One thought is maybe it's just belt whine.  They can be tricky and intermittent.

Easy way to know if it's JUST the belt
Rub canning wax on the teeth.
Racket changes, you found at least part of it.

If it goes away, you found it.
But Knowing that front pulley is torqued is a really good thing. If it's not right it eats the splines.

Yep....mine whines a bit when decelerating in the lower gears - I don't notice it much in the higher gears.  I suppose the wind and road noise masks the noise a bit - and the higher gearing results in a bit less torque on the gears under compression breaking.

12,000 miles and no change.

"When sitting in 5th" means cruising in 5th gear at a steady pace. The noise is a lot quieter and has a lower pitch. I was wondering whether this was belt related. I plan to check the pulley and give the belt a wax within the next day or so.

What is Daves stabilization pulley mod?

Junker wrote on 04/02/19 at 22:31:40:


The rear pulley hub has a single ball bearing, and it wears and allows the rear pulley to go out of alignment.....which then pushes the belt to the outside of the front pulley and it can create noise.


http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1480506578

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1516625533

Update: After adjusting my clutch cable the whine has almost gone. I'm planning on doing an oil change with the a more heavy duty oil which might help a little as well.

I have checked the front pulley and everything was fine. The rear wheel pulley has a ever so slight wobble which has caused my belt to be a little unaligned and rub against the front pulley; however it's only just touching and what noise it does make almost unnoticeable. As for the low sound I'm hearing in 5th gear, the cause might be coming from air flow whistling past an accessory either on the bike or my helmet. I have done the 'try to block the flow with my hand' test, all to no avail. My next step is to take everything off and go from there.

Thanks all for the advice; it's really appreciated.  

Switching to a heavier oil may be a mistake,  If a heavy oil was better we'd all be running 90wt.   Oil in our bikes (air cooled) serves two purposes , to lube ,and to carry away heat.  A heavier oil ,say 20w50 , will not do either as well as  the required 10w40.  A thicker oil will increase oil pressure ,due to increased wall friction in our small oil passages ,but will decrease flow , the decrease in flow provides a thinner protective layer of oil  between parts , and less flow will carry away less heat , your motor will run hotter and may actually be less protected from wear.