I know, I'm nothing but trouble...

So the wife and I were on an evening ride.  On the way back from dinner, we stop to fill up on gas.  At this point, everything for the past 50 miles has been normal.  After filling up and leaving, I noticed this weird noise.  I would describe it as a resonating "OOOOOOH" type of noise.  My wife noticed it as well, but she called it more of a whine.  I heard it from up front, but she thought she heard it in the back.  It definitely only happened when I leaned around 40 MPH +/- about 3 MPH.  It was significantly more prevalent during a left lean than a right one.  Different pavement didn't seem to matter.

I stopped at the next gas station, shut the bike off and looked at everything.  Brakes appear normal, all spokes have tension and are fine.  Tire PSI was 30 in the front, 37 in the back, so all normal.  I didn't see any abnormal wear.

I may have a chance to go for a ride with my helmet cam tomorrow before work.  If so, I'll do that so I can post up the noise.

WOAH!!!  I hope my wheel bearings aren't going out at only 4,500 miles!!  The only way to grease these bearings is to remove the wheel from the bike and repack the bearings while they are still on the wheel, correct?

I checked axle torque for both front and back.  Front and rear both passed above minimum TQ spec.  I made sure to have the pinch nut loosened while checking the front so that it wasn't holding the axle in place.

Thanks for the response, Verslagen.  Last thing I need is a bearing to fail at a rather inopportune moment.  

I see where you're coming from, Mike.  If the bike had been doing this for the past 2K miles I've rode since summer started, I'd call it a characteristic.  Shoot, If it had done it all day yesterday and all night tonight since we had our cold snap this weekend, I'd consider it a trait.  The fact is that while character traits are unique, they also have constants.

My headlight rattling and buzzing around mid-range is a trait.  The funny squeak my intake makes when I whack on the throttle is a trait.  The poof on shutdown that I STILL have is a trait.  These things have always happened, I know when they happen and how and why.  The new, odd noise that starts at the end of a ride is not an existing characteristic; it's something new.  You'll notice that in my first post I NEVER said the word problem.  That's because I don't know whether or not it is.  That is why I'm here, my friend.  Is this a symptom of something that needs to be addressed, or is this the beginning of a new characteristic?

Granted, I AM a bit paranoid...  but that comes from working on aircraft and seeing things fail and break all the time.

Yes indeed, tires can "sing." I think you are hearing the noise made by the tire treads. That it changes when you lean tells me the tires are getting worn flat in the middle. That the noise differs depending on which way you lean tells me the flat spot in the middle isn't precisely in the middle, also normal. When you lean you are getting onto a less worn part of the tread, and the tread pattern on the sides differs a bit from the pattern in the middle anyway. That it seems to happen only at a certain speed tells me there is probably something on the bike itself that seems to amplify a certain frequency, sort of like the speedo buzz at certain engine speeds.

Tire noise is made by the edges of the tread grooves hitting the pavement. Car tires are usually made with tread patterns that vary in spacing as they go around the tire, to break up the noise and avoid resonances. Particularly obnoxious examples of tire noise usually come from jacked-up pickups or Jeeps with knobby tires running on pavement.

Gears whine, bad bearings growl, tires........can do most anything.

Its tires in a turn.

Gotta go with Charon, it's the tread depth on the tire shoulders. By 4500 miles there should be an easily noticed difference in tread depth from the center outward. Cruisers don't use as much of the tire as sport bikes do, they tend to lean a whole lot less frequently/aggressively.

And the older/drier/harder the tire shoulders get, the noisier they tend to be.

Pickups with 6 ply tires sure "sing",,

Charon wrote on 10/09/12 at 05:52:31:


+1

This has happened on every street bike I've owned in the last 40 years and 350,000 miles.......