Couple of questions

Morning/Afternoon/Evening all!

First of many (not all me doing the asking, hopefully) of many posts on here, hopefully...

Anyway. I recently bought myself a nice, plain XJ550 to add to my collection of old but lovable motorbikes.

It had been laid up for a while, but ran well enough after some fresh fuel, battery and oil had been added, and even passed an MOT (For those unfamiliar with the British MOT system, it is a yearly check of road worthiness for vehicles.

Tyres, brakes, suspension, rot, lights and general death-trapness..). It passed happily, with the only consideration being a loose handlebar grip on the clutch side. A spot of glue later, and job was a goodun.


Anyway, she seems to run OK, a bit lumpy at tickover causing the clutch to have a rattle around. Clutch in, it goes away. Not a problem. I intend to give the carbs a good fettling when I get the chance, and that should cure most of that. Apart from that, everything seems OK.

No smoke, no camchain rattle (just the very slight rustle that aircooled bikes seem to have. Compared to my Honda, it's silent, and my 550F is a goodun!)


The only thing that concerns me slightly is a whine in 6th gear. 12345 are silent, maybe the slightest extra bit in 2nd. Ok. Straight cut gears and all that, you expect a bit of noise, but 6th is a bit different from the others.

It only seems to occur under 40MPH, and that when the engine is loaded. Back off the throttle, all is well. Keep the throttle "balanced", all is well. Give it some power, whine. The whine does start to fade at 40, and is all gone by the time 50 comes up on the clock.


So, is this a common thing (I was reading a description on eBay for another 550, and the advert stated "Whines a bit in top gear, never worried me") for 6th to make a bit of noise in this respect, or should I start to worry.

Or, as I also suspect, am I just being a bit of a wuss and changing into 6th too early.


Cheers!

 

These bikes are known for gear whine. Has to do with the constant mesh design of the tranny gears. I wouldn't worry too much. Just keep an ear and eye on it in case it is something else.

 

Top gear is probably an overdrive gear anyway, and they do tend to whine on a lot of bikes. My Kawasaki would whine in 5th (its highest) gear and even new ones did it. If that was its only hiccup I wouldn't worry.

 

Ahh. Fair enough! I'll try to do less worrying and more enjoying.

The hard part, for me at least, is getting used again to a high-revving engine. Having spent the last 15,000 miles or so mainly on a CX500, you get used to spending most of your life below 4000rpm, when pottering around town, and lobbing it into top at anything above 20mph.

With 6th being, as you say, essentially an overdrive gear, I suppose trying to use it when pottering around the roads at sub 40mph or so speeds is not quite using it as it should be used. Besides, it survived a 150 mile trip being used like that when I collected it, and this whilst we're in -2C or so temperatures, without it getting any worse so I suppose that too should assuage my worries.

Note to self. High-revving inline four+ the innate grin inducement it brings at >6500rpm+less eagerness to go through the box into 6th=happiness.

Gotcha!