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[LovemyCVOgirl]

Owning my '12 CVO SG and not hearing any tapping sounds from the engine, I was always curious when I would read this thread about engine tapping noise.  That all changed a few weeks ago when I was helping a friend out with her 2011.5 CVO Ultra.  She needed to get it to the dealer for some routine work but couldn't fit it in her schedule.  I volunteered to ride it there and wait on service and then bring it back home.  The dealer is 3 miles from my house.  I have never ridden this MC before, nor have I ever ridden an Ultra but wasn't intimidated because I just looked at it as a SG with a TP.  Upon pulling out of the garage, and at low RPM's I could hear this loud tapping coming from her engine.  I was was SHOCKED at how noisy this engine was and yet I have the same one in my '12 SG (minus the engine tapping).  When I got to the dealers, I informed the service dept that the engine was making this God awful tapping noise.  They pushed it back in the service dept and when completed the work told me that the noise was "normal".  When I pulled out from the dealer, I took it on a little ride and I noticed that after the engine heated up and after about 15 miles the noise all but went away.  How and why that two MC's with the same engine can sound so different?  Mine doesn't tap at all and her's taps until warm.  Go figure 

[Fired00d]

Owning my '12 CVO SG and not hearing any tapping sounds from the engine, I was always curious when I would read this thread about engine tapping noise.  That all changed a few weeks ago when I was helping a friend out with her 2011.5 CVO Ultra.  She needed to get it to the dealer for some routine work but couldn't fit it in her schedule.  I volunteered to ride it there and wait on service and then bring it back home.  The dealer is 3 miles from my house.  I have never ridden this MC before, nor have I ever ridden an Ultra but wasn't intimidated because I just looked at it as a SG with a TP.  Upon pulling out of the garage, and at low RPM's I could hear this loud tapping coming from her engine.  I was was SHOCKED at how noisy this engine was and yet I have the same one in my '12 SG (minus the engine tapping).  When I got to the dealers, I informed the service dept that the engine was making this God awful tapping noise.  They pushed it back in the service dept and when completed the work told me that the noise was "normal".  When I pulled out from the dealer, I took it on a little ride and I noticed that after the engine heated up and after about 15 miles the noise all but went away.  How and why that two MC's with the same engine can sound so different?  Mine doesn't tap at all and her's taps until warm.  Go figure 

I noticed in your avatar you don't have lowers on your bike... the sound you are hearing on the Ultra could be more noticeable due to lowers being on and you might hear the same sound if you had lowers on yours.

 
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 

[LovemyCVOgirl]

I noticed in your avatar you don't have lowers on your bike... the sound you are hearing on the Ultra could be more noticeable due to lowers being on and you might hear the same sound if you had lowers on yours.

 
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 

Yep, I do have lower's on my SG.  They are stock on the CVO SG and I have never removed them.., 

[Fired00d]

Yep, I do have lower's on my SG.  They are stock on the CVO SG and I have never removed them.., 

My bad... ole eyes and before coffee ... I knew they were stock but when I first looked I thought they had been removed but after looking again I do see them. Disregard my last then.

 
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 

[spada84]

When I traded my 08 96" on the '10 110", my impression when I left the dealer was the engine was going to fly apart between my legs, causing severe shrapnel damage.  I got used to it.  Kinda like getting used to the straight cut gear noise in my '84 Moto Guzzi tranny.  At 62K, it still runs great, makes the same noise, and uses virtually no oil. 

I agree that the cacophony comes from multiple places.  It is not so loud that I could not detect an additional rattle from the inner primary when the compensator  went bad.  Warranty replaced the whole primary, so that's nice and quiet now.

It may be a little rattly, but not obnoxious.  When I start it with a group of 88s and 96s, you KNOW it's different, even the exhaust cadence.

[Bearcat1]

bearcat1, I have replied to your post before, but I just thought of something my S&S engine was doing when the pistons were loose. Besides all the obnoxious noises it made when I was riding it, if you revved it a little and listened carefully it would make a low pitched knocking noise just off idle. It was hard to hear, but it was definitely there. Regarding my 09, I mentioned in another post that I  had my compensator sprocker replaced recently. I did not get the latest version. Now as I am going thru the gears I am hearing and addittional clacking noise at about 3000 RPM. It doesn't do it if I rev it up in neutral. Once I am in a higher gear say 5th or 6th going down the freeway all is quiet and smooth as glass. If it was only that quiet all the time. I am going to take it back in and have the service writer or tech take if for a ride and  hold it in 2nd or 3rd gear at 3000 RPM where you can really hear the new noise.( actually it sounds kind of like it did before the new compensator sprocket was installed ) I just don't understand why the clacking noise goes away in higher gears at freeway speeds and same RPM.CAHDBIKER.

CAHDBIKER, I would be curious to know what they will tell you when you bring it in.  I somehow have a feeling I know what response you will hear though...

