I was up and working well before the crack of dawn… even though dawn around these parts is approaching 5:30 am this time of year.

I’ve written a couple of times about a “tick” or “click” we’ve developed over the last few weeks that’s been driving us a bit bonkers trying to locate it. Last try was taking apart the eccentric bottom bracket cam to clean and lube everything – and I had high hopes for this one. I tackled the task shortly after arriving home Thursday afternoon. It was, believe it or not, a fairly simple affair. Remove one side of the threaded external bottom bracket, loosen the set screws for the eccentric cam, pull the cam, clean the parts, lube the parts, put everything back together. It was perfect, if it did take a little bit of time. I was sure that was going to do it…

Friday morning’s ride was the big test… and the first three-quarters of a mile were dead silent. Then, as we picked up the intensity, tick… tick… tick… and it grew in intensity. Click… click… click… double-click… Well, that wasn’t it and I was about at the end of my rope. My wife and I decided to add a stop to the bike shop to see if they could help with the diagnosis.

After describing the issue, my friend and the owner of the shop and I wheeled the tandem to the park next to the bike shop and went for a cruise. Neither of us had mountain shoes on so we wore our tennis shoes and rode on the Shimano pedals like they were platform pedals in our sneakers. And, not a click or a tick. The problem is in the relatively new mountain bike pedals. My wife and I went for a spin after Matt and I did. No matter how much power we put down there wasn’t a click or a creak.

I’ll have to isolate which set is bad, but it’s simple at this point. Heck, I just might buy two new sets of pedals just to be done with it.

Sadly, the rest of the weekend, especially today, is looking quite crappy. There may be some salvation tomorrow, though. We’ll have to see.