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My bike whistles at speed! What could it be?


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In the last few months of owning the Tracer GT, I have been trying to find just the right wind management system and am on my 3rd windscreen setup. Each time, the cockpit has grown quieter and that appears to be revealing an annoying whistle from somewhere on the front end of the bike. I've tried put my hands over various things and openings in hopes that I find the culprit with no success.

What I can tell so far is that the noise is speed dependent. I can start hearing it come and go as I get up to around 50 mph. It becomes steady as I hit 55 and increases in volume the faster I go until the ambient noise at around 80 pretty much drowns it out. Interestingly enough, as I slow down, the noise remains audible until  right at 42 mph and that is the moment it stops.

Wondering if anyone else has noticed this on their bike.

2019 Tracer GT and 2015 SR400

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Interesting...haven't noticed any whistling from my GT.  I run an MRA shield in the summer and a Cal-Sci shield in the winter.  It sure seems logical that it's wind blowing through/around voids in the fairing/triple-tree area.  'Course, that's just a SWAG on my part.  Good luck with tracking down the source.

2019 Yamaha Tracer 900 GT (Annabelle)
2013 Suzuki V-Strom DL650 (Juliette)
2013 Yamaha FJR 1300 (Rachel)
2008 Suzuki Bandit 1250S (Fiona)
2006 Honda VFR800 (Jenny)
2005 Suzuki V-Strom DL650 (Hannah)
2003 Honda Shadow Sabre VT1100 (Veronica)
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I wear earplugs when I ride, do it all the time, I don't like the wind noise.  On any bike, with any helmet, with any shield.  So the bottom line is that I can't help you, I don't hear it on my Tracer GT with either the OEM shield or the Yamaha Touring shield.

2019 Tracer 900 GT

Niwot CO
USA

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Not a whine from the gear box, correct?? Mine ('15 FJ) has always whined in 6th gear between 60 and 80 or so.

'15 FJ-09 w/ lots of extras...

Fayetteville, GA, USA

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The far-too-tight chain, if run to handbook slackness specs, gives a distinctive 'whine' that could be mistaken for a whistle.

Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia.   

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Try ducking your head down next to the tank so you are out of the wind and see if it stops the noise. The Tracer seems to direct window at the top of the visor opening no matter what windscreen you use (unless you went for a shower door version).

I get a whine/whistle when i come off the accelerator but that is all. I do get a hell of a lot of wind noise in the helmet though

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Turn the music up to 11 :) 

Have you tried removing the windscreen completely? 

Different helmet/closing or taping over vents/openings? 

Quiet cockpit is relative I suppose. The FJ-09 is a pretty noisy bike with various whines and mechanical noises but not much worse than others for me with regard to wind noise. 

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I have tried different helmets (Shoei Neotec, Shoei RF1200, and Shoei Hornet X2). The noise is definitely not from the helmet. At first, I though it was from the windscreen, but all of my replacement screens have not fixed the issue. The better they are at moving wind over my head, the noisier the whistle is which tells me that the noise is from somewhere else. It really does seem to be coming from below head level, perhaps from the fairing or fork tunnel. I do ride with earplugs and it overpowers still.  I can also hear a distinct gear whine and this is not seemingly related. I was thinking about borrowing a neighbor's electric leaf blower to see if I can isolate the noise by moving wind across the bike.

2019 Tracer GT and 2015 SR400

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On 3/3/2019 at 10:25 PM, undecider said:

In the last few months of owning the Tracer GT, I have been trying to find just the right wind management system and am on my 3rd windscreen setup. Each time, the cockpit has grown quieter and that appears to be revealing an annoying whistle from somewhere on the front end of the bike. I've tried put my hands over various things and openings in hopes that I find the culprit with no success.

What I can tell so far is that the noise is speed dependent. I can start hearing it come and go as I get up to around 50 mph. It becomes steady as I hit 55 and increases in volume the faster I go until the ambient noise at around 80 pretty much drowns it out. Interestingly enough, as I slow down, the noise remains audible until  right at 42 mph and that is the moment it stops.

Wondering if anyone else has noticed this on their bike.

my bike make same sound....somewhere around front light.....iritaiting sound.....

 

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59 minutes ago, edd said:

also when past bog hole on street front shork make klik sound.....

 

Google translate sez “No results found, please try again”.  😄

***2015 Candy Red FJ-09***

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