OK. I am an absolute NEEWB. So excuse my ignorance. I bought a 96 CBR600F3 about 6 months ago for next to nothing to learn how to ride. I got comfortable and I'm no expert, but I have gotten to the point where I can ride a little and more importantly I now LOVE my bike. But...the other day I noticed a rapid ticking sound at idle. It seems to be coming from the engine block next to the spark plug. (i just recently changed the spark plugs) A friend of mine told me it probably needs a valve adjustment as the bike has 35k miles and it should have had one 10k miles ago. Then on my way home the other night the bike started stalling when I pulled in the clutch and sputtering in every gear (it always has had a slight sputter in 1st. I also noticed that the seat started to get hot. The oil and filter were just changed and level is right. The temp guage is not telling me that I'm overheating or anything like that. I'm not quite sure how or where to check the coolant, but I don't think thats it either. Any ideas?

 

I wouldn't ride it anymore until you get the valves adjusted. It's not cheap, and unless you're quite the good mechanic I wouldn't attempt doing it yourself. As far as the heat from the seat I don't know. Get the valves fixed first and see where that leads.

Welcome to the wonderful world of motor$ycles. It's possible the heat is from a voltage regulator going bad, but I'm not sure where those are located on Hondas so I couldn't say for sure. My bet is the valves are totally out of adjustment, possibly need new springs. These are quite important parts.

 

Is there a smell eminating from the seat area when you are riding (like a bitter, chemical smell)? An FZR I used to have would blow through regulators all the time, that smell I described would be the fluid in the cells of the battery evaporating. I'm with yam though, take the bike in to a shop and see if they can tell ya anything about what you are experiencing. Be ready to spend some dough[&:]

 

The regulator on that bike is on the right side of the frame, behind the right rear side fairing. It's a small black box with 5 wires coming out of it. 3 yellows, a red, and a green. This is a common part to burn up on these bikes. Most people try aftermarket ones or replace it with a stock GSXR regulator like I did. If that went bad it would have caused some of the sputering problems most likely. The noise your hearing might the the cam chain tensioner rattling, thats another thing that goes bad a lot on these bikes. Listen carefully to see if its on the right side of the bike. Kind of sounds like marbles in the oil pan, on the right side.

 

Thanks guys. Scruf hit the nail on the head it does sound like marbles and it is on the right side of the bike. I called a local bike shop here with a solid reputation and asked what a valve adjustment would cost me. He said that if I bring the bike to him naked (no fairings and the tank removed)it would cost me around $250. That seems reasonable to me what do you guys think. The mechanic at the shop alo told me that the cam chain tensioner might be the cause of the noise so it sounds like he might know what he's talking about. Oh yeah the cam chain tensioner was also incuded in the 250.

 

is he gonna replace the tensioner or just mess with it? What most people recommend is replacing the stock tensioner with a manual adjustment tensioner. They last much longer. The stock tensioner will just go bad again.