Tech Tip - New ride Woes

Tony from Mount Prospect recently brought in his 2002 Sportster XL1200 Custom with just 965 miles on it.  The bike was beautiful; immaculate and nearly brand new.  This bike is new to him, having just purchased it from a friend, and he had a few concerns.

1. "There's a noise like air blowing in the front end of the bike."

That's a pretty odd description of the problem, but at least I know where to look (and listen).  After a couple of minutes of discussion with the customer I determined that the noise goes away when the brakes are applied.  This is good information.  I took the bike for a quick ride, got it up to speed, then turned off the motor.  I heard the noise the customer was describing (I'd describe it like a "shush, shush, shush" from the front end.)  The noise also went away when the front brake was applied.

After verifying that the rotor was not warped (front brake lever did not pulse when applied) and that there was fluid in the master cylinder (the sight glass was dark) I explained that the noise he was hearing was perfectly normal.  It's caused by contact between the brake pads and the rotor.  The brakes on some bikes make an intermittent sound, like this one, and other make more of a constant "shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" as the wheel turns.  So long as brake function is normal, this noise by itself does not indicate a problem.  Concern addressed.

2.  "Speedometer stopped working."

This one is easy to verify (during the test ride for the front brake noise, I verified that the speedometer was not working.)  The lighting on the speedometer was still working, but the trip odometer and speedometer were not working.  There are only a couple of things that can fail with this system: a) speed sensor at the transmission, or b) the speedometer itself. 

Being a 1200 Custom and subject to the excess vibration in the handlebars, I thought in this case it might be the speedometer, NOT the more common speed sensor.  I removed the seat to get at the connector for the speedometer tester and immediately found the problem.  The wiring from the speed sensor to the speedometer had been disconnected. It looked like someone had recently installed a battery and either moved the connector and it came undone, or unplugged it.  In any case, after putting the connector back together, I was able to verify on another test ride that the speedometer was working.

In the process of looking over the motorcycle to address Tony's concerns, I found and fixed a couple additional problems.

1. Left hand controls were loose.  This was a common problem on the 1200 Customs due to the type of handlebars on the bike and the way they're mounted.  Harley-Davidson even had a recall for the mirrors on this bike due to excessive vibration and mirror breaking.

2.  Top front motor mount bolts were loose.  Sportsters prior to 2004 (non-rubber mounted) were all subject to these bolts loosening up and sometimes even falling out.  Any time there's a lot of stress on a fastener, like this one, it's subject to loosening up.

3.  Throttle cables had too much free play.  This is a maintenance item.  The throttle control needs to have a certain amount of free play to be safe when the handlebars are moved, but the free play in these cables was excessive.

It's interesting to note that the customer knew about two of the concerns, but the other three problems were not mentioned at all.  That's the benefit of bringing your bike in for service.  We have trained technicians with years of experience on all the Harley-Davidson and Buell models. We can quickly and easily diagnose AND repair issues like these, while you wait.

Ride safe!

Chris Hajer
Service Manager
Illinois Harley-Davidson