Knocking on engine when hot

[doboy]

can you tell me , if you get this idle hammer after the first oil change  does it go away as the engine gets some miles on it or do you have it for the life of the bike ?

[Pedro41]

As Suzuki recommend 'Castrol' oils- If you then had an engine issue, you probably can't go far wrong using

something like their  'Power 1'-This oil gets the thumbs up from my local bike mechanic.
 
 'Silkolene' do a range of 'V-Twin' specific oils in viscosity 10W-40 & 10W-50 plus 20W-50

 and 80W-90  I think these are aimed squarely at the Harley market though.

http://www.fuchslubricants.com/v-twin-engine-oils

 The 2012 'Glee' is supposed to choose from;-
SILKOLENE PRO 4 PLUS 10W-50
SILKOLENE PRO 4 SX 15W-50
SILKOLENE COMP 4 SX 10W-40

[MartinW]

Good Post Brockett.

I didn't wear ear plugs for the first 8 years on mine. I have done for the last two.

Whenever I don't have the earplugs in it always sounds like the bike is self destructing. So I just wear the plugs again.

[Jacko]

Yes, me too. My bikes always sound awful, I panic that things are about to explode, then I remember I'm just nipping to fill the tank, without plugs, and I relax.

The DRZ really does sound like it's destroying itself without them.

[mr_diver]

The only bike that doesn't make horrendous noises (hot or cold) in my garage is the cx500- a bike notorious in its day for problematic cam chain tensioners.

The TL/SV/DL engines are not the quietest engines out there. being v twins they resonate a lot of noise that gets canceled out by the other cylinders or inline 4's.

The noise mine makes got more noticeable when I changed to a beowulf end can as the tone changed.

She gets rev to the red line, ridden hard and generally abused. After 57k miles the noise is no better or worse.
If it's just a tapping, it's normal.
If it's making a grinding noise get it looked at.