Clicking in "easier" gears?

[Grog]

When the chain gets stretched excessively (probably considerably greater than 1%) it doesn't fit the chainrings properly and you'll see a gap between the chain and the bottom of the teeth. This will wear the teeth into needle sharp points, and the chainrings (not the whole crank) will need to be replaced. I did this to my chainrings once. Not sure if it really happened because of chain wear of just a softish alloy in the Stronglight chainrings with lots of miles on it. And I've seen one other bike with a chain stretched to this extent. But I think it's pretty rare. I'd monitor the shape of your chainring teeth and whether the chain sits solidly at the bottom of the teeth. If you get worried, well, chains are much cheaper than chainrings.

Thanks Deb, I'll look into that today!!

[KnottedYet]

Blue- the exact same thing happened to me when I cleaned my bike a couple weeks ago. I think I bumped the adjustment barrel for my rear derailleur. Once I followed the instructions in my handy BBB by Park Tools I was able to start eliminating the click. (mine was in the middle 3 cogs, no matter what chainring I was in.)

[RoadRaven]

OK... this thread title caught my attention...

My beautiful new baby had her first hiccup this last week - in the biggest gear (big front chain ring, smallest rear cog) it would click on my down stroke...

First we thought the derailleurs... but fiddling with those sorted nothing... hmmm, bent chain ring? Into the shed and three of us peering, finding that the chain consistently misses the ring in the same place - must be a slight bend in the chain, right?

Spanners out, trying to straighten the suspected link even though it looks straight... aha... but whats this??? The tooth on the big ring... ah yes... its twisted and chipped....

So my partner fabricates a tool to straighten the tip of the tooth... and away she is... changing as smoothly as a hot knife cuts through butter... sweeeeet

[RoadRaven]

Oh... I forgot to say... we suspect that it must have been a stone getting jammed in there and ground out to bend and chip the tooth... we've been servicing our own bikes for three years and its the first one of these we have had to deal with...

[DebW]

We used to have a specific tool in the bike shop for bending/straightening chainring teeth. It happened with steel chainrings much more often than with alloy. You can also file teeth to remove burrs and even them up. Remove the chain and hold a flat file at an angle on the side of the teeth and spin the crank. You can often improve shifting by beveling the teeth towards the inside of the crank so that the points of the teeth catch the chain quicker during a shift. This can be very useful if the chainring spacing is slightly too wide.