[CowsCanFly]

alright, ive had it, im fed up i can take it no longer. this ticking is driving me up a damn wall...and why? because this 10000 dollar bike sounds like a piece of shit. people at the light look at me funny. now i KNOW what all yall are going to say..so please contain yourselves. im about to make a point.

*note* do yall's bikes tick at idle, or all the time? mine gets a lil louder with rpm, seems to be the ugliest at 4-6000 rpm, i guess after that my pipe hides the sound.

i build race motors for a living, i have heard every god awful valvetrain out there. this is not a happy sound the bike is making, but it is definately a valve train noise. it has gotten louder in the past 400 miles {3500 now, 3100 when i bought it} has anyone ever really figured out why they tick? this so called "follower" is the bucket the sits on top of the valve lash adjusting shim. where the f*ck is tapping against to make this noise. is the bucket sticking to the cam and being pulled off the shim then slammed back down? is it the wrong size for the hole it is in? excessive "skirt" clearence if you will. help me out here someone, anyone. no i wont ignore it, and you should NOT advise people to ignore this sound. not everyone can tell the diff between motor noises. anyhow back to my pos....
anyhow this noise sounds suspicously like cam chain noise to me...do these things tend to break chain tensioners? do the chains need to be adjusted or is it automatic? any ideas here? PLEASE FOR GODS SAKE SOMEONE HELP ME! if it cant be fixed, im gonna sell it and get a busa...

 

[Maxxym]

mine ticks... not loud but it does have a little quick tick tick tick noise to it only after I ride it for a while...

 

[sawboy]

Mine ticks too.
A word of advice, if you're worried about a cam chain tensioner don't buy a busa, they're notorious for that problem. Everyone I know who rides one has had a problem.
I've yet to hear of a real explaination for this ticking. Everyone seems to just accept it as normal. The only people who mention it are people who just got their R1, Its almost like we don't notice it anymore after awhile.
oh well, ticking or no ticking I'm keep mine.

 

[IWANTAR1]

tick tick tick

I have a 2001 cbr 600 that did this. All it was was the cam chain tensioner. I had this replaced and it stopped. This is a common problem on new cbrs. Good luck with your r1, hopefully I'll have mine this week!!

 

[R1forFUN]

most people will tell you don't worry about it...
but i dont like it either, i think it sounds like junk:finger
mine gets worse as you get it hotter. i't's probably the oil getting thinner, increasing the lash on whatever gremlin is rocking back and forth.
i am going to try the dealer one more time before my warranty runs out:fact
if they wont fix it, i'll get one of the local drag bike engine builders to have a go at it:thumbup
good luck with your's!

 

[Farmer-Ted]

Mine ticks. Does not bug me. Probably the best advice is to sell your bike, it can't be worth the agrivation you have over it. I would also suggest any replacement bike you get be used(so it will be broken in), and take it for a long ride, to verify it has no preceived abnormal noises before you buy it.

Also, the R1 has ticked since its introduction in 98. Thats 5 model years. Enough time for lots and lots of miles to be racked up. Are there any engine failures that can be attibuted entirely to the ticking?

 

[bluer101]

Mine ticks!!:yesnod But it comes and goes, but not loud. It concerned me when I first got my bike, but not now. That's why I purchased extended warranty with the bike, covered for 4 years.:fact

 

[JAYSTENSEC4CYL]

Cam chain tentioner

The cam chain tentioner is a pretty common problem on late modle sport bikes. The busa has had 2 recalls for them. They are not too expensive for the R1, about $60.

It has been my experiance that cam chain tentioners will go bad quickly, that is to say that they will start to make a clicking sound, and usually within 2k miles they will be making a very unpleasent noise. Pretty easy fix.

The R1's have had a valve train tick sound in them since new. It is common to the bike. It does nothing bad for the bike. It obviously bothers some people more than others. Buy the extended warranty if you are worried about it.

If my understanding of the source of the noise is correct, what you are hearing is the buckect having side to side play in it. The cam moves it side to side with every opening and closing of the valve. Valve operation is not affected.

It is not too common to have a cam chain problem, not on a sub 20,000-30,000 mile bike anyway. I have seen several 80's model V-4 honda's that need a cam chain, but they still ran fine.

I am sorry the ticking is so bothering to you. Maybe you need a louder pipe...lol Just kidding. good luck brother.

 

[Cisco Star]

Here is a note on ticking that I copied from the V and M Racing site
http://www.vandmracing.com/setup.asp

Re: Tapping/clicking noise
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No problem, luv2ride, I run an R1 Y2K bought new, now 5000km. My R1 started ticking like yours after 2 days, so I got in touch with the tech dept. at the Italian importer Belgarda and this is what they said: The noise is common to about 15% of R1 production and is caused by the followers under the camshafts. These followers have a min/max. tollerance and if they're on the max side, the followers on the left side will click. This is due to a very slight drop in oil pressure on the left side of the valve train as the oil pump is situated on the engine's right hand side, thats why it doesnt click on the right! Now, these "noisy" engines are reputedley considered to be slightly more powerful than, all else being equal, non ticking engines (due to minor attrition), to the point that many racers fit followers on the max. tollerance side.
Belgarda proposed to change the followers under warranty if I wished, (each follower has a colour code, there are 3 colours according to dimension) or if I found the ticking to be disturbing but I eventually declined (after a while you get used to it and its nice to know youve got one of those 15%of more powerful R1s) . Cheers , Pete

