Yesterday I noticed a humming noise coming form what seems to be my front wheel. I got a 12 Limited with 12K miles. I turned the radio off and put the bike on neutral and I can still hear this noise.

I checked everything in the front wheel and do not see any obvious problems. Disks are not loose, brakes are not stuck, no grease signs of Chinese bearing that are about to fail. Could it be tire cupping? I get this noise after 35 mph all the way up to any higher speed. What do you experts think? Thanks in advance

 

Mine does the same thing and many others on the forum have posted the same issue. Tire noise seems to be the typical reason for this. I had my Indy check it and he said the bearings were OK.

 

When does it do it?
When going through curves? While riding straight?

Most new tires will hum due to the thread design. Much more so in the curves. When mine does it when riding straight my tires are a little low on air. The less air the more the humming occurs.
hope this helps

 

Deckman, thanks for your reply. But how do you explain that the noise was not there until now that I have 12K miles. It did not do it before.

This happens when going straitght

 

tire wear/cupping will do that - mine made noise that I felt in the handlebars but the rear tire was badly cupped (with about 16k on them). new tires cured it

 

Cupping as the tire wears. Normal In the case of Dunlop D408Fs unfortunately.

Keep running it and just keep an eye on the wear.
Sometimes pumping the tire up to 40 pounds helps.

lp

 

Pull the front calipers and spin the wheel. That's how I found my front wheel bearings were about to fail. Back wheel was also noisy when turning a corner. Wheel bearings were OK , it was tire wear on the rear. 2011 Ultra EG

 

If it is when going straight then it probably is the cupping in the tires. Mine only does it when cornering with a pretty agressive lean. This is the second front tire from two different maufactures and I have the same humming/whining vibration. The first was a Dunlop and the second a Michelin CommanderI.

 

Check your tire for cupping.