Hi all,
Nice to be riding in dry warm weather (for now at least) in the UK.
Wonder if anyone can help.
Yesterday I noticed that my rev counter was reading 1800rpm at idle, though I could feel the bike was idling at its usual 1100.
Today, for the first 17 miles of my 18-mile ride into London, it did the same - showed 1800 at idle but bike felt like 1100.
ALSO, the rev counter showed the wrong revs in every gear. The reading was too high.
For instance, my bike does 10mph per 1000rpm in 3rd, but the rev counter was showing 8mph per 1000rpm. So at 30mph it showed 4000rpm (as if it was in second).
At first I panicked, thinking I only had five gears not six, but I went up and down the gearbox and I have all six.
ALSO, the needle seemed to be jumping around more than usual, even at the 1800rpm 'idle'.
Then, all of a sudden, after 17 miles, the rev counter settled down and behaved as it should.
Today was the hottest day here for quite a while, and the fan was in use a lot, but this was the case during the first 17 miles as well as the last mile.
Is the rev counter electronic or cable-driven? A friend suggested it could be a fuse about to go or a shorting cable somewhere?
Thanks all.

 

C'mon mate, you should know the drill. Model and year please.

 

Howdy,
not sure about the genesis of your erratic rev counter problem - 2 things though - since you asked: the rev counter is electronic and t'other observation is that I don't think your fan should be cutting in quite so much.
Is the coolant up to scratch?

 

He's got a 1990 FL......

 

The coolant is a couple of years old actually, but most of my journey is heavy traffic and the weather was pretty warm this morning (by UK standards!).

Maybe I'll put new coolant in at the weekend.

 

 

For comparisons sake - here it is 34c and over a 2 hour ride on sunday my fan kicked in once whilst I was stationary in a jam for 5 mins.
My coolant and oil are about 2 months old.
You might be a bit low on coolant I reckon.

Enjoy the English Summer I'd would swop some belting sun for some drizzle any day!!! Lucky bugger.

 

BaronIsle
When your drizzle becomes days and days of heavy rain - that causes blown fuses and reg/rec if you leave the bike out in the rain - it ain't so nice!

 

So have there been other electrical issues with the bike recently?

 

hawkwind,
Yes, electrical issues described in my post 'fuses keep blowing' of May 8 2012.