need help identifying sound above 60mph

Greetings all!
I am fairly new to riding, maybe a couple thousand miles, and I have rarely had this bike at freeway speeds, so this could be normal.

'81 XK550 Maxim 31K miles. I first noticed the sound with head held low over handlebars going around 65mph. When I got attuned to it, is seemed to only happen above around 60. As much as you can tell at that speed, it seemed to be coming from the front tire area.

Closest I can come to describing it is a rhythmic (fast!) chshhhhh chshhhhh like a quiet brake wear indicator on a car. If the brakes were dragging I would have expected them to be hot, but they did not smell or feel hot at all.

There is a slight squeak from the front breaks when pushing the bike if it has been sitting.

I rebuilt and flushed the master cylinder last fall, did not change the pads as they seemed plenty thick. I am wondering about glazing perhaps?

I am thinking bearing noise is a whistle rather than a chshhhh, right?

Thanks!

 

My guess would be some type of wind noise. If I have my visor up, it will whistle at certain times for example. Any chance it could be your helmet and when you lean forward it puts you in the right position? If not, see if it is coming from around your triple tree. It could just be whistling a little going through. Give everything the once over to make sure there is nothing loose just to be safe.

 

thanks joe. I have more than one bike -- maybe I will take the other one (81 xj750 maxim) out tomorrow for a -- cough -- comparison ride. Might have to be a loooong one though!

 

I think your speedometer cable needs lubricating.

 

I think those are the 2 choices - I have both - my cable is fine but I need to clean and lube my speedometer. I have also noted strange wind noises form the tripletree and my helmet

 

Hmm, I lubed the cable on the 750 but not the 550, so that's a thought. I will search teh forums again for the recommended lube -- easy job. It was really windy, I didn't mention that, so that's probably it. Thanks for the feedback!

 

resolved -- definitely the speedo cable -- thanks again!