answer then you should look at the positioning of the chain set, this should be automatically correct, but the bottom bracket may need facing off more on one side or the other or possibly a shim inserting on the chain set side, this you should have your shop look at as they may have to do some measuring, you should have a straight line from the middle if the cassette to between the chain rings, use a steel rule that you know is straight for this.

Hanger Tool in Action

Your last point to check would be the alignment of the whole frame, if the rear end is twisted this could cause a problem for chain alignment between chain set, cassette and rear derailleur. If the frame is also new then this is unlikely, but can happen even with the best of frame manufacturers that have a quality control system, mistakes can happen from time to time, but unlikely.

Hanger Tool

As the companies want more and more gears, then the tolerances become very critical, it wasn’t that long ago people where pleased to go from 5 speeds to 6 speeds and now we have 11!