I just picked up a 2001 F4i last week. The bike has 14k miles on it, clean title.

Now onto my question.....

When the bike is in neutral, there is a slight "rattle" sound. When I pull the clutch in, it goes away.

Now I know on a car, that would make me believe the tob is going out (throw-out bearing), but I don't know all the inner workings of a bike so I don't even know if street bikes have such a thing.

Is this a normal noise? If not, what would cause this?

I didn't notice the noise when I first bought the bike, probably because I was too excited on the test ride....doh!

Oh, don't know if this matters, but I figure I would mention it anyways. When I bought the bike, the clutch adjustment thingy (at the lever) was all the way in and the clutch was engaging right at the very end of the lever's travel (barely had to pull the lever back to dis-engage). I went ahead and adjusted the cable at lower adjustment thing to add some slack since the upper adjustment at the lever was all the way in....

Any help/advice/things to look for would be appreciated.

 

the noise is normal......though I'm sure someone will tell you its the cct.

 

I know on mine when my front cover from over the tire was loose the bike rattled at a certain RPM but after i tightened it up Problem solved...

 

nah this noise has nothing to do with RPM, its when the bike is completely stopped.

I just did a search on the CCT...my bike has 14k miles and I bet this is the issue. I guess I'll spend the $50 and see if that fixes it....

 

i think you need to read more into the cctl...
think about it...in neutral it goes away when you pull in the clutch...not anywhere close to the cctl.

 

ditto...it ain't the cctl if it's not RPM related...i mean it'll still make noise at neutral if it's really off spec...but for it to make noise in neutral and not be RPM dependent means it's not the cctl.

 

It's moreof a rumble sound to me. Mine does exactly that. I think it's just the spinning of the clutch mechanism in neutral. When the clutch is engaged in neutral it is close enough to spin still. Seems to be a normal sound though, everyone talks about it.

 

My 06 does the idle , no clutch rattle, did it since zero miles, 6300 miles later, same sound.

 

well good, sounds like its normal, nothing to be worried about.

 

my 01 does the clutch rumble sound when engaged in neutral and stops when dissengaged.
my 03 zx6r had the same exact sound so i figure most bikes have it and its normal.