My bike whistles at speed! What could it be?

[BBB]

14 hours ago, edd said:

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

 

“..also when past big hole in street, the front fork makes a click sound..”

That is your teeth banging together from the impact 🤪

I ride around as many grids and service covers as I possibly can, by looking ahead at the road. Apart from them being slippery, they put more stress on the suspension and often contain sharp debris which damages your tyres. As for holes....avoid!

[undecider]

So, over the last couple of weeks, I have honed in on what is causing the noise. Previously, I mentioned having tried 3 different helmets (all Shoei) and could not discern any difference in the noise (which is to say there wasn't any difference aside from the varying levels of wind noise due to the helmets being of differing types). The helmet I had not tried is my Arai Corsair which is more of a track oriented helmet. Interestingly enough, it produced much less of the whistling noise.

Another thing I did was ride the bike a lot with the windshield in varying positions, most of which were outside of the parameters I would use (all the way down or with extreme angles of tilt). I found that with the screen all the way down and titled pretty much any place, the whistle was much, much quieter regardless of which helmet I had on.

Last Monday, I rode the bike way out of town and had a lot of time away from traffic where I was more safely able to move around on the bike and focus on how and where the noise comes from. First thing I found was that turning my head left or right would reduce the whistle as would tilting my head down. That further confirms the helmet does affect the noise. I was wearing my Shoei RF1200 that day.

The other thing I found was where the noise originates. It is the windscreen. There was no noise with the stock screen, some with the Yamaha touring screen, even more with the Cal-Sci screen, and the most with my Madstad system. The noise is coming from the air that gets to the underside of the windscreen. While this air flow is needed to reduce turbulence and help the air flow hitting the front of the bike go further up and over my head, it seems to be rushing under the windscreen at just the right volume and velocity to create the whistle. Going down the road, I could place my hand to block that air flow and the whistle is completely eliminated, but at the cost of more wind hitting my helmet and buffeting it around.

Since I am hoping not to have to buy another pricey helmet, I am going to see if I can fabricate some sort of small wind deflector that has the effect of disrupting the flow of air just enough to eliminate or reduce the whistle without adversely reducing the otherwise smooth flow of air I get with my Madstad windscreen system. 

Wish me luck and of course I will update this with my results.

[bowlin01]

@undecider any update? Did you manage to achieve what you wanted?

Cheers

Steve

[undecider]

23 hours ago, bowlin01 said:

@undecider any update? Did you manage to achieve what you wanted?

Cheers

Steve

Not a lot of progress. I still think it is a combination of factors. I need to go out and ride some more with my Arai helmet to see if there is something about my Shoei helmets that exacerbate the noise. I also was thinking about ordering a shorty screen from Madstad for the warmer months and seeing if that helps. Been busy playing with a new to me dual sport I just picked up, so not a lot of miles on the Tracer recently.

[Coop]

My bike does not whistle, it knows the words.

[Coop]

On 3/12/2019 at 11:44 AM, edd said:

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

 

Maybe it's when the bike goes supersonic.

[edd]

No...around front light.....Yamaha service fix that....no more sound..

[RichNDC]

I had this on mine, nothing to do with your helmet. Note the piece this arrow points to--this piece is kinda loose. I took some foam, like the kind you seal around doors and windows with (where one side is sticky) that was about 1/4 inch thick and put some pieces around this piece to seat it permanently. No more weird whistling. It drove me nuts when I first got the bike. I had to work the foam in there with a screwdriver, you want pressure on this piece from all sides to keep it firmly in place. Never heard it again. Been through serious heat and rain, so far, that foam has held steady. It goes without saying foam placement should be out of sight. It happened from the moment I had the bike, fixed it right away. Good Luck!