I thought my muffler was loose so i asked the dealer on night and a social. The drive belt was dirty needed lube. I got some belt ease and the sound went away.

 

I'm glad someone started this thread... it sounds a lot like what i was posting on the 'HD Quality in question" thread.
I described it either banging on a long steel cable/wire sound, or the sound of two thin swords hitting together.

I did try a tank of 93 and it seemed to help....tried another and it's there again, but not as bad.

The funniest thing I've noticed is that on this thread, most everyone has at least 6k miles when it starts. Thats exactly when the sound showed up on mine.

I also took my bike to little sturgis rally and revved it up really tight. That seemed to help it too for a few days....funny, but true.

Maybe after some miles the engines needs to be remapped/tuned to compensate for loosening up?

 

Retard your timing a little and it will help for pinging.

 

if pinging is caused by pre-ignition, maybe. If pinging is caused by detonation, timing will not help. During detonation the air fuel mixture is ignited before the spark due to heat and compression.

In my case, I know it is detonation and not pre-ignition since it only occurs when the engine is hot and the ambient temperature is hot also. (probably the bike's way of saying you are crazy for being outside!)

 

Glydiator just made a good point when he said that his bike ran better after running it hard. Detonation can be caused after X number of miles of "light" riding due to carbon build up. That will raise compression and cause detonation. My solution has been to just keep my RPM's up. Downshift instead of just rolling into the throttle in higher gears and the noise never appears. I'm no expert but this has been my experience living in the hot South and dealing with high compression.

 

For what it's worth, mine does this also. At first I thought it was my heat shields but after going thru them they were all tight. Mine just started doing it at about 5000 miles.

 

So if it needs to be run hard to clean the carbon out of it maybe that is also why mine doesn't do it any more...BTW i always run 93 octane and rid ethe chit out of it everytime i get a chance. Fun factor is worth it.

 

As I've said, mine started doing it with about 5000 miles on it. I've had the XIED's on it from the start. Yesterday I removed them and still had the problem. I always run 91 octane (highest available in my area). I have a SEST install scheduled in 2 weeks, if I don't resolve this issue by then I'm curious if this will make any difference. This is beginning to annoy me.

 

I think it is the crappy fuel we get now. maybe a little octane boost additive in fuel might get rid of it

 

Mine tends to slightly when the engine is hot and hot outside. Moving to a colder plug, NGK DCPR8E seems to have taken care of it. Plug is staying clean and doesn't seem to have a problem with the ion sensing system - no DTC's

Mark