Noise during engine breaking

[Stripe]

I know its rude to post for help before taking the time to do an intro, etc. And I apologise. However, I'm extremely concerned, I'm a new rider and not great with vehicles beyond services and minor mods.
Yesterday morning I was riding to work, I'd just sped up to get away from a prick riding my tail, I then had to slow down for a sharp turn, so I cut throttle, this resulted in a backfire, I panicked, slowed and geared down, at which point my engine cut out, turned out I'd hit reserve fuel.
Now there is an unsettling clicking sound during engine braking. There is no heat issue or loss of power.
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions. Thankyou in advance.

[Stripe]

Ok, now I'm confused, I rode to work today, then to the city, I parked in the all day free motorbike parking near central, since its right outside where I needed to be. On the way to the city, the speedo was jumpy, but accurate. When I jumped back on ~4 hours later, I had nothing registering on the speedo assembly... I stopped at some lights and found the speedo/odo cable hanging nearly to the ground, so throughout the trip, I constantly had to adjust it. However at some point during the trip, I noticed the sound wasn't there anymore... My current working theories are: A, the sound I was hearing was related to the speedo cable coming loose, or B, someone ripped my speedo cable out for parking too close to 'em, then decided to fix the engine since they had some spare time... I'm leaning towards the latter... So I guess the question now is: can the speedo cable working its way loose cause loud worrisome clicking noises?

[timmyrocks]

anything working its way loose can make funny noises mate, maby you only heard it cause of the engine vibration while its under the load of engine breaking
a good fix is something thats simple hehe

[mike-s]

to give an unhelpful answer, 'yes'.
i would suggest maybe looking at taking the speedo cable off and making sure it's not broken or damaged internally

[Stripe]

I was watching the inside of the cable rotating while I rode along, pretty sure the internals are fine, but I'll make sure the odo gives a proper reading on the way to work. If not, its stuffed, right?

[timmyrocks]

it would be a bit tight in there, spray some wd40 down there then refit, if the spedo doesnt wobble then cable will be right, just tighten her up nice and tight

[mike-s]

wd40 would be good for cleaning it out as it is a penetrating oil. I would suggest you detach it from the wheel and the speedo, put the bottom end in a drill bit and then spray wd40 in there and give it a good spin to flush it out. Then once youve flushed it out use chain lube which will keep the cable lubricated far more than wd40 will

[Stripe]

Thanks guys, got it fixed up and it seems accurate. I'm now jealous of people with small hands though... soon as I realised I needed to take off the lower faring to get the front faring off, I decided to reach straight in the guts since I'd found where it needed to go, took me a good half hour to figure out the thread would only line up properly when the steering was turned far to the right. (note that I could only get one hand in there...) >_<

[robracer]

Thanks guys, got it fixed up and it seems accurate. I'm now jealous of people with small hands though... soon as I realised I needed to take off the lower faring to get the front faring off, I decided to reach straight in the guts since I'd found where it needed to go, took me a good half hour to figure out the thread would only line up properly when the steering was turned far to the right. (note that I could only get one hand in there...) >_<

ha ha... the non joys of cheating ...... sometimes it is easier just to bite the bullet go the hard road & take off the complete fairing for fiddley stuff like that, you
might have even saved yourself 15 min

[seiko1]

I spend hundreds trying to figure out where this annoying bloody squeek was coming from
on the old ZZR11, New speedo drive, bearings etc and it turned out to be the cheapest thing.......
the speedo cable!

[Stripe]

Alright, been keeping an eye on it through this week, the sound is definitely still there, but most noticeable on cold mornings, I'm not certain, but the bike seems to feel less stable while braking than before all this... Anyone know any engine/gearbox noise experts? x.o

On a positive note, it doesn't seem to have gotten worse, and still no loss-of-power or any such symptoms.