"whirring" noise in front

my '03 has just a hair under 2000 km on it and up until this past weekend, all is well. All of a sudden, I have a loud whirring in the front end. It starts at around 55-60 km/h and gets higher pitched and louder as the speed goes up. Sounds to me like a speedometer cable. What could be wrong with it? I looked and there is no binding. could it just be gone dry? Is there any way to grease it?

[miker]

Could be your cable, but it could also be the brake pads on the rotor.

Hard to diagnose, but if the noise either increases or goes away under braking, it's the pads and nothing to worry about, unless of course they're worn.

You should also be able to lube the cable, check a workshop manual.

Cheers
Mick

[Furque]

As posted last week, I had the same problem. Turned out to be the chain being too tight. The correct chain tension is a lot slacker than you'd imagine and the best way is to have someone sat on the bike whilst it is checked. There should still be around 1 1/2" of play at the bottom run. I recently had the rear wheel off my bike and am wondering if the very high wheel nut locking torque had turned the assembly and tightened it?..... :hammer:

that has to be it. I tightened the chain not long before it started happening but seeing as the sound was seemingly coming from the front, I ruled it out. I checked the speedo cable and the brakes and all seems to be fine with them so here's hoping it's the chain!!
thanks!!