Handlebar Pad

Scraping sound at front wheel of cbr250rr?

My '92 cbr250rr started making a noise at the front wheel on the first short trip after a long trip. The sound is a little like scraping or maybe something bumping the wheel guard and very intermittent. Doesn't occur when braking. Occurs when accelerating sometimes and often when coasting. Very very slight vibration felt through handlebars but usually not noticeable. Have inspected tyre, wheel guard and brakes and can't find anything but didn't do a very thorough inspection. Brakes appeared to still have padding on them. Any ideas what it may be or what I should look out for? Should I stop riding it? Any input greatly appreciated. I am very much not mechanically minded so laymen's terms are appreciated where it may be necessary. Thanks in advance.
Clearly they did make a CBR250. I have the CBR250RR. Please only answer if you can help, not just to increase your answers score.

Possibly/probably the wheel or yoke bearings.

But to get other causes out of the way, give the bike a good clean – it might just be dirt, then check is the tyre pressure (get the easy things out of the way first), next support the front wheel off the ground and tape a pencil or screwdriver to the fork with one end almost touching the disc, spin the front wheel carefully looking at the gap between pencil end and disc (to check to see if the disc is warped – although this would probably create more juddering), another symptom of a warped disc is that the pistons get pushed back in the caliper so braking performance suffers when you first apply the brakes. Another thought might be that the front wheel needs balancing, you can do it yourself there are websites that detail it, actually a lot easier to get a professional to do it though.

To check the wheel bearings you need someone to hold the handlebars firmly, then gripping the top of the tyre try to move it side to side, anything more than the slightest movement will be the bearings beginning to fail – easy enough to replace, remove the front wheel, drift out the old bearings, replace with new ones (treated to a big glob of grease), again there are websites that show this better than I can put into words. Next check the yoke (even if it is the front wheel check the yoke as well), stand next to the bike pump the forks in a vertical motion with the brake applied, if there is a notchy, grindy feel they will need replacing as well.

You aren't going to find peace of mind until you discover the cause and although bearings normally fail quite slowly they will affect the handling.

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