Hey Canadian...the following is copied from my response to the ticking sound bite found elsewhere on this page (near the top). Tell me what you think! And, sorry to hear that your machine is one more, of many to come:......"Yes...and I was thinking in this direction for well over a year! It seems new cases of ticking are surfacing almost daily now and I will boldly predict that the rate could rise to 25% or more....worse than anybody could have imagined,for sure! We will never know for sure because Yamaha is not (and never has been ) forthcoming on the matter.I maintain that for allot of units produced since day one, up to sometime into the `05 production run, it`s just a matter of time and distance.In view of the culprit being unearthed (seals that are too tight), why don`t all FJR`s tick? Simple...riding style, riding conditions and factory production tolerances (some seals will be looser and some tighter). Also, some bikes run hotter than others it seems. Regardless, if the oil fow in the head was better balanced between left side and right side (in terms of quantity,direction and temperature), I doubt the ticking phenom. would have arisen. It appears that the exhaust guides on the left side have been inadvertently marginalized by oil system design. I believe that a change in head design would ultimately solve the problem as opposed to looser seals." :assasin:
