what noise does a worn out cam tensioner make? as that was my best guess as to the noise.

 

with 16500 miles on it, the valves should have been checked. Its about due for them to be inspected if they haven't been. Its a possiblity they are out of spec and creating some noises. The normal noise of valves would be bb's in a tin can rolling around. Also, the noise usually gets worse for a split second as you let off the gas. The bike can still perform well even if they are out of spec. I doubt its the problem, but thought it was worth mentioning.

Concerning the vibration. Its extremely hard to nail down where the rattling noise may be coming from. Your sitting on a hollow frame, with an engine vibrating the crap out of it, and everything on the bike is attached to that. You could have a loose spacer near the rear of the bike, and still have the noise travel all the way through the frame and up to the front of the bike.

 

valves are good and there is a guy on 600rr.net with an 06 and 6500 miles and he is having the same problem. It sounds like it has to be a moving part not just a rattle from vibration. What about the cam chain itself not just the cct.

 

I doubt your cam chain would make enough noise for you to hear it. They are very quiet. It could be the CCT, but it would be a shame to replace it only to find out thats not the issue.

Its going to be tough to say what it is, especially if its truly something different than what others experience, in what is a fairly common complaint with that model, and other models as well. My 1000RR makes noise at the same rpm range, but mine is definately vibration induced rattle, not something wrong.

Although, a funny story, I had an odd rattling sound I couldn't find for about a week. It completely drove me nuts. I couldn't tell where it was coming from, only that I could hear it at idle. It sounded like it was coming from the front of the bike, then sometimes the side.... it was really hard to nail down, and pretty loud too. Turns out, it was a loose rivet on my yoshimura pipes end cap. A little rivet made a ton of noise throughout the entire bike. I couldn't believe such a small part, could make such a huge noise. But as I said earlier, it doesn't take much to make sound travel all over the place. And when everything is rattling, its awefully hard to tell where its coming from. plus, there are just certain harmonic vibrations that at certain rpms, mesh just right and cause issues.

Is there anyway you can post a vid of it? Or find a vid online that sounds close to what your experiencing?

If you can, have a friend tap your bike in various places while you sit on it. It may rattle something that sounds similiar, and you can investigate from there.

 

Im the guy who the OP is talking about on 600rr.net. Here's a video of the noise:

it can be heard from 0:16-0:17 and from 0:23-0:27. Listen closely, its there.

 

sounds like valves to me

 

bad cct sounds like a can of rocks, the vid above sounds more high frequency and more monotone than a bad cct I think but it could just be bad audio. you can turn the automatic tensioner into a manual by taking the cct off and loosening the bolt on top of it and pulling out the spring loaded tensioner and replacing it with a long bolt (I think it's 6mm x 1.00 x 30mm) and locknut and marking on the bolt the length of threads that's the same length as the part of the stock tensioner that goes in, then back it off a little(to account for the small amount of length the spring would compress) and adjust it by ear from there. Same thing as an APE and you can always throw the spring part back in if you determine that's not the problem.

 

I called all the honda service dept here in ohio and none of the techs have ever heard of this noise. I did get one place to say that if i bring in the bike they will ride it and see what they think, so im going to do that monday morning.

 

tech rode my bike today and without tearing it apart he don't know. He said if it's still running it's probably fine. The guy on 600rr.net who has the same prob says it's the ignition and he's not going to worry about it anymore. I have learned to stay out of the 5-6 rpms range.

 

^ just sent you a PM on 600rr.net and didnt check this to see if you updated. Anyway...where exactly is your noise coming from? The ignition? It may not be the same problem as me. Have you tried holding down your key when the noise happens? The ignition has so many little mechanisms inside it that touch the key so at that rpm something is just touching the key and buzzing. If that is your problem and the tech coudlnt pinpoint the location, he shouldnt be working on bikes