Clicking Noise from Rear Wheel Area

Lol, no offense taken. I agree with your probable scenario.

Chap,

I would remove the chain from the sprocket, tighten the rear wheel to spec torque and spin the wheel. This would eliminate bearing noise or anything coming from the brake side of the bike. If the noise is gone it would either be alignment, chain or coming from the front sprocket area or possibly front chain guide.

Chapomis_imp said:

Lol, no offense taken. I agree with your probable scenario.

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Thank you. I was afraid of seeming argumentative. My possible scenario as to how they could handle it comes from my experience with one or two less than honorable auto dealerships. In the case of one dealership in particular, that's putting it more mildly than they deserve.

Well I couldn't wait till the weekend so last night I put her up on the center stand. When I spun the rear wheel by hand there was quite a bit of noise from the chain so that got a good clean and lubricated with Chain Wax. This made a big difference.
I also noticed the rear wheel is set at 3 marks on the left and 3.5 on the right. A tiny amount but I will adjust this tomorrow along with chain tension.
I also heard noise from the rear brake pads against the rotor. When pressing the brake pedal its is pretty quite but when released there is a tiny amount of contact between the pad and rotor and because the rotor is so thin it does resonate somewhat. I will probably remove the brake pads for a clean and apply a small amount of brake pad anti vibration liquid on the contact points with the caliper.
I stress this is only minor problems as wheel is not binding and spins freely by hand. More of an annoyance than anything else.
I hope this helps anyone else with similar issues and I will report back after my adjustments to see if there are any improvements.

I'm very curious about the alignment, look forward to your report. My rear pads also make a bit of noise on the center stand, but not noticable when riding. I assumed that was just the newness of the brakes. My sons T100 rear brake was squealing like a pig when applied, took the pads off, deglazed them with 600 grit paper on my table saw and put brake grease on the backs. Quiet as a mouse now.

You will hear a swishing noise from the rear pads/rotor when on the centerstand, and often while pushing the bike around. Clearance is quite close/ lightly touching between pad and rotor.

Well the good news is that I believe the noise on my bike is now 90% reduced.
I put the bike on its center stand and loosened the rear axle using a 27mm socket on the right side and 22mm socket on left side.
I slacked off the two 8mm chain adjustment bolts and gave the rear wheel a spin and wiggle just to ensure it was moving freely.
I then proceeded to adjust the chain tension as per the manual which states 1 to 1.4 inches of up and down free play measured in the middle of the lower chain run (mine was definately too tight to begin with at approx 3/4 of an inch.
When I had the chain tension within spec I made smaller adjustment to get the wheel perfectly centered (now exactly 3 notches either side on mine).
Following this I carefully tightened the rear axle bolt till it was snug then rechecked the alignment of the wheel and tension of the chain.
Finally I torqued the rear axle bolt to 69 lb ft which is the spec for the 2014 models.
When spinning the rear wheel now the noise is almost gone and it has also made the brake rotor spin cleanly through the brake pad/caliper so much so that I did not feel it needed attention.
A quick road test confirmed a much quieter off throttle rear end.
To summary I think a dry and over tight chain coupled with minimal alignment issue was the cause. I will keep a close eye on this in the future.
Chapomis, I hope this helps you with your noise and definately recommend carrying out some checks to ensure your bike is right.

Well I'm glad to hear it was just misalignment and not wheel bearings or some such. Good job Seabee Now go have a :beerchug:

Glad to hear you got it fixed. I suspect most of your noise was due to the misalignment. Half a mark difference is actually pretty significant. The noise was probably due to the side load on the chain as it rolled off the sprockets.

Good thing you found it soon. I had a mechanic misalign my wheel after a tire install on a road trip. After a few thousand miles, the O-rings on one side of the chain failed and I ended up limping home with a very noisy chain the last few hundred miles.

Now I always double check the alignment if any mechanic has done anything to the rear wheel.

Nice work Seabee. I will apply all of everyone's advise when I get home. Cheers !

Thanks for the comments. I honestly think this misalignment may have stemmed from the factory. My bike only had 16 miles on her when I picked it up and the noise was apparent then. Has anyone else seen this?

My '13 alignment was dead on when I went to adjust it the first time.

But there was air in the rear brake line from the factory so things can happen that they don't catch or do right.