I have a 1998 Superhawk with about 15k. I just had the oil changed on it. The other day I was riding home and as I accelerated, I did not engage second gear all the way, and I hit pretty high RPMs. Shortly there after, a loud knock developed in the front end of my engine as I drove down the highway. The bike runs smooth, there is no loss of power, and there is no smoke coming from the exhaust. The knock accelerates with the engine. Does anybody know if this might be a valve problem? A CCT? Or do you think it might be something a bit more serious. The knock is pretty loud, and I had to ride it the rest of the way to my house( about 3 miles). I appreciate the Help…

 

it won't be a CCT, if that was the case, the motor would run like poop, since the cam timing would be fuct.
does it make the noise in neutral?

 

It sounds like something in the transmission. does it still go through all the gears fine? Mine has about 30,000km, and when I sit in neutral I can hear a little bit of a chuckle, rattly noise, only when I let go of the clutch. Do a bit more R+D, and let us know exactly when it does and doesn't do it, or if nothing changes it, other then engine speed. I would maybe do a filter change, and tear into the one you have to find out if you have any metal shavings in it. You could have bent a shift fork, or ground off one of the gears, if you hit it hard enough. If it happened shifting from first to second, chances are you hit second gear. I would ride around shifting back and forth, see if that has changed at all, also check if it pops out of second by running around in second, accellerate, and decell a lot in 2nd, and see if it pops out. If it does, or if it is really hard to get into gear, it could be either shift forks, 2nd gear, or even both. either way it's a crank split to fix.

 

Yeah the knocking is coming from the front end of the engine. The sound accellerates with the engine with or without the clutch being engaged. I also thought that there might be a problem with the tranny at first, however I am pretty sure it is something with the top end of the front cylinder.. Thats why I thought it might be a valve.. It sounds someone's tapping on the engine block with a screwdriver or something... Any ideas????

 

Hmmm... Okay, so explain, did you redline the bike while in neutral? Or did you bounce the shifter off second while trying to get it in? Cause if you just revved it out, it is possible that you skipped a tooth on the cams. Does the bike still pull hard, and idle fine? It probably wouldn't hurt to pull the front valve cover off, and check the timing on the cams. Before anything else happens. There is a manual somewhere on here that you can go to and download, to time your cams properly. If it is knocking pretty loud, then it can't be all that good. It never is. Let us know!!