Horrendous Clacking Sound When The Bike Is Tilted

Hey all,

I bought a 2016 Speed Triple R with round about 7k miles on it, and after only having ridden the bike for about a thousand more it started producing this awful noise. It happens when the bike is in neutral and a bit tilted over, and sounds as if it's coming from the right side of the bike. After some spirited riding in the forest with some friends I parked the bike on an incline in the parking lot to chat and it started to rattle off this clunk-a-clack with enough frequency to make it sound like I had a dry clutch.

I've currently got it at the dealer and, since to my ears it sounded like it was coming from the right, I told them to have a look at the clutch... but just got a call back saying everything looks good in there and that they're going to have to do some more digging. Anybody have any ideas as to what this might be?

 

I assume your oil level is good?

 

It was getting down there but it was still a spot above min, I really should have topped it off to see if that fixed it but after a low speed tip over I wanted it in there anyway to fix all the bits I fudged.

Said "The oil's low so hopefully it's just that" when I handed it over to them, so I would hope they'd have done that first.

 

For what it costs I would have topped it up myself first but as you dropped it maybe you got it right this time.

 

Probably not the oil level, but it’s not optimal to let the oil get low. Let’s hope it’s nothing major.

 

Could you try this?

1) sit the bike in neutral and making the strange noise.
2) pull the clutch in.

if the noise goes away the noise is coming from your clutch and is normal. It would be the clutch plate cage rumbling.

A new clutch assembly might fix it but I’d not bother. Mines been doing it forever (the last 25k miles) - as I rarely have the bike running in neutral (with the clutch out) it is hardly noticeable.

Edit: low oil also makes the engine noisier - don’t ask how I know…

 

Could be a stuck can chain tensioner
When under load the chain is fine but at tick over it is loose
From what I understand (never touched mine) the tensioner housing can be loosened off and the automatic spring loaded tensioned can per knocked/persuaded to tighten by a notch

It could be something else of course but it's just a suggestion