Hello Folks,

Just looking for people's thoughts on a funny sound my bike developed from the front wheel area last week.

To me it sounds like a warbling, oscillating sound; my mechanic described it as sounding like a commodore 64 loading.

It's obvious, loud, consistent and easy to reproduce; not sporadic or intermittent. It's quiet up to around 25mph then it starts and remains up to around 90mph.

It's consistent with road speed, increasing in pitch as road speed increases. It's not in any way linked to engine RPM; it remains unaffected when I pull in the clutch lever and coast. If I brake then it decreases with road speed, but doesn't immediately disappear under braking pressure.

My first thoughts were wheel bearings, but my mechanic and I have had the front wheel off and inspected them and they look good and feel smooth. They were last replaced with OEM ones about 20k ago.

My next thought was the speedo drive, but it looks intact. It was replaced with the upgraded part after the original finally failed about 2k ago.

I've of course confirmed that tyre pressures are exactly correct (36 psi front 42 psi rear), that the front sprocket area is clean, and the front sprocket is secure. We've also adjusted the chain.

I've also had the callipers off, cleaned them and checked for foreign objects, and also checked for anything between the front tyre and the mudguard. Bike is otherwise generally all good and well serviced.

My mechanic's theory is that the large spacer in between the bearings inside the wheel hub is rotating, as we noticed when checking the bearings that when he rotated the bearing on one side the other bearing on the other side rotated too. Is that normal?

He very slightly drifted the bearings back out a bit to release pressure of the centre spacer (he described it as "1mm if that") and the noise was indeed gone for a few hundred miles, but has now returned.

Has anyone experienced problems with the centre spacer rotating? Is that normal? Any suggested remedy? Or do you think it might be something else? Would you just change the bearings even though they seem good?

Any advice or similar experiences very welcome, as always.

Thanks, Andy

A successful challenge was reported recently, I think on Visor Down. Dude had an insurance company's black box inn the boot and it showed under 30 in contradiction to a ticket for 40+. When it came to court the prosecution didn't contest the defences evidence. I'd speak to a specialist lawyer.

Andy

Be aware that because XP doesn't have an up to date SSL implementation (the part of the system that makes the padlock icon in your browser work on secure pages) it'll increasingly struggle to connect to many websites.

More and more sites are using SSL, and where they handle payments they're required by the banks to only support current secure implementations, while the older protocols supported in XP have known weakness and can't be supported.

I loved XP too and still use it selectively on a standalone, non-internet media centre PC, but over coming months your mileage for internet use will drop off fast, it just won't be able to connect to half the servers out there.

Win7 is good, agreed. Win 8 kind of sucks, haven't tried 10 yet, but good to see it's free to win 7 and 8 users.

Andy

Advertise for sale? Sure of course its fine.

C90s in fields, I think a lot of folks get started this way. After lots of field bikes next was a derbi 50 on the road, then an rg 125 gamma, then a 10 year break, then the fazer.

Check the level by the sight glass and top up a little if necessary, but not unusual and nothing to worry about.

Andy

I used tyreleader.co.uk for the first time recently.

Price was excellent, I think it was around £140 for a pair of BT023.

Both tyres were checked carefully on arrival and the date of manufacture etc were good. Beads undamaged.

Delivery took some time as the front came from France within 48 hours while the rear came from Germany and took a few days longer. Suggest order in good time for when you need them.

But then strapped to the back of the bike and fitted by my local mechanic.

Andy

Normal for it to look dark after 3,000 miles, especially through the glass.

Depending on the year (and thus your service interval) you'll be changing it again in 1,000 miles or at 6k.

Personally I like to change every 4,000 even though my service interval is 6k, you can feel the difference in the old oil.

Andy

Did the problem only start after the service, or was it there before?

What about in neutral?

My bet would be wheel bearings, when mine needed doing it was a funny sound that varied a lot with the load associated with acceleration.

Andy

A screwdriver to the engine (in various places) and to the ear may help you track down where it's coming from.

Loose valve? A pump?

It sounds very regular, where as I thought cam chain tends to be kind of occasional tick mostly when coming off the revs or on idle.

Andy