Trip out to Baffle Haus near Raglan

[Morety]

Took the RS out for it's first reasonable run (been too busy work wise since picking it up a few weeks back) and myself and a mate on his new 1250RS took a trip to Baffle Haus up through Usk. We left it a bit late and didn't leave until 4pm and by the time we eventually got there, it was closing . It was meant to be a shakedown ride for me as I've only done a few 30 mile trips until today when I covered about 110 miles in all.

I had a few observations and I don't know if it's paranoia or whether there's some issues here? Firstly, when warm, blipping the throttle used to result in a deeper exhaust note from my GS as the flapper valve opened. The RS makes no difference and sounds quite muted, especially next to my mate's 1250 which barks on throttle and looks to have the same stock exhaust. His engine is remarkably quiet too, way quieter than mine. I'll remove the flapper valve plastic cover tomorrow and just check it's opening up as it should.

Secondly, I remember that my GSA (which had 16K miles when I sold it) sounded like a tin of nuts and bolts being shaken at tickover, but my RS is even worse, more like a blacksmith's forge! Lots of valve gear rattle and gentle revving I can hear some slack possibly in the cam chain. It's noisier than the exhuast note and quite instrusive at standstill. Engine has 5K miles and just had a fresh service. It runs fine but rattles like hell at idle. clutch in or out.

Any thoughts? Perhaps it's just me being used to something different this past few years but the 1250 was much quieter.

 

[Steffe]

Took the RS out for it's first reasonable run (been too busy work wise since picking it up a few weeks back) and myself and a mate on his new 1250RS took a trip to Baffle Haus up through Usk. We left it a bit late and didn't leave until 4pm and by the time we eventually got there, it was closing . It was meant to be a shakedown ride for me as I've only done a few 30 mile trips until today when I covered about 110 miles in all.

I had a few observations and I don't know if it's paranoia or whether there's some issues here? Firstly, when warm, blipping the throttle used to result in a deeper exhaust note from my GS as the flapper valve opened. The RS makes no difference and sounds quite muted, especially next to my mate's 1250 which barks on throttle and looks to have the same stock exhaust. His engine is remarkably quiet too, way quieter than mine. I'll remove the flapper valve plastic cover tomorrow and just check it's opening up as it should.

Secondly, I remember that my GSA (which had 16K miles when I sold it) sounded like a tin of nuts and bolts being shaken at tickover, but my RS is even worse, more like a blacksmith's forge! Lots of valve gear rattle and gentle revving I can hear some slack possibly in the cam chain. It's noisier than the exhuast note and quite instrusive at standstill. Engine has 5K miles and just had a fresh service. It runs fine but rattles like hell at idle. clutch in or out.

Any thoughts? Perhaps it's just me being used to something different this past few years but the 1250 was much quieter.

My bike had the rattle from left cylinder there is a modified tensioner for that side on all 1250,s under warranty which definitely cured my noise

 

[Morety]

Mine's the 1200 though but it definitely sounds tensioner related to me

 

[wessie]

wear ear plugs, ride more

 

[steadysteve]

The revised tensioner made a big difference to my 1250.
Not sure if there’s a similar mod for the 1200.

 

[Morety]

I'll be booking it in with Cotswold Motorrad for a health check. My thoughts are it's the camchain tensioner actuator isn't priming properly, not unheard of. Simple fix if that's the case. Many owners do ignore this, use earplugs and carry on and their bikes run to high mileages but I'd rather have a tensioner that's doing its job properly. I've owned 4 boxers over the past 30 years and this is the only time I've had concerns on the engine noise from such a low miles bike. Peace of mind if nothing else but the issue being as yet undefined needs looking at. I'll be whipping the end pipe off today to check the flapper valve operation as the bike had been stood a while and only covered 1K miles/yr from new. Must admit, the 1250 yesterday sounded lovely on the standard pipe.

 

[Morety]

Spoke with Cotswold this morning and they agree with me that it is not normal and that they will have a look at it. Flapper valve was a little stiff but a quick clean up and all is well, everything working properly. One down, one to go .