 

[CowsCanFly]

HHHMMMMM

well, this is boggling my mind. the part that pisses me off the most is it seems no one has a cure. which doesnt really surprise me..but oh well. im used to the impossible. but if this thing makes noise, and not all of them make noise either a, there is a flaw somewhere and yammy cant get there shit straight or b, its just an utter piece of shit and assembly line tolerances are horrid. {once again..yammy being a bunch of bitches} to someone like me this is completely not koscher. so far my pet peeves are this noise, the saddle sucking ass and the bike being slower than i had hoped. well so far ive found turbo kits, corbin saddles and no answer to the tick...im almost there! grrrrr..

anyhoo for now im going to dyno it saturday to see if its down any power {whats a stock bike with a slip on sposed to put down anyhow?} no jet kit. yosh rs-3. then im going to change the oil with either amsoil {because we sell it} or mobil 1..anyone have any opinion on either of these being used in a bike? {think wet clutches} hopefully a better oil will quiet this piece of shit down.

back to the noise....okay so here i go brainstorming again. ive never heard a bucket slap around. usually they are pretty deep...and because the way the cam loads the buckets they wouldnt move side to side,but forwards and back {why the hell would the cam be walking?} there would have to be a good amount of slop for them to make noise..and i dunno, it just sounds like a much more solid sound than a bucket. and if it were a bucket...holy sh it, thats alot of clearence it must have....i mean the bitch would have to be like .015 or more.... easy...to make that sort of noise. i would imagine..maybe im a crackhead.

possible solutions... coat the valve cover in a sound deadeing material {sounds stupid, i know}
call motorcycle racing head place and see what they have to say...
push bike over a cliff...decisions now i am determind to solve this. oh yeah..anyone make a mechanical cam chain tensioner for the R1 {screw type} instead of these failure prone pieces all the oem seem to use?

okay ive babbled long enough...sorry i just think out loud.

pea's

 

[BTurnerR1]

I am not understanding what you all mean by "tick". I guess that is because mine doesn't. But if it starts to tick where exactly is the sound located.

 

[rhjc]

Off with the head.

I have the same tick tick tick, started around 1800 Miles... Took it back to the dealer (5-June-2002) they have had the head off, check the cam chain etc... They say no problem, wait till the 4,000 miles service and they will check it again. Hope it doesn't sieze in the meantime

 

[Sandman]

Ticking noise gone !

Hi, my 2001 doesn't tick !

I use a good quality helmet that fits correctly - nice and tight - and my bike doesn't tick. The Micron slipon is also very quiet ......

CowsCanFly, best you trade your R1 in for a Ducati or an Aprillia ?

 

[Wolf-R1]

Mine ticks only after 5000 rpm. Otherwise it's smooth as silk. Doesn't cause me too much concern though it will cause concern when the bikes got more mileage on it in a couple of years.

 

[kwcomp]

I understand the pain man. I have built my share of performance motors and not knowing what is causing a problem pisses me off more than anything. You may be right about the cam chain tensioner. I have read somewhere that the automatic ones from the factory are shit, and prone to breaking. I believe it was in Superbike. Anyways, I think Graves offer an aftermarket manual one to replace the factory one. If you give it a try put up some posts and let us know if it fix's the dreaded TICK.

 

[r1ray]

My 00 has had the tick since new. With 14000 mi's on it it still ticks and runs like a cruise missle. I switched to motul 5100 series semi syn oil and it seems to have make the tick a little quieter. It has made my bike run excellent. I wish i had changed oil brands sooner. Its an expensive oil, but i think it was worth it.

 

[seek1369]

thats bullshit mine ticks and i want it fixed it definatly should not make that noise

 

[Droog]

Mine doesn't tick, but V&M's website had an answer from Yamaha on why some tick (if you believed it) Do a search on this forum to find the detailed thread.

 

[Jims2000R-1]

No ticking

Dude, I have a 2000 R-1 with 9500 miles on it and it sounds [email protected]%ing perfect at the light. My friend has a 748 ducati with a dry clutch and when we sit at a stop eveybody is looking at his bike like - what the [email protected]% is that noise. Take it to the shop and ask the service people what the problem is. The only thing I have heard about R-1's is that everybody loves them and that they are really dependable and maintenance free.
Sorry to hear about the ticking - Have the dealer fix it and then you can be out enjoying the bike like it is meant to.
Jim out:thumbup

 

[Phrygian]

OK people I've 45000 Kms on me 00 and the damn noise got to me as well... something's been telling me its the bloody cam chain or tensioner.... so i went for the tencioiner first... worked for a few thousand ks... it came back again... so i changed the damn cam chain itself... oh sweet god it worked... sweet and smooth only to come back after 10 000 ks or so ...



i guess no one and nothing's perfect

and yeah i'm kinda new here but have been reading the posts for a while