As a new Harley owner, I'll still paying close attention to noises I hear and trying to decide if they are "normal" or not.

Most of the time, when I'm riding my '06 Super Glide, I hear what sounds like valve noise, with them making a clickety-clickety sound. I take that as normal, as other bikes I had have made that sound.

At certain engine load condition, the clicking sound almost becomes a clacking sound. Example. Cruising in 3rd gear right around 40 mph. Accelerate towards 45 with just a little bit of throttle. (Not a full roll). Right before I shift into 4th, the valve seem much noisier, almost as if the engine might be starving for fuel. I don't think it's an engine knock since it's not that sharp a sound.

Sound also happens in 4th around 50-53 mph before dropping into 5th gear.

If you give it a full hard roll on the throttle, it seems to be less loud, but then again, the exhaust is much louder so I can't hear as well.

Typical / normal sound? Too lean a mixture?

 

Mine definitely makes a lot of noise suddenly when switching to 5th, which I try not to do until about 50 mph. I just got the call about 2 minutes ago while reading your post that my bike is ready to be picked up from its first 1,000 mile service. We'll see if there's any news to post in the other thread I started this a.m.

 

50 mph in fith gear wow thats pretty much lugging the engin 55 to 60 in fith runs peeeeeerrrrfect

 

I want to clarify that the noise is BEFORE the shift up. So when the RPMs are higher.

 

SWS,
I had a previous post on here about the exact same (sounding) condtion. A very noticible hollow metallic clicking at the top of each gear when holding rpm's there for a a few.
I also had problems with stalling and hard starting, which at the time seemed unrelated to the noise you describe. I tried to have my 8deg injectors changed, which the dealer at first refused to do. Well, after raising hell, they finally did and the bike now runs great. Interesting enough, the noise you described, went away as well. It might have been a "heat" related problem due to a lean condition as you suspect. Hope this helps.

 

I get the same noise on a carb model.....was gonna ask about it on my 5k which is coming up soon.

 

Some owners are claiming that mobil1vtwin 20w50 reduces that noice considerably. Mine does it too...running syn3 until the 1000 service then trying mobil1.

 

I really never noticed any odd noise,but I always run Mobil one. Good Luck.

 

After the 1000 mile service on my FXDLI. They put Syn 3 in all of the holes. Worst thing I ever did. The valve train noise was horrible. The dealer passed it off as normal twin cam running Syn 3.

I got that crap out and went with Mobile V-Twin in engine and primary, and Mobile 75/95 in the transmission.

I still have one tick that comes in around 2200 and 3200 when the engine is not under load. When I get a chance to get back to the dealer we will have another discussion.

I am gonna have to get a mechanic that doesn't ride with straight pipes. Maby he will be able to hear it.

 

Well my bike goes in on 5/22 for the new injectors and a stage1. So, I'm having syn3 put back in to see if that's the ticking root cause. If it still ticks I'll keep the syn3 in for the entire ride home.