Electrical Gremlins

Just cruising along when the ABS warning light comes on - no big deal as I've still got normal braking, just no ABS. After a couple of minutes I'm sick of looking at the warning light so I think I'll pull over switch the bike off and resatart it and maybe the light will go out when I get moving again.

Pull over switch off wait a couple of seconds - go to restart and everythings gone dead - no lights, horn, blinkers, starter - nothing, dead as.

Check the battery connections - tight. While I'm standing there wondering what to do next, key in the OFF position the dash lights up and tacho needle starts bouncing around finally coming to rest at 4k rpm position. All the dash has gone dead again now, no lights, horn etc - no starter but tacho needle stuck at 4k.

Decided to disconnect the battery wait a minute and reconnect again and see what happens. Looks promising, normal start up dash routine but when I hit the starter button a click like a relay or circuit breaker and everythings dead again. I'm not overjoyed at this stage as the bikes only got a grand total of 200 km on the clock and I'm beside a deserted road out the back of Portland.

Disconnect/reconnect the battery again and bingo, everythings back to normal - rode on to Bathurst, couple of stops for lunch and fuel and on to Oberon and back home without further problems.

I hope I haven't got one of those intermittent electrical problems which strike out of the blue and are bloody hard to trace. Anyway if I manage to clock up 1000 km I'll mention it at the first service. Was planning on a run to Melbourne to christen the new steed but not so sure now - anyway I've taken out NRMA roadside assist.

Not sure if this will help but you never know.
My Aprilia did something like this from second day i got it .In Aprilia world its called a dash reset .Turn key on,press go button ,everything
goes crazy ,trip meter goes to 0,shift light resets to 6 and clicking noises .After about 2 mins it starts fine until 2 weeks later when the process
starts all over again.The problem was caused buy a dud battery,yes the bike was only 2 days old. $160 later no warranty on
batteries sir Problem fixed. Worth a look. I have mine hooked up to a trickle charger. Just because the charged light goes green the
battery may be breaking down under load .Or i may be way of track ,just trying to help .Good luck.

Thanks Gus you might be onto something there. Maybe the battery is flaky and somehow causing voltage spikes and sending things somewhat haywire.

Wouldn't ya think there'd be some kind of limited warranty cover on batteries - fair enough not two years / unlimited k's but three months or something.

Obviously the battery was no good when i got the bike. It was a superseded model so the battery had probably died from no use.
Maybe a battery at cost, but no, full retail .

It would do the dash reset and then be fine for weeks .Just when you thought it fixed it self -dash reset .
It started doing it again a couple of months ago.Sure enough battery getting tired .(got 3 years out of it )
It would start the bandit o.k. but not the v-twin,that thing needs a lot of power to turn it over.

Fossil... I would give the agent a phone call about this... let them know you have a problem.. ask what it could be, maybe even take it back for a check over......new bike..low k's ..I know I would'nt be happy..............................G60

Fossil you have no doubt sorted out the electrical issue - at least I hope it has been a 'no repeat' - but if it was a dud battery it DOES have a Warrantee that CANNOT be rejected. ALL goods sold in Australia must be 'fit for purpose'. A battery in a new bike is NOT 'fit for purpose' if it fails so soon. Dealers need to be reminded of this Consumer Law sometimes. I think you would be on solid ground if the battery is the culprit. A reasonable lifetime for a motorbike battery would be a minimum of 12 months I should think .. unless the bike has been involved in an accident or had non-standard electrical modifications.

I would have thought so too .I did read somewhere no warranty on consumables like tyres battereys ect. Maybe just my dealer.
This happened to me 3 years ago so its a bit foggy.

Here we go.Triumph 6 months Warranty on battery. Suzuki ,still looking for that but you would think the same .
Taken from TRiumph Handbook.

Looks like i got ripped off .I just so love dealers.

I just had a look at the Warranty and Service Record booklet which comes with the bike - page 3 - "This warranty shall not apply to normal wear parts such as, but not limited to, spark plugs, light globes, etc, etc, BATTERIES, etc, etc. I think 1952 is probably right about the expectation that products are fit for purpose and I'm pretty sure that although the manufacturer can say what they like in their own printed material they can not over rule the laws of the land where the product is sold.

I haven't ridden the bike since I got home after the problem occured - fingers crossed it was a one off, although it's probably better to have identified the cause and fixed it rather than just hope it doesn't happen again.

I'm with G60 - make sure the dealer knows that it has occurred, and that you'll be needing it properly checked out at the 1,000kms service (or earlier). An unhappy customer should be a concern to a dealer and a new bike doing that with 200 kms on the clock has something wrong with it - mine, and a zillion other didn't have that problem.

Well no sign of any problems again, so far - everything running sweetly.

I called in to Westerns and let them know there was an issue and they will check it out at the 1000km service - I wasn't on the bike when I called in but I wanted to let them know what had happened. I was hoping to see Cameron's dad ( Andrew, I think ) who is the service manager but he's on holidays but is due back before the bike goes in for it's service.