Chronic whine.

[Motogiro]

But wouldn't it change with loading? i.e. flipping on the hi beam or disconnecting both?

This is a good time to grab a paper towel tube and stick it to your ear. With this, you can pin point the source by aiming the other end at the suspect areas. The reason I site the battery is that although it may start the bike it could play a roll in the system load and how long it takes to recover from being drained. But I hear you about it being a fixed pitch.

FYI: my hearing tests good at all ranges except Ex wife. Somehow that's gone bad. . .

The whine or hum from an electronic device is caused by the freqency of the on/off switch. So on the rectifier/regulator the frequency is controlled by the RPM of the engine. Unless the alternator isn't driven by the engine, but that's rare. So the frequency would be the engine RPM * the number of coils in the alternator. So then nobody could hear it above 6000 RPMs or so, cause I think there's 3. (If the rotor has 3 coils and the stator has 3 coils that makes it a three-phase generator)

Loading won't effect the sound except to change the volume.

As far as the tire howl, it just seems to happen with certain tire tread designs and road surfaces. That's an accoustic deal, and I don't know much about that. I just know with some tires I've never heard that, and with some it's so annoying I don't drive 50 miles before I'm complaining at the shop. I don't hear it with my Pilot Road 2's but the stockers annoyed the heck out of me.

Not really knowing where the sound is coming from or knowing all the technologies used on the bike, The sound could be from any number of sources. Could be a toroidal coupled high frequency oscillator primary for power supply.

I've always been able to hear HF from especially TO-3 transistor cases! LOL! They're big enough to act like little speakers and resonate oscillations very efficiently.

I hear ultrasonic. When they used to use ultrasonic transducers in stores for security I would always tell them when I walked into a store if they left the transducer on. They would be experiencing hearing loss and not know it because they couldn't hear those frequencies. They would say to me, "I don't hear anything" They'd check and it was on....

Like watching arc welding. It doesn't hurt your eyes when your watching it but when you close your eyes to go to bed!

My wife can make those HF oscillations at me anytime! :cheer: She's my best friend! :Flip:

 

[LesL60]

I figured it out. Seat the ear plugs and twist on the honkenator (right handle bar area) until the wind noise, the exhaust howl, and your own screaming drown out the tires and the whine. Just did it twice in a row to see if it works more than once. Bingo. Got me a plan.

 

[Nelly]

I know the whine you're talking about. It's really high pitch enough that many people can't notice or hear it. I've heard it on a few FZ6's and I believe it's an oscillation from a solid state device. It sounds like the horizontal oscillator in an old TV set. It remains steady in frequency. I think if it were a vacuum leak it would vary at different atmospheres of vacuum but it doesn't change. I would say it's a common and normal FZ6 sound.

I've heard howl complaints and the last one I fixed was a chain adjusted to tightly and also a misaligned rear wheel.

You are to clever about this stuff, I am scared but mainly embarrassed at my lack of mechanical savy.
I was going to say chain tension.

Nelly