On Monday, November 11, 2013 8:37:15 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Monday, November 11, 2013 9:55:24 AM UTC-5, Jay Beattie wrote:

On Sunday, November 10, 2013 6:11:11 PM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:



On Sunday, November 10, 2013 12:30:25 PM UTC-5, wrote:





I would say, it feels like a brake vibration, humm (with the brakes pads clear of the rim) like a rummble strip in a car going at highway speeds.



Weird. Could it have something to do with contact between spokes? ....



The Equipe front is radially spoked.



Well, that kills my idea. Back to the mystery.





It sounds like a bad bearing (notwithstanding the prior replacement). As mentioned above, it could be a damaged tire. I would throw on a different wheel to rule out problems elsewhere, although I can't imagine what problems could cause a buzzing in the front end, at least not on a rim brake bike.. I can get a buzzing sound when a return spring on a warn disc pad starts to contact the rotor. The other possibility are really loose spokes, but that problem would be obvious, unless all spokes loosened evenly, and it would sound like a rattle.



Datakoll does make a good point, which you confirm: It can be very hard to tell where a bike noise is coming from.



The only other thing I'll say now is that I'm really careful about fixing bike noises. Some things that sound like mild irritations can suddenly throw you.



Besides, even a benign noise, like a slight chain squeak, can add subliminal dismalness to a bike ride.



- Frank Krygowski

Another cause of a buzz is a FD cable end being bent over on to the tire -- or anything contacting the tire (crap under the crown). So if he has high speed buzz, maybe its because the FD is on the big ring, and a cable is contacting the tire. You can even get a sort of buzz feeling out of a dry chain, but not a buzz noise.

You can get a sort of high frequency buzz (more like a rattle) if the compression cap on the steerer loosens, which can happen on some steerers. E.g., you put on the stem, adjust pre-load with the compression cap and lock down the stem -- and that takes some load off the compression cap, which can allow it to loosen and rattle without changing the HS adjustment. You can also get lever rattle on STI (at least the older stuff). But rattles are different from buzzes.

-- Jay Beattie.