Unusually(?) loud rattle at low RPM from.. clutch?

While adjusting my carburettors the idle got pretty low (not sure how low - 900 maybe?) and the engine started rattling quite a bit. It sounded like it came from the clutch area, not the usual noise at too low RPMs, and slowly engaging the clutch did also slowly make it better. I can't hear anything at normal idle. I don't normally listen to my engine at that low RPMs obviously, but it sounded louder than I liked. Any reason to be nervous about it before a 200km trip later today?

They all do that now, the 'clutch basket rattle' . Balancing the carbs improves things a bit, also raising the tickover a touch.

The damper rubbers in the clutch basket harden with age, they can be replaced -with difficulty but most of us here just tolerate it as one of those kz quirks, just like the crazy high cold idle on full choke.

Primary chain noise, carbs out of sync, too low of idle.
Steve

swest wrote: Primary chain noise, carbs out of sync, too low of idle.
Steve

Mine, with about 40,000 miles on it, doesn't smooth out until about +1200 rpm. I can get it to idle at 800 or less but it sounds like you guys describe !

Yeah, but we don't have a primary chain. The 550 did that until I synced the carbs.
Steve

Clutch basket rattle is exactly how it sounds to me, which is why I got nervous. I used to own a Yamaha FZR 1000 Exup and it has a very weak clutch basket. The local Yamaha dealer told me not to worry about it -that it wasn't true- (I read about it online) and I was naive enough back then to trust them above online knowledge. Long story short, I ended up stranded on a highway with a hole an inch wide through the bottom of my engineblock when the basket decided to totally disintegrate at 90km/h.


Bonus info: Bikes cost at least twice as much here compared to US prices

Yeah but the shipping is murder.
Steve

The shipping?

I met a Aussie that bought vintage cars, trucks and bikes on eBay. He'd buy them, store them in a warehouse and when he had enough, he'd put them in a shipping container and send them home. Nice guy, in fact all the people from Australia I met were good people.
Steve

Oh, that shipping, Well, that wouldn't work as to get plates on it I still have to pay the taxes causing them to cost about the same as identical bikes here, plus the added shipping.

I got my 1983 kz700 for a good price and yet it cost me US $4378. Expensive hobby...

Then don't ask me what I spent on my bike to get it up and running after 15 years of sitting. I don't even tell my daughter how much. If I had a wife, I'd be dead or homeless. :whistle:
Steve

Back to the noise, Sorry, there's a thread here talking about how to change the rubber dampers on the small fours. We don't have them. ours are spring dampened.
Steve