Rattle - tank or fairing

My GSX 1250FA is now 4 months old and it went in for it's first service today (I know I don't ride it enough), and since day one it has had a vibration/rattle that I reckon is under the tank, but the mechanic say's it's in the fairing and that they all vibrate/rattle and nothing can stop it. Me thinks bullsh#t, what a loada crap. He didn't lift the tank to see if anything was touching the underside of the tank in case it was something there or tap the fairing to see if there was a rattle. Me thinks again (geez two thinks in one day almost puts the brain into overload) I bet I can find it as one usually does when you get fed a loada crap.
Now my question to all GSX 1250FA owners, Has anyone else had a vibration under the tank or in the fairing and fixed it, or ideas that might assist me in locating it, any help would be appreciated before I start pulling bits and pieces off.
Regards
Paul

I don't hear a rattle in mine.

I did over 40000 kays on my FA and never heard a rattle.

Ive got a 1200s, the fairings are known for buzzing. Mine does. Ive heard the fix is to pull it right off and put rubber on all the mounts.

Which Im going to do using an old bike tube cut up.

NZspokes wrote:Ive got a 1200s, the fairings are known for buzzing. Mine does. Ive heard the fix is to pull it right off and put rubber on all the mounts.

Which Im going to do using an old bike tube cut up.

Yep, my 1200 used to buzz, and I tried a cut up bike tube (I have billions of them and use them for everything). I ended up puting a bead of black silicon around every surface that touched and put it all back together when it dried. No more buzz.

I had a bad buzz at ~2000 rpm, turned out the be the screen, very hard to pinpoint. Ended up jamming an earplug between the screen and fairing until I could get some new rubber strips from Clark Rubber.

Buzz in the fairing around the guages. Always been there

My 1250fa gets a resonant vibration that causes the high beam reflector to vibrate a great deal at around 2500 to 2700 rpm. This causes a loud irritating buzzing noise. Despite the 1250s harmonic balancer in the crankcase these engines still vibrate a fair bit at certain revs.
I tightened the fairing bolts a bit more and that helped slightly. After a few thousand kms this harmonic resonance seems to be decreasing to the point that it isn't a worry any more, plus I use ear plugs all the time now when riding( to keep my hearing a bit longer). My old gsx650 did much the same except it just had screen vibration which I fixed by some black rubber stips between the front of the screen and the fairing. The 1250 buzz was louder than the 650.
Might be a similar problem to your bike.

I had an annoying buzzing sound coming from the fairing at certain revs. After a while decided that I had to find it.
Started pulling, pushing and knocking on bits of fairing until I found the likely source. On the inside of the sides of the fairing, between the tank and the fairing itself is a black strip, part of the console, which was about a mm away from the frame tubing. At certain revs it vibrated against the tubing making the buzzing sound. I filed a bit of the black insert widening the gap and that fixed it. One of many possibilities I suspect?
Hope you find it.

I've got an '02 1200s, and it has the 'fairing buzz' (always has) but I only notice it if I'm not wearing ear plugs.

Thanks everyone, it gives me some ideas.
Regards
Paul

I had a rattle/buzz on my fairing/windscreen a while back which was giving me the ***** on long rides. It was getting to the point that I was about to pull the whole thing apart to see what it was. I then picked up an MRA screen from Baz so had to fit that now the Buzz has gone. I have a feeling that the buzz was being caused by the windscreen as it was only happening at certain speed. With fitting the new screen and tightening all the fixings up this seems to had fixed the problem.

I tapped the fairing everywhere and found a big rattle at the bottom of the clear perspex where it fits into the fairing. It was a loose fit where it slides into the fairing so I jammed a couple of bits of foam into the area and that seems to have fixed it just by tapping it. I'll see how it is when I take it for a ride.
Regards
Paul

I have a rattle in the instrument cluster on mine.
If you push on the top of the tacho, it stops.
Haven't got around to fixing it properly yet but its driving me nuts.
Ive jammed some stuff around it for very short term fix.
Try this if your fairing wasn't the problem.

Chief wrote:I have a rattle in the instrument cluster on mine.
If you push on the top of the tacho, it stops.
Haven't got around to fixing it properly yet but its driving me nuts.
Ive jammed some stuff around it for very short term fix.
Try this if your fairing wasn't the problem.

Hi Chief,
Were you able to find a fix for this? It drives me nuts!!

thanks much.

nebula

as this is a regular prob with bandits( all generations of them, mine included, 2003)

As already stated with previous quotes, I pulled everything apart, got an old bicycle tube,( could use small bits of foam tape as well) and cut small squares, and super glued the tiny pieces spaced apart,at just about all hard plastic contact points.

dampens everything...no more noise

must make sure they are small, or it will effect size tolerances on fitting panels

I did this about 6years ago

nebula wrote:

Chief wrote:I have a rattle in the instrument cluster on mine.
If you push on the top of the tacho, it stops.
Haven't got around to fixing it properly yet but its driving me nuts.
Ive jammed some stuff around it for very short term fix.
Try this if your fairing wasn't the problem.

Hi Chief,
Were you able to find a fix for this? It drives me nuts!!

thanks much.

Hi nebula,

Yeah, I ended up doing pretty much what mtbeerwah says.
If you have an FA, pull out the whole instrument panel, which just clicks out. You will have to disconnect the plug.

Then unscrew the instrument cluster itself from the back. Get some medium density foam tape around 5mm thick
& stick it around all those contact points. THIS WORKED FOR ME! No more rattle/squeaking:D   

I agree. It drives you "NUTS" putting up with the rattling noise & definitely conspires to ruin the ride  

Not sure what model you have, but for the FA instrument cluster, this is the fix.

Good Luck.....

If you have a radiator guard, check its not rattling

Jimcoleman wrote:If you have a radiator guard, check its not rattling

Yeah,

I had this problem too.

My RadGuard was rattling. Ended up squirting black silicone in & around the frame to stop the mesh rattling.

Also rang RadGuard & spoke with the manager & voiced my lack of happiness about the rattle.
He sent me caps & Stubby holders & acknowledged the problem & assured me that it was fixed for all future customers.

For me, I had the two rattles, but the instrument cluster was the worst of the two............