So a couple of months ago, my speedometer started intermenently dropping back down to 0 while I was riding. Then I noticed that as soon as I let off the gas, it would pop back up to whatever speed I was going.
I didn't worry about it too much, as the odo was still working okay, and I've got enough experience to have a pretty good clue as to how fast I'm going. I never really looked at it much anyway.

It got progressively worse, and now it doesn't work at all. The RR seems to be fine, and all the lights and other guages, etc. are all working as normal. My problem here is that now the odometer isn't rolling, at all. I'll drive 100 miles and it may show 5 on the tripmeter. We all know how reliable the RLOD is... so I never really know how much fuel I have.


Any ideas?? It's a 98 red, with 25,xxx on the clock.

 

tjayswift,

Since no one has replied, I'll give my opinions (Don't know if they will be all that helpful, but who knows)....

First, I'd double check the RR and the battery... but if everything else is working fine, I'd doubt this to be the problem... (when my RR went 2-3 weeks ago, the first thing that showed problems was the speedo... it would go to 0 everytime the blinker went on... back to proper speed when the blinker was off... shortly later the whole bike died...) With everything else functioning properly as you say, I'd doubt this to be the problem... but the battery is always something you should probably check first when you have any electrical probs... knowing you have a good battery/voltage helps trouble shhoting a bit.

On my old Katana (before the Hawk) I had 2 tachs blow on it... they would intermittenly go to 0 rpm for no apparent reason (last about 2-3 weeks like this, then eventually die...) I never found what caused this, but replacing the tach unit itself solved the problem... I'd bet since your speedo is the only part dead, it's probably just the unit itself, or you have a loose wire/bad connection somewhere. You might be able to find one on EBAY cheap... if not I'd email anyone on EBAY whom seems to be parting a bike... you never know what they will have lying around.

Good luck, and I hope my little rants here helped some...

J.

 

Thanks for the advice. I've actually just replaced the battery a few weeks ago. I've put about 800 miles on it since then. This problem has been going on since March, and I haven't hand any other electrical probs whatsoever, aside from the battery.

I totally agree with you. I'm thinking it's either in the gauge itself, or somehow in how the gauge picks up its signal. It is kinda strange that it won't work under power, but if I pull the clutch in or roll off, it works fine.

I need to take the time to just take it all apart and doublecheck everything, but since the weather's so nice, I've had no motivation whatsoever to do it. Maybe next time it rains....

Thanks again.

 

Wouldn't you know, I recently have been having the same problem with my speedo. I haven't, however, found a 'trick' that gets it back running again. I ride a 2000 and just turned 20,000 miles. If you happen across a fix or some ideas please let me know.

I did see a good schematic for ordering parts, I think it was BikeBandit.com, may have been Parts411.com.

I'm gonna check the micapeak registry and see if there's any word there.

-Marty