1200 SE Noise - what is it!

My low mileage (<6000kms) Tenni, at moderate speed and upwards has this kinda ‘hollow roar’ coming from.. somewhere. I initially thought helmet / some kind of aerodynamic source, but am now beginning to think gearbox area?

It’s been with the bike since I’ve had it (2013) and is not particularly alarming. But it’s a definite ‘add on’ noise over and above the engine. Pulling in the clutch / idling the motor does not diminish it.. speed though does.

The bike has just been majorly serviced... all rear suspension components greased, drive shaft splines lubed, forks / steering head oiled and greased, thickened sump gasket in, rollerised / tappets set, TBs balanced, remapped, TPS reset.

As I say, been with the bike always, not esp alarming... I’ve minimal Guzzi miles under my belt and wonder if it’s simply ... ‘GRiSO’

Ta.

Intake honk?

... don’t reckon the intake Pete coz it’s related to road speed and not engine speed.

Noisy tyres?

Only reason I'm thinking not the gearbox is because I've never had one break!

It might be worth pulling the bevelbox and checking for oil leakage from the pinion seal holder. This may indicate that the pinion nut has worked loose and the bearings may be loosing their preload. That'll make the gears howl!

Yikes - surely / hope not on such an unused machine! Absolutely no sign of any oil wetness anywheres... all ‘box levels checked full on the recent overhaul.
Also had the drive shaft out as you know... all dry in the swing arm casing and no play etc noted in the DS UVs. If I were to guess, the noise is coming from well forward of the bevel box area...

I’m guessing this noise is not ‘GRiSO’ from your posts, it’s always been there on mine, though only recently have I started ‘acknowledging it’... it now won’t go away .

I may remove the small fly-screen as wondering whether it’s a reflected noise...
Cheers Pete.
Simon

(& yea, tyres are on my list too)

If it isn't getting worse I wouldn't worry about it then. Things like this are pretty much impossible to diagnose or assess without the machine in front of you.

...appreciated Pete. Might simply be the dry QLD roads, versus the whoosh & splash noises of VICs blacktop

Good morning ... at least it is that time of day here at the top of Virginia    

I know you have considered and rejected helmet noise as the cause.  You are there and thus probably right.

That said, I recently changed out the stock-offered 35mm cheek pads in my newish Shoei Neotec II for "fatter" 39mm ones.  

What an amazing difference.

I mention this because the distracting, irritating, and occasionally near painful roar from the "before" is absolutely gone in the "after." The cause was wind noise coming up from the bottom. The helmet seemed to fit well enough, and, interestingly, the new pads do not make it feel any tighter. Probably my fat and compressible face flesh.

Again, just an observation.  I have not encountered the condition you describe in my GRiSO, tho Lord knows it can make some strange sounds.  

A fellow ran up to me at a fuel stop earlier this year.  He was screaming something and acted excited.  When I took off my helmet and earplugs to figure out what was going on, I learned he'd been shouting, "Shut it off! Shut it off!  I'm a mechanic and that engine is about to blow up!"  

I thanked him.  

Bill

Hey Bill,

Thanks for this... I did consider helmet dynamics, but then thought...nah.

Having read your experiences I’ll try a 2nd helmet I have (used for visitors)... fingers crossed.

Will report back in a day or so,
Simon

Bill Hagan wrote:

Again, just an observation.  I have not encountered the condition you describe in my GRiSO, tho Lord knows it can make some strange sounds.  

A fellow ran up to me at a fuel stop earlier this year.  He was screaming something and acted excited.  When I took off my helmet and earplugs to figure out what was going on, I learned he'd been shouting, "Shut it off! Shut it off!  I'm a mechanic and that engine is about to blow up!"  

I thanked him.  

Bill

I have had the same thing Bill. I was sitting at the lights in Canberra one day and a bloke on some sort of Japanese sports bike, I think it was a Yamaha R6 or the like pulled up meet to me and threw up his visor and said "Mate!, You've got to take your bike to a proper mechanic! It sounds like shit!"

I thanked him for his concern but I reckon it's done 100,000km since then and it still sounds like two cheese graters fornicating in an iron tank! Apart from that it still, obstinately, continues to drag the horizon towards me without any seeming effort.

We must be doing something wrong???

"Mate!, You've got to take your bike to a proper mechanic! It sounds like shit!"

Good advice.















Tee hee.

Well, this is embarrassing; and Bill, I owe ya a beer.

Yep... the helmet. Wore the spare / cheapo one and the ‘hollow roar’ gone. How the hell does that work?

I’ve 4 other bikes, and the helmet doesn’t ‘invent’ noises for them... so that’s why I dismissed it.

Anyways, keen to hear if any other GRiSO riders with a Schuberth C4 Pro suffer this extra roar. (Had the C3 prior to the recent C4; a bit quieter but the noise still there)

Thanks again Bill, may seek out padding options....
Simon

That's funny. A few years ago I was taking a MSF training class to get my motorcycle license renewed and I was trying different cheek pads in my new Bell helmet. Each day I road the class's ancient Honda CB125T it sounded like a different bucket of bolts depending on which cheek pads were in use. That bike had a hard 14k miles on it. All going around in circles and such.

Lobo wrote:

Anyways, keen to hear if any other GRiSO riders with a Schuberth C4 Pro suffer this extra roar. (Had the C3 prior to the recent C4; a bit quieter but the noise still there)

Interesting comments about Schuberth helmets. I always thought they were the bee-kness of helmets. In the day, I could only afford a Nolan fliptop, but always lusted for a Schuberth.

"and it still sounds like two cheese graters fornicating in an iron tank!"

I have been giggling away stupidly for days at the image formed in my mind with that description.
Ive run out of tears..