Noise

[darrsi]

You say that the noise stops when you pull the clutch in and that this rules out wheel bearings. But pulling the clutch in removes drive from the rear wheel, which removes a force applied; if the bearings are starting to fail, I think they would be affected by this. Obviously eventually they'd get to a point where it would be detected all the time, clutch or no clutch, but you wouldn't want it to get to that point.


I'd also look at condition of the cush drive rubbers, and I still can't help but feel the chain can't be ruled out yet.
My chain slider is pretty worn, grooved, but doesn't cause any noise, still has plenty of thickness to do its job. I reckon that's a red herring.

I changed the cush drive rubbers a few years ago just for the sake of it, but the ones i removed looked like fine anyway.
If it was rear wheel bearings would i not hear "something" spinning the wheel on the centre stand?
It spins very freely either way, with no binding or anything going on.