...and the saga continues...

I got everything to work, and even did the first few test runs on the bike without problems, until monday morning I was riding the bike to work and noticed the speedo is all over the place again showing readings from 28 to over 300km/h and back constantly and totally irrationally. So I got home and had a look at the wiring, there`s only one original connector left in the whole spped sensor circuit which was the triangular three pin connector that`s coming from the speed sensor itself, so I deleted that, soldered the wires together, and went for a little nocturnal test run with a phone mounted into the handlebar acting as a GPS speedo to calibrate the Koso. It worked and I was able to get the reading calibrated after stopping at least 20 times to do tiny adjustments to the wheel radius setting. I managed to get it within +/- 1-2km/h until the old phone started acting up again dropping the gps signal constantly so I headed back home and hit the bed.

Today morning it was working fine when I rode to work, but when I got off and headed back home it started acting up yet again! I got it to work momentarily by pulling and tugging the wiring harness so there`s clearly a break somewhere, but where?! I got home and opened the front harness but saw nothing out of place, did what measurements I could without taking the bike apart but got nowhere. For some reason I`ve been totally knackered for the past two days so i just dropped the multimeter thinking I simply cannot be bothered right now and went in for a nap thinking I`ll go back later but can barely stay awake, it`s promised crappy cold weather for the rest of the week, and my wrists started the annual start of the season tantrum again, I barely have enough force in my left hand to crack open a 0,5l soda bottle so pulling in the clutch hurts like HELL! So probly gonna let it sit for a day or two and try to get it ready by sunday, which is reserved in the family calendar for riding if the weather permits. It doesn`t affect the bike`s performance but it would be nice to see how fast I`m going, and since the speedo is showing some pretty outrageous readings a few test runs and two days of commuting has clocked in over 370km, the real distance traveled being approx half of that.

 

ROYALLY teed off right now... Been in the garage for two hours tonight troubleshooting. I found a few places in the speed sensor wire where it has rubbed against the tire and the outer casing had rubbed through, so I changed the wire just in case. I then tried turning the power back on but now the whole gauge is completely dead. I tested and tested everything I could think of until I got to the multipin connector behind the gauge itself. By wiggling the connector I was able to get the gauge to power up but no lights, and by pulling it slightly out I was able to find a very small spot where the lights would work but the high beam indicator light is on even though the lights are at low beam, and if let there and I shut the bike the gauge stays on! I tested and cross tested the connector in the gauge and got good continuity through everything so basically the only things I can think of are that either the speed sensor is faulty which I doubt since it has worked just yesterday, OR there is an internal short in the gauge itself! The thing is it was one of the first things I ordered so I`m not sure if the warranty is still active, and the shop I ordered it from is notorious for handling returns extremely poorly and usually not even answering emails. 270eur down the drain! F*!

Gonna contact Koso europe straight and ask what is their opinion in this matter. Somehow I got a feeling I just got a very expensive paperweight... Still gotta try to disconnect the speed sender but I doubt it will do anything since the problem seems to be that the connector is shorting out...

 

Stick with it Matti, the work you have done to this bike is just superb and an absolute credit to your vision and tenacity!!!

Well done. It looks frighteningly brilliant!!

I've pinched one of your finished bike photos for my desktop

Cheers, SB

 

Thanks Seb, appreciate the input! There are some color combos like black/ red, red/gold, and blue/orange which IMO when done right look awesome, but if not, look like crap. The finished product is a combination of mine and the painter guy's visions and I must say he pulled it off pretty darn well.

Still a bit bummed about the gauge issue, it could be it's just a short in the connector but I highly doubt it since it was working before and now suddenly created multiple issues all at once. No word from Koso yet and not exactly holding my breath there ever will be, I was offered one of those SS182 cheap china Koso knockoffs for 30eur through the .ORG! bike forum and probly gonna jump to it and use it either for now until I get a replacement or possibly permanently. I would actually prefer two round cafe style meters but don't wanna shell out any more cash that I have to as I need to get the Alfa finished before it's MOT goes cold next month. And IF I'm lucky the ss gauge uses the same connector so at best it's a plug n pray fit.

I don't know if it's the pattern or what but the original pictures were crazy big in size so in order to get my pic sharing server to accept them I had to scale them down to under 7,5 megs, so if you want a spesific pic in better resolution PM me your email address and have ~10mb or free space there.

 

OMG I've probly never been this relieved to get to say I fudged up! I found the issue that blackened the whole gauge! A rookie mistake, poorly insulated soldering caused a short! Now I just gotta find where is the one break that's causing the speedo to read the revs.

270eur saved! Phew!

 

Great find. I bet that is a load off your mind. To prove a person needs to sometimes need read things more than once. The 1st time I read your last post, I ready that you blacked out you whole garage, not your gauge. I thought, "Why in the world is he happy about that?" "Oh wait, never mind." :-)

 

trust me I know the feeling with English being my second language (third really but I can`t speak any swedish) I have to read most of the text here twice and still sometimes get the message like 15 minutes later and come back to change what I just wrote...

Yep it was a big relief. Went for a little evening run to test it and the gauge is working flawlessly, but poking around the wires revealed another issue. What I thought to be a bad solder or other contact failure within the front right indicator turned out to be a bad ground, and I bet my left nut it`s the same bad ground that`s causing the intermittent operation of the speed sender as this thing has wired ground, nothing goes through the frame, so I gotta lift the tank once more and route a new ground wire from the battery up front and ground the indicator and the speed sender there and I HOPE I`m done with the "children`s diseases" after the rebuild.

But man I`ve said it before and I`ll say it again, daym this thing is FAST! I`m slowly getting used to the riding position and the wide bars, slow speed turnings still feel a little awkward and I might have to swap the cush drive rubbers at some point but the twisties oh man, I run out of cojones way before the bike is even properly tilting into the bend, I`m constantly going around 20km/h faster than with the cbr and it`s still cold and I`m not that used to it yet. I also tried different touring speeds, and 80km/h goes like nothing, 100km/h has a perfect balance between the wind resistance and my forward lean so long distance traveling should be a breeze with this bike if I stay out of motorways and get myself a gel cushion to strap on the seat as it is a typical superbike seat: the padding is like 10mm thick so it is ROCK HARD, your butt starts to hurt surprisingly fast.

But all and all I really like the little roughness around the edges, it gives the bike character. This sounds a bit tacky but it gives it a personality amongst robot mass produced Japan bikes, you can really tell the bike has been hand built twice, the first by a factory in Hinckley, England, and the second by me.

 

you want to change the name of your thread to "My brilliant and beautiful struggle!"

 

i will say to you sir, that your english is better than some of the people who claim english as their mother tongue.
Had I known better, I would have thought you were an english speaking bloke.

When I lived in Europe, I learned how to speak Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Greek. But I can barely utter a syllable in any of them now, except maybe Spanish.

 

Wow, Good call!
I am also relieved that you found the "flaw".
Hope you also get to fix the ground issue more easily.

ANd Am REALLY happy that you are getting to love it more and more.
CAUSE I SHARE SAME FEELINGS ON MINE