[Bearcat1]

Owning my '12 CVO SG and not hearing any tapping sounds from the engine, I was always curious when I would read this thread about engine tapping noise.  That all changed a few weeks ago when I was helping a friend out with her 2011.5 CVO Ultra.  She needed to get it to the dealer for some routine work but couldn't fit it in her schedule.  I volunteered to ride it there and wait on service and then bring it back home.  The dealer is 3 miles from my house.  I have never ridden this MC before, nor have I ever ridden an Ultra but wasn't intimidated because I just looked at it as a SG with a TP.  Upon pulling out of the garage, and at low RPM's I could hear this loud tapping coming from her engine.  I was was SHOCKED at how noisy this engine was and yet I have the same one in my '12 SG (minus the engine tapping).  When I got to the dealers, I informed the service dept that the engine was making this God awful tapping noise.  They pushed it back in the service dept and when completed the work told me that the noise was "normal".  When I pulled out from the dealer, I took it on a little ride and I noticed that after the engine heated up and after about 15 miles the noise all but went away.  How and why that two MC's with the same engine can sound so different?  Mine doesn't tap at all and her's taps until warm.  Go figure 

Yes sir, now you know what all the fuss is about.  If your '12 is quiet, consider yourself lucky I would say.

[Bearcat1]

I noticed in your avatar you don't have lowers on your bike... the sound you are hearing on the Ultra could be more noticeable due to lowers being on and you might hear the same sound if you had lowers on yours.

 
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 

When I took my lowers off briefly a few weeks ago the engine noise went away considerably.  Almost to the point of sounding normal.  Man I was loving it!  But I also love my lowers being on the bike for various reasons so I had to put them back on.  The lowers definitely have something to do with the how the rattling noise carries upwards towards the rider.  At least on my bike it does. 

[Retired rider]

Thought I need to chime in, I have the fix! when I ride with out my hearing aids the ticking goes away!

[Aussie]

Thought I need to chime in, I have the fix! when I ride with out my hearing aids the ticking goes away!

[Bearcat1]

Thought I need to chime in, I have the fix! when I ride with out my hearing aids the ticking goes away!

Nice...

[1abastarsmda]

I just got my '12 FLHTCUSE7 eleven days ago.  I was only able to put about 200 miles on it until yesterday.  Yesterday the tapping noise started and now with about 650 miles, one of my friends said he could hear it riding next to me at highway speeds.  I traded in the same bike in an '09 model and I never had this noise on that bike.  It's pretty loud.  I'm still waiting for my exhaust to arrive, so I'm sure the level of noise is accentuated by the fact that I don't have any other noise to cover it (other than the stereo).  I keep turning the stereo down to listen to the sound, as I've been worried that the engine is going to explode and fire projectiles in all directions.  The crazy thing is that it ran so quiet for the first 200 miles and a good part of the next 200.  I had mentioned to friends that the bike was so quiet and smooth, and that I was enjoying it and that I thought I had finally found out what it must be like to ride a Gold Wing.  I even mentioned that maybe it was a mistake putting a different exhaust on, since it was a pleasant change.  I wish I knew if I'm hearing the same thing that everybody else is.  I can't imagine what could have happened to change it and I had been taking it very easy in break-in, topping out at 65mph.  I talked to one of the techs at the dealer and he told me that as long as I am showing good oil pressure, continue riding and tell them to check it out when I take it in for the exhaust. 

[hbens]

"I talked to one of the techs at the dealer and he told me that as long as I am showing good oil pressure, continue riding and tell them to check it out when I take it in for the exhaust. "

And the response will be that's normal!

[Midnight Rider]

That all depends what they believe is normal or not. For instance, if you don't consider this noise, then the engines are all working the same...

Anyways, this has been bothering me too on my 07 SERK. Prev owner had the SE 251 cams installed, and the ticking happens pretty much all over the RPM range, but I have no idea what sound it was making before with the regulaer cams. "Sounds like a sewing machine" is exactly what I and other people are saying, plus a general sensation of gritting/rasping in the engine. Like everyone else here, this noise is really taking away the fun in the ride.

In my case the mechanic seemed to think part of the noise (maybe not just the ticking) came from the cam chain tensioner & bad oil flow, and told me a change to a "SCREAMIN’ EAGLE HYDRAULIC CAM CHAIN TENSIONER AND HIGH-FLOW OIL PUMP UPGRADE" would "probably" solve this ticking pb, as it apparently did so on the boss's 2011 CVO street glide. They didn't have the parts in stock so it's still not done.

I'm not sure sure it's needed anymore now with all that has been said on this thread? Better oil flow is probably good for such a big engine, but if it's not going to fix the issue at hand ...

I also plan on putting Andrews 54 cams as I want more torque and lower RPM and Steve at Fullsac has been nice enough to explain that the SE 251 are more a top range set of CAM - I'm learning quite a lot about engines right now!
Would such a set of cam enough to fix or at least attenuate the ticking? Or from Scott's posts, do I also have to change lifters & pushrods? Given it's all connected I assume it's hard to say without actually trying. How do you adjust such rods? do you have to open up the engine every time?

This all sounds expensive no matter what though. If a 15 000 miles maintenance was charged 500€, I can't imagine how much it's gonna take to go through all those steps! Crap

The stock oil pump flows plenty of oil with plenty of pressure.  If you're changing cams, I'd go ahead and put better lifters and adjustable pushrods in there too, as the cost difference is just the parts.  And not necessarily HD parts, but if you're dealing with a dealer to do the work, using non HD parts may be an issue.

[cvoscoot]

My 2012 sesg is making a tapping noise that sounds like a lifter,but when you pull the clutch in it goes away.Dealer said normal of coarse.Does your noise go away when you pull clutch in?