Generally it works for about 2k miles. Then repeat. I'm about to do a 3000 mile European tour on mine next month...I'll treat it before I go...just in case.....it's the dust on the belt that causes the problem. Most of the posts are on the Thunderbird 1600 world forum. I don't agree with a lot of these...eg slackening off the belt etc. triumph spent a lot of time with Gates belts before they decided on the specs. Compared with all my Harley's the tbird suffers less with belt noise. In any event washing and spraying with DRY silicone ( not wet...you'll get an oily residue which attracts diet) can do no harm and might cure your noise. On my bikes it sounded prior to treatment as though I was accompanied by birdsong wherever I went. Hope this helps Al
I got the chirping after several thousand miles. Spoke to the head mechanic at my local triumph dealer and he said the triumph recommended adjustment causes this and it does no damage. You can adjust it another quarter turn to remove the chirping, but it was my choice. He didn't explain why it only started after a few thousand miles.
As I said...it's the dust that causes the chirp I believe....that's why it takes a fair amount of use for it to chirp. But I may well be wrong.... sometimes I am.
When I asked the mechanic about the chirping he took me outside to his forecourt of secondhand bikes and showed me which ones would chirp. Without me telling him which bike was mine he identified mine as a chirper. When looking at the bike from the rear the belt was touching the left of the belt sprocket (if that's what it's called) and that's what he said caused it. Why it didn't chirp at the beginning and was the belt always touching the side are questions I can't answer.
He may of course be right. The easiest way to check is to wash your belt spray with dry silicone and go for a ride. If it still chrips then clearly he's right.
Highway Hawk forward controls done, Manta screen (although after 100kph blast is directly in the face... probably gonna take it off and put tool roll bag on there to break wind sheer..... Lighting to grasp next and a rear tail tidy to lift the number plate and lose the indicator mounts.... I'll put these on the last bolts of the tail bracket. Looking for front indicator smoked lenses OR a 2 in 1 fog light/indicator replacement. New tyres coming too... Gonna try the Perrelli Night Dragons as with the raised footpegs and my riding style I can chuck the beast around through the curves,.... Even on the stock 5 yrs old Commanders which are hard and dried up a bit its planted but the Pirelli's are said to offer plenty more grip....
