I know this topic has been covered to death but very few posts actually end with someone describing if the manual chain tensioner worked. So I thought I would do that for those of you who are questioning the ticks, or clicks that your engine is making. Basically my bike has 14,500 miles and started to develop an almost inaudible tick from the cylinder head and front of the bike. I could hear this noise at idle, under power, and at all RPMS before road noise and exhaust overwhelmed it. It didn't sound too serious but I n=knew it was a new noise and that makes me sweat. I did not think that this noise was the cam chain because of my low miles and just based on the sound and locations I could hear it from. I was wrong. I decided before I drained the oil to check for metal shavings I might as well just give the manual tensioner a shot. I ordered one and sure enough I changed it last night and today the bike sounds as smooth as i've ever heard it. I inspected the original tensioner and its a POS and I think it should be changed on anyones ride regardless of noise.
Also, I gained a bit of insight on adjusting the tensioner today because I took my tools with me and stopped once to loosen the adjuster a bit. You can almost feel and hear when the sucker is too tight, it whines ever so slightly and the engine feels taught. Plus I almost felt like there was more engine braking than usual which is probablymy imagination but I figured I better loosen it in case it was indeed causing that much friction on the cahin. I loosened mine to the point where I feel like its taking up all slack and the chain is certianly not going miss any teeth or go out of timing. I would prefer that the chain be a bit on the loose side because if you over tighten the adjuster your going to wear your delrin pad and chain out quickly, and that sucks. I like the design of the APE and am happy I got it. If anyone has questions let me know. I will be happy to try and describe the noises my bike made if it helps others. Happy riding to all, I love CBRs!!!!

This picture was supposed to be APE install but I posted the wrong one and can't delete. This is the bike I installed it on if that matters to anyone

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I installed one on mine as well and heard that whine too. I loosened mine up till I heard the cam chain noise starting up then tightened it just enough to make the noise go away. I agree with what you said. Even if you don't hear the noise replace that OEM garbage and go with an APE.