I woke up this morning and went down to warm the bike up before going to work. I do it every morning once it gets cold. It was about 38 when I woke up.

I start the bike and it starts up fine but it was making an awful noise, emanating from the variator compartment.

Kind of a squeaky belt plus something else. I blipped the throttle to see if it would go away but it didn't.

Over time as the rest of the bike warmed up the noise lessened until it was an on/off kind of thing. By the time I got to the interstate, about a mile away, the noise was gone.

I figure it was just cold metal and maybe the belt slipping against it a bit, but I want to make sure it isn't something more than that.

The belt is relatively new, maybe 2000 miles on it.

Should I check it out, lube any points, put 5w in the final drive instead of the 10 that is in there?

This is my first winter with the Swing so I want to make sure that I am doing it right.

Thanks for the help

For me it sounds, (no pun,) normal for a cold start in my view. I too start the Wing early in the colder months, if the noise is overly discernible I ride off so as to not irritate the neighbours. That tends to get rid of noisy engine/transmission noises pretty swiftly.

I suppose there are many factors, oil viscosity - (the oil will take longer to disperse around the engine,) belt condition to name two.

Bit difficult to give you a fair reply not being able to listen to it. My loud may not be loud to you!!!

If it's happening when the bike isn't moving it wouldn't be the final drive. It might be one of the clutch assembly bearings spinning against the final drive input shaft.

Jesse

If you're up to it, why not pull the variator, remove the ramp, rollers, and shaft, and clean everything with brake cleaner. Don't lubricate anything in or around the variator. Then reassemble the variator and start the engine with the covers off. See if the noise is still there.
Did you make an error saying there was 10 weight oil in the final drive? There should be 10W-30 or 10W-40 in the final drive. I happen to run the same 5W-40 in the final as I do in the engine.

Yes, it is 10w-30. I just got lazy and shortened it in the description.

I cleaned everything really well when I changed the belt and sliders. That was only 1500 miles or so ago.

As for the possibility of a bearing issue, would that go away once the bike warmed up?

So what made the noise?