I bought my S40 on Dec 2nd...my first brand new cycle since 1984...and I'm loving the bike. So much more fun than my 2002 Nomad 1500FI! I just turned 60 miles on the odometer, btw.

I have 2 questions, though: when I let off the throttle, there's a whine that I can't explain, which sounds like it's coming from the front of the engine. This is my first belt-drive bike, and I checked the belt tension "a la" the U-Tube video I found here and it seems to be correct for the fingertip-slack-90°-twist check. I removed the front sprocket cover and noted a very small amount of what serms to be black rubber dust. I'm wondering if the whine could be the belt, or is this just a characteristic of the S40?

Is such a whine normal for this bike? Again, I only hear it on deceleration.

#2: After the first 30 miles, the disc brake began to squeal. I haven't been engaging in hard braking or riding the brake, so I wouldn't think the pads are glazed.

Since I'm new to this forum, a bit about me:
*began riding in 1972 and have owned various models of all 4 major Japanese bikes, plus 3 BMW's
*have many years experience as an amatuer mechanic on a variety of gas engines from lawnmowers to heavy farm trucks.
*I have a fairly extensive toolkit from my 5 years of working on cars and trucks for a living.

Thanks in advance for your input.

welcome to the club  

Rodger wrote on 12/07/15 at 18:13:46:
I've never had a new one, so add salt.
Mine does not whine on acc/dec, but it does grumble pop on decel, and I hoot and haller on accel.  
I seen several with the whine thou and it wasn't hard to fix them with belt alignment.  If you can get the belt to ride in the center of the pulleys, that won't be the cause of the whine.  (just don't seat your girlfriend back there for too long, most obnoxious whine ever)
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1260147857/0


Quote:

noisy brakes are another issue, as long as you have stock pads you'll have it from time to time.
brake dust seemed to be the issue on my bike, also moisture which I don't have a lot of in california.
wash the brake dust off and it'll be quiet for awhile.
since I've vented my disk and don't use stock pads I haven't had the issue.  Get the kevlar pads when you're ready, but they're just called organic due to the trademarked name.
but in the mean time, burn off the moisture by braking hard a few times.  it works for the front and back.

If the rear isn't acting right, nothing says you can't get going in first, keep the gas on and step on the brake. I've dried car brakes that way many times.

There have been a couple threads on here about the whine on decel.  Sounds like an old army jeep decelerating or an old truck. If I remember right, there are several people out here who have the noise and it doesn't seem to be a problem, just a characteristic of the bike.  Mine has done it since the day I got it.  It was 25 years old at the time, though.

Mine does it. I've always thought it was the belt.

Thanks for all the input.

The deceleration whine is mostly around town, gears 1-3. I haven't had it up to highway speeds much so far, just a few roll-ons in 4th to 55, upshifting to 5th. Am varying speeds & engine loading during break in.

The rear brake is quiet, & I know about drumbrake lock-up...experienced that on my '82 Honda CM450 "back in the day." Going to try camferring leading edge of disc brake pads and scuffing them with medium grit sandpaper (sandpaper taped to a mirror, moving pads over sandpaper to keep as flat as possible).

Weather is warm enough to ride the next couple of days here in Colorado, but will do the pads & check belt & sprocket alignment when Ma Nature " gets ugly" later in the week. Will let y'all know what I find.

Took brake pads off last night, throughly sanded and put a slight camfer on each end of both pads' friction surface. The squeal wasn't completely eliminated, but only hear it just as pads contact the disc, and I can live with that.

We'll see how long it lasts.

Thanks again for the help.

i had front brake squeal for 5000 miles, despite several attempts to fix, until i got ebc organic. i sanded off the edges on my bench grinder for good measure. work great and quiet as a mouse.