My Bandit doesn't sound healthy - for the most part it's fine but every so often the engine note is really gruff, not smooth like it is normally, it even sounds like a Ducati with a noisy dry clutch.

Today it did this again, but it also sounded like some metal parts were rattling around too, but not all the time. Any idea what the heck this is? It went in for service the other day so it should be fine! The thing is, it runs fine, just sounds grim...sometimes!

Any ideas?

Got any counter weights on any fly wheels? don't know the bandit so probably not that, if it is could destroy engine. Check it out before riding as it happened to my car and if the belt came off I'd have one dead engine!

Good luck finding the fault

might be the cam chain tensioner, if the camchain is loose it could be bashing on the engine casing, this is not a good thing but if you fix it soon should be ok, however this may not be it and it could be any number of things. can you describe the sound better? can you recreate the sound when stationary or does it just happen ramdomly? any ideas where abouts the in the engine the noise is coming from (top end/bottom end/to one side)? i dont think you should run the bike until you've sorted it mate as you could end up with a totalled engine!

also BD's gonna go if he see's anymore "workshop" threads in the bike chat section!

The thing is though, it's completely random! I rode 120miles yesterday without a problem, then went for a quick 20 mile spin and it sounded grim.

Sometimes it rattles, other times it doesn't! The sound comes from the front end of the engine - at first I thought I had a hole in the exhaust or something but there's nothing of the sort there.

Surely, if there was something really bad it'd always make a noise?

Not necessarily so. A roller bearing breaking up can be very intermittent as can any other compenent which disintegrates over time.
Clutches can make intermittent crunches and graunches and then fail.
I would suggest not running the bike in case there is a catastophic failure.

Grr! I'd planned to ride all over Norfolk this week - I may pop it into a local garage and see what they say.

Annoying at it was only serviced last week!

Right, spoke to a Suzuki specialist who is pretty sure that it's either the tapets or the cam chain tensioner and the earliest that it can be sorted is Tuesday....grr!

<edit>
He's now pretty certain that it's the cam chain adjuster because the sound is only occasional! At least if it is just that it'll be £60 to sort and there won't be any engine damage.

the symptoms point overidingly towards it being the cam chain tensioner, i think you've hit the mark there. so for £60 i hope they're gonna replace the camchain aswell!

They reckon it'll be £60 for the 2 hours of labour, or am I getting ripped off? lol

is the CCT included in that? if they are just replacing the CCT and not the camchain (camchain should be ok to be honest) then just have it off them and change it yourself, not that hard really, i think you'll have to take the carbs off to get to it, its at the back of the cylinder head smack bang in the middle. I think you'll be looking at around £25-£30 for the CCT itself, however if you cant be bothered then £60 is about right as long as that includes parts costs. do you have the service manual pdf?