Strange whine from front of bike

[florence]

Approaching a local town in the pouring rain after about a fifteen mile ride, a terrible grinding whine started to come from the front end.  I touched the brake momentarily to see if it was coming from the disk, no change.  Eventually, after much pointless inspection, I worked out it was coming from the speedo and after a thump it went away for a moment but then soon came back.

I'm only relating this story in case it happens to anyone else, it was very worrying because I had recently had the front end to pieces to replace the mudguard and thought maybe I had forgotten to tighten something.

[Tomb]

I used to get a horrible whine from the rear of the bike, it went away now I'm single again

I get the same on my 500, I've tried grease, oil, and WD40 on the speedo cable all of which made a difference but it can still come back and go randomly. The only thing I did think was it was when the weather was cold, which could be causing yours now.

[florence]

I think you are right.  Foolishly, in the summer I hardly rode.  Now it's winter I'm using every day. 

I do have a spare but it doesn't record mileage which was a problem with MOT.  However, it had it's last MOT in May.  Next year it will be exempt, hooraay.....so will probably swap back.

[Nurse Julie]

I used to get a horrible whine from the rear of the bike, it went away now I'm single again

[davidrsmith]

Excuse my ignorance but doesn't a bike require an MOT every year,  or does it not need one when it becomes historic (40 years old)?

Thanks
Dave

[Nurse Julie]

Discussed recently
http://www.sohc.co.uk/index.php/topic,13905.0.html

[Tomb]

I'm surprised your speedo odometer causes a problem at the MOT, the speedo is not part of the MOT. MY CB72/77 doesn't have a speedo, and the odometer of the little Chinese CG125 copy I ride to work fell out of the speedo, neither of them cause a problem for MOT.

Another thing I noticed about the speedo whine was that it suddenly stopped as my speed reduced, almost like some internal resonance had started it. When I first had the problem I would coast to a stop trying to listen to it.

[florence]

I just meant that the mileage wouldn't change from one year to the next which I thought might look bad.

Also it's quite good to record mileage to know when to change the oil, i.e. every 1000 miles.

[Tomb]

Gotcha, I thought you meant they questioned it.