Clattering sound

So I've had my bike for a few months now. It's an 01 Mille with just over 31k miles.

It all runs as it should with no issues since I've had it. I changed the standard exhaust for a fuel F1r carbon exhaust about a fortnight ago. It's had no issues with the baffle in or out except on Thursday night when I went out for some shopping.

I started the bike as normal (no baffle) and let it warm up to 77 degrees, rode up to the retail park out of town (about 3 miles) did some shopping and came out to go home. Ignition on and it was sitting at about 60 degrees so I used a little fast idle to get it going. No issues there so I left as normal and decided to nip through town and go under the shopping centre (best place for a bit of noise ) Rode down with no issues, came to a stop and gave it a blip of throttle nice roar from the exhaust so as the lights changed I gave it another blip before setting off except this time something seemed to start clattering around like crazy!!

So I pulled over to the side of the road and turned the bike off and on again and it was still there so turned the bike off again and phoned a mate who's had a v-twin in the past. I covered the exhaust with my gloved hand and held the phone out whilst he listened to this clattering sound. He though it might be the tappets whatever they are and suggested I put the baffle in to give the bike as much back pressure as possible. So I put it back in and checked all the oil and coolant levels before gingerly setting off again. the clattering continued for about 100 yards and then slowly started to come and go before stopping all together??

Got the bike home keeping the revs as low as possible. Got in and left it to cool completely before going out to start it up and it was fine, just the standard engine noise no horrible clattering. Took it for a spin around the street before doing a mix of riding (dual carrigeway, stop go in town and some low speed clutchy stuff in a carpark) no issues what so ever. All the oil levels and coolant levels are fine.

It proper freaked me out, anybody got any ideas what it might have been?

Summary:

New exhaust, no baffle, warm bike, rev, 2nd rev started an awful rattling sound, baffle in and it went away.

Cheers

How would I go about checking to make sure it is? Going to do oil and filter asap. Also is it a quickish job to check the cam chain on the front cylinder? Woukd it be obvious if something wasnt right?

The noise is coming from the L/H side. I spoke to Lewis yesterday from Aprilia Performance in Tamworth (where ever that is) and he mentioned the cam chain from the symptoms I described. He said to get a video should the noise return and lo and behold it did this morning. Got a video and called them back and got hold of Griff. Emailed the video to him and he called me back and said it was difficult to hear but it is most likely to be the front cylinder cam chain.

So the new part is ordered and on it's way to me as we speak. Ive got a mechanic friend who will be helping me out on Saturday to strip, sort and assemble the bike again. Gonna be doing a full filter, oil and coolant change at the same time. Will try to check the plugs as well id we have time. Now to find instructions on how to sort all of that.

Cheers for all the replies.

Lee

Are the tensioners compatible with different years? It seems they changed the part/serial number sometime in 2006. I received what looks like the new shape today but I don't want to strip the bike on Saturday to find I can't use this tensioner.

All sorted now. 7 hours start to finish from stripping the panels off to getting them back on. Did it slow time with a mechanic friend of mine so he was explaining everything to me about what he was doing. Also included in the time were removing the rocker covers to try and pinpoint where the oil on the side stand was coming from. We had to use a longer screw to catch the threads to pull the cover down nice and evenly.

The old tensioner was completely solid so something was clearly wrong with it, new one in and after a slight coolant leak (forgot to do up a jubilee clip) we were back in business.