Front end road noise. Argh!

Hi guys

This is doing my head in,seriously!!. Here's a bit of history.Forks serviced at Ohlins 24 months ago. Guy said they were due for a service and that there was wear in the metal slides. Fairly positive that i started hearing front end road noise(rumble) i call it. This noise changes with the different road surfaces. I cannot hear it on a real smooth surface but if the road changes to something a bit courser i hear the rumbling

.Decided to do the whole service thing again because of the noise and ordered everything needed to do the complete job so all the slides replaced,seals etc and also replaced the springs with Ohlins replacements.

Guess what....same issue. So thought it must be the wheel bearings and did them with no change. Next on the list was the steering head bearings. All done and still no bloody change. Yesterday changed the front tire suspecting that possibly and its still the same. Have also checked the front disks out and no issues there. Front brakes are fine. As said previous this is driving me crazy so any thoughts would be appreciated. I've seriously had a guts full of this and may look at replacing with a 2014 if i can't sort it. Argh!!!!!

Gazza

Seems you have pretty much replaced or serviced everything up front. I have noticed from the beginning that my FJR makes a fairly substantial amount of front end noise. Just listened for it to get louder and it never has. How may miles before you started hearing it, and how many miles since?

In the ball park of 68k and now done 80k.

Gazza

Not that it's going to help or anything R_R but i'm on holiday next week and heading out on the bike so i might go test ride a couple of FJR's at dealerships on my travels and see if i can hear anything.

I might just be going silly in the head of course lol

Gazza

Possibly the noise only seems like it's front end related.

Rough roads and slow speeds, my front end rattles. Disk brakes are designed to rattle. There is a bunch of shit floating up there. If the pucks are fully releasing you should hear some rattle. I worry when I don't hear that rattle.

1) Listen to music and turn the volume up.

2) Where a set of ear plugs

3) I will take it off your hands if you pay freight and handling charges

Good day,

I agree with Dave (above). You've gone the extra mile and checked out all the possibilities. Could it be that the front forks are indeed worn inside to the point where there's a little extra slop in there that's causing some noise? Perhaps. Would a new set of forks cure the problem? Maybe. But considering the age of the bike and its miles, I'm guessing you don't want to spend that kind of money. But it seems to me that there's nothing left to worry about. If some low mileage forks come up for sale, maybe one day you could swap them out. But for now, just kick back and enjoy the music. There's a fine line between taking good care of our equipment and obsessing. Sometimes it's hard to tell when you cross that line. I think the forum's trying to say that you've done a good job taking care of all the possibilities, and now it's time to ride.

Gary

darksider #44

You mentioned changing out front tire. Same brand and model of tire? I've noticed my PR2s started getting noisy when they got about 4 or 5k on them. Possible front tire noise?

You didn't mention if the noise changes in relation to speed, only road surface variation. Could be a harmonic vibration of fairing/windshield parts, etc. Might want to check for those items by lightly tapping with your fingers to look for possible culprits. My battery cover panel vibrates at times depending on rpm and road surface and produces a kind of humming sound.

BkerChuck said:

You mentioned changing out front tire. Same brand and model of tire? I've noticed my PR2s started getting noisy when they got about 4 or 5k on them. Possible front tire noise?

Click to expand...

This what first came to mind, my PR2's made some rumbling noise at different lean angles on various roads as the miles went up.

xcsp said:

BkerChuck said:

You mentioned changing out front tire. Same brand and model of tire? I've noticed my PR2s started getting noisy when they got about 4 or 5k on them. Possible front tire noise?

Click to expand...

This what first came to mind, my PR2's made some rumbling noise at different lean angles on various roads as the miles went up.

Click to expand...

Me three.

Rumbling noises are usually tire or wheel bearing related. Fork internals would cause more sporadic transient noises only at impacts with the road, not continuous rumbling based on surface texture. If you stayed with the same brand/model of front tire perhaps that is the cause? Triple check the pressure as well.

Thanks for all the comments guys. One other thing i forgot to mention was the rad guard. I might remove that and test ride. Tires....well i have been using Avon storms and now trying a Roadsmart 2 but no change. Other than that it sounds like i just need to turn off from it and ride the damn thing. She's a brilliant bike all the same.

Gazza

If you find the noise was due to the rad guard, you might consider replacing it anyway with a real, metal rad guard, or install a home-made metal grid behind the stock plastic one, which is ineffective. DAMHIK.

gazza said:

i started hearing front end road noise(rumble) i call it. This noise changes with the different road surfaces. I cannot hear it on a real smooth surface but if the road changes to something a bit courser i hear the rumbling

Click to expand...

You are chasing a ghost my friend!

This is normal. Road surfaces vary a lot in texture and composition. Some are quite noisy.

If there were an issue with the bike, you would experience it on smooth pavement as well.

If you don't wear ear plugs you should.

You WILL have loss of hearing over decades of riding without ear protection, it happens gradually and by the time you notice it's too late.

It's from the wind noise, there's no helmet made that's quiet enough.

I didn't wear ear protection for years and started about 10 years ago.

When I forget to put them in I can't believe how loud it is!!......I have to stop and put em in.

Great comment, SoCal.That's exactly why I'm going to lose my helmet speakers, put the foam ear pads back in, and wire up my iPod ear buds to my Sena SMH10. I already bought the adapter and it's high time I hooked it up. Too much road noise. It drowns out all the base in the music and forces me to turn the speakers up too loud. I'm tired of all the racket and tired of the ringing in my ears (which can't be helped after 58 years of too much noise). The ear buds filter out a lot of wind noise just by putting them in my ears.

Gary

darksider #44

garyahouse said:

Great comment, SoCal.That's exactly why I'm going to lose my helmet speakers, put the foam ear pads back in, and wire up my iPod ear buds to my Sena SMH10. I already bought the adapter and it's high time I hooked it up. Too much road noise. It drowns out all the base in the music and forces me to turn the speakers up too loud. I'm tired of all the racket and tired of the ringing in my ears (which can't be helped after 58 years of too much noise). The ear buds filter out a lot of wind noise just by putting them in my ears.
Gary

darksider #44

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Best be careful there, Gary.

Using in-ear monitors (ear buds) it is very easy to end up with considerably higher total sound pressure levels (SPLs) delivered to your ears. It certainly will not be lower than using good ear plugs and helmet speakers.

A good set of earplugs will attenuate all incoming sound by 30-33 dB, including whatever sound is coming from those helmet speakers, thereby keeping the SPLs delivered to your ears relatively safe. As an example, a chainsaw might produce an SPL of 110 dB, but after an attenuation of 30 dB (to 80) that SPL would be the safe equivalent of standing curbside on a busy road. Those helmet speakers are nowhere near as loud as a chainsaw.

Contrary to the hype of many sound attenuating, in-ear monitor manufacturers, none of them will deliver an equivalent attenuation of outside noise to these good earplugs. Compound that higher noise leakage with the fact that the sound from the in-ear monitors is injected directly into your ear canal completely unattenuated. It is very easy to cause hearing damage as you raise the volume to over-ride the road noise. The music will definitely sound better (unfiltered by an earplug) but the pressure levels will be considerably higher.

road noise on rough surfaces is to be expected, as long as it gets quieter on the smooth roads,I wouldnt worry about it. Sounds like your front end is better than most!