Last rode the CB at the end of last year (Before we had the first heavy batch of snow). The last time I rode it I was practically home when I had a loss of power. I was only at the end of the drive so I was able to get it into the garden. However, I noticed that it was idling steady, the revs were going up and down. So the revs would gradually drop, then they'd flare back up and so on. Wasn't sure what the problem was, but knew I couldn't really ride it until it was fixed.

Due to the snow, christmas, etc. I hadn't fired it up again until about a week or two ago. This time it didn't seem to have the same problem with the revs, it revved pretty steady @ 1000rpm. Only this time it was making a loud, fast ticking sound along with the revs.

Was talking to a guy at work about it and he said it sounded like the H/T leads might need replacing. So I thought I would follow that up on here, and see if that sounded reasonable. What do you think?

I'd like to try and get it sorted soon ideally - I was thinking of getting one of these service at your home guys round to fix it, but if its something fairly straight forward then I would like to have a go myself.

TIA,
Stax.

Check that your spark plugs haven't come loose and that the plug caps are a tight fit when they're pushed onto the plugs. I had a loose cap on a bike and it made a ticking which turned out to be the spark jumping the gap betwenn the cap and the plug.
The ticking could also mean that the valve clearances need adjusting.

The revs going up and down could have been carb icing if the weather was cold and damp - that would account for the drop in power also (that's if it's a carb bike not injected, I know nothing about modern bikes!) It doesn't need to freezing weather to cause carb icing, just a certain combination of cold and damp.

As for the ticking sound - did that go away once it was warmed up? If it hadn't been run for a while it could be just that the oil needed to get round the engine.

I had noticed the oil level was low so topped it up a bit, but I'm not sure I ran it long enough after that to warm it up properly. I will have to run it over the weekend, see if that makes a difference.

Then if not, I will check the spark plugs, and the covers.

Cheers for the advice!

Any update on this one? Would be interesting to know...

I bought a CB500T which had a stripped plug thread. It sounded just the same (tapping sound) but it was just the leakage past the plug thread. I put in an insert and problem solved. Check that the plug isn't loose. Worth a try.
Mike

It could be the automatic cam chain adjuster is broken as they tend to make a ticking noise when they go .