Care to help me identify some noises on my new Sprint?

[4N099]

It's been a long time since I owned an inline anything, the last bike was a Suzuki 850L 4 shaftdrive.

I have to run a little bit of gravel off the paved road up to my house and noticed some clunking going on when just putting up in 1st or 2nd so I duplicated the speed etc., on the pavement leaving work the other day (got a long stretch of side road from our office). Not really doing more than 2K at the most and the sound is almost like a shift clunk, duplicated it on the pavement by just goosing it a tad and the back off on the motor caused a clunk in the tranny. Might just be tight gear mesh, I dunno.

Another "sound" I may have found, a few times now on pavement I feel more than hear a "clack" and feel it in my butt, have a feeling it might be the bumper rod for the bags sliding back and forth since I took them off but it's rubber gasketed. I popped it back and forth before I left work and it's a heavy enough of a slide to possibly cause it I guess.

Other than that occasionally I get an audible pop going down the road at all speeds, different rpms, the pop isn't constant. Could be my clothes popping, could be something hitting my helmet.
Been a long time since I've worn a fullface and it's impossible to really identify where a noise is coming from with it on.

Hope I don't sound too anal or paranoid but there are a lot of miles compiled on here and anything you've experienced mechanically I'd like to cut off at the pass if anything I am hearing is a problem.

Thanks!
Mark

[Mr2U]

best way to identify sounds is to ride slow along-side a big
cement wall, it plays everything back at you, find a large
sound wall, out of the way, so you can ride without your helmet,
and you will have all sorts of sounds bounce back at you.

but you may hear so much stuff, it only makes your paranoia worse.

this happens to me on the way to work, as i pass a large sound wall
on my left, the chain sounds like a washing machine, and the loud
wooosh-wooosh makes me wonder if i have a too dry chain. I
know i don't, but the amplified sounds can be strange.

[4N099]

Tying not to be TOO anal about it, but it's kind of hard since I am a bit anal about anything I own that has a motor. :
Man I own a Ohio built (back when they were still half way decent) Murray 12horse rider that I have mowed 2 acres with for 16 years now. How anal do you have to be to get that many years out of a freakin' Murray? Most people wear them out in four years and I never really babied it too much, just changed the oil regularly and replaced worn parts when it needed it. It takes 6 hours on the rider to do the yard in 3rd-4th depending on how tall the grass is and I've mowed in 100+ degree heat.
I'll probably get another mower one of these days but not until this one just lays down and dies.

Most of the sounds I am taking with a grain of salt, tight motor break in noises, new bike etc. I heard really loud top end clatter one day at idle parked on the garage slab after a 60 mile ride right after I took my helmet off, it was about 90 degrees that day, temp was normal on the bike, 6-7 bars, listened to it since then after a similar ride at the same temps and it sounds pretty normal.
Downshifted tonight and let the engine do a soft brake from about 75 before I pulled the clutch in in third and finished braking before I turned and heard relatively loud clutch shush while I was turning. Just things like that.....
The weird thing is most of the noises I hear don't duplicate themselves very often.
Probably just listening too hard.

[monkinwitz]

Its a triumph they are a noisy motor but its all in the design,i think that the 03 04 955 motor was the quieter of all the sprints ive heard,a stone could be trapped in the engine sprocket case remove it and clean out the crap mine collects all sorts of grime in there the chain lube tends to build up in there . My thoughts on the matter by the way ive had a husky mower for about 13 years and it still mowing the meadows

[DaveM]

Even the 2004 955 motor is quite noisy especially compared to Japanese engines.

these are as monkinwitz states not particularly quiet engines, but we prefer to call it character.

DaveM

[4N099]

That is good to know monkinwitz.

This is the first bike that I've had that has the engine enclosed in a fairing and I figured that might be part of it, engine noise is encapsulated and amplified a bit.
I did take a couple of runs on my road the other day sans a helmet at 30-40 mph with the motor good and warm and gave a listen but didn't hear anything too strange.

DaveM, character, yes this bike has plenty of that!
I've been finding myself staring at it for 10 minutes before I come in the house and the snap, crackle and pop of the exhaust and the howl it gets around 3K, ahhh, I am addicted.

[NikosR]

Guys, have you ever heard an aircooled Ducati with a dry clutch? To me the Sprint sounds blissfully silent as compared to that. But I know what you mean.

[oldndumb]

Originally Posted by 4N099

......noticed some clunking going on when just putting up in 1st or 2nd........ Not really doing more than 2K at the most and the sound is almost like a shift clunk, duplicated it on the pavement by just goosing it a tad and the back off on the motor caused a clunk in the tranny.

Another "sound" I may have found, a few times now on pavement I feel more than hear a "clack" and feel it in my butt, have a feeling it might be the bumper rod for the bags sliding back and forth since I took them off but it's rubber gasketed. I popped it back and forth before I left work and it's a heavy enough of a slide to possibly cause it I guess.


Thanks!
Mark

Not sure what you mean when you say "putting up in first or second". These transmissions take some finesse going up into second. If you read the threads you will see that preloading works for some of us. There are other factors such as clutch adjustment, chain adjustment, etc. If you mean you are shifting up at 2k, and then getting the noise as you throttle up, you may be lugging the engine due to a low RPM upshift.

As to the clack you are hearing and feeling, I doubt that it is coming from the pannier spreader bar. I woud look for another source.

It might be helpful if you had another experienced Sprint rider try your bike out and see what they think. Or, maybe you could ride another Sprint for comparison.

[DaveM]

Originally Posted by NikosR

Guys, have you ever heard an aircooled Ducati with a dry clutch? To me the Sprint sounds blissfully silent as compared to that. But I know what you mean.

Yes Nikosr something resembling a turning metal drum full of loose nuts and bolts!!!

The Ducatisti of course call, That, character!

DaveM

[Simmo]

If your bike is brand spankers new then remeber to have the initial oil changed after about 500 miles or so. Mine started to sound like a worn ducati clutch, particularly the gearbox but changing the initial running in oil changed things heaps.
Cheers, Simmo