New to the group

[CharlotteBoxer]

Greetings everyone. I am new to the group. Currently ride a 03 R1100S. I just moved to Charlotte a year ago and looking for some good rides. Any ideas would be appreiciated!

1 quick question. My speedo has gone goofy on me. It sits at 0 most of the time until I get to 60-65 then it will show for a few seconds. It kind of bounces around a bit at other times. The Odometer isnt moving either. I went to Charlotte BMW today and the say I need a whole new unit. Any one else have other suggestions?

[Hoots]

Welcome to the PPBB!!!

I would sugggest first replacing the pick-up on the final drive since both the Speedo and ODO are not working. Plus, they are cheaper.

[signit98]

...actually, take it out and see whether it's clean... and make sure it sits well and the wires are intact and the plug is connected...

If all that is in place, +1 to what Hoots said...

and welcome to the board!

[rm]

CharlotteBoxer,

Welcome to Charlotte.....I just moved here over a year ago. You will like the riding near hear. You need to meet Dee Jones too. He is on a long trip with his gal pal Denise ( great people ). They were the first to welcome me here.

Anyone, I try to head for the mountains everyother Sunday....its cooler up there.

Give me a shout if you would like to learn a little about this place.....though Dee is way more knowledgeable about the local riding hotspots.

Cheers,

Robert

[Bob Hancock]

Head on over to Morganton and follow the signs up 181. You'll be glad you did.
And welcome aboard....we got lots of NC roadmasters on this forum and the BMW/Ducati dealer in Matthews is a good one too, so you've chosen a fine place to live.

[Bob Hancock]

Reference this speedo business....mine dances around more than it should. The odo works fine and I've cleaned the sensor several times hoping that would solve things but to no avail. At 44,000+ miles I don't want to change it out as I'm starting to get proud of the mileage. Is this something I can get fixed or if I have to buy a new one, can I get the new one rolled forward to read the same mileage? I could always ask my dealer but you guys seem to have these obscure things figured out so thought I'd tag along on this thread from charlotteboxerperson. Comments/suggestions please.

[R111S]

Here's a wild guess...see if the speedo signal wire lays close to or parallel with any of the spark plug high-tension leads. The high voltage of the Spark Plug Lead can affect a low power signal through EMI.

[Bob Hancock]

But why would it do this sporadically? And why hasn't it always done this? I'll check the routing as you suggest, but suspect it's the speedo head itself.

[R111S]

Well yes, that's why it's a wild guess..."sporadically"?...another wild guess?

For one thing spark plug wires become leaky as they age and the high voltage current looks for a better place to jump off to ground instead of the Spark Plug Gap. It's easier to see leaky plug wires at night and if the wires are wet it helps a little more.

From what I've seen in the Lab, the primary voltage must increase to jump the spark gap as the load or compression ratio is raised. Does the problem manifest itself mostly under load, steady-state, or trailing throttle? If one more than another then old plug wires maybe the culprit...or it could be a vibration induced intermittent electrical connection...so many possibilities, but for sure perseverance will win the day if you're willing to keep digging.

[Bob Hancock]

Well I sure wanna win the day so I guess I'll keep digging. Good words too. Thanks!

[DanGreene]

Welcome. I live up in Linville, at least part of the time. PM me sometime when you plan a mt. ride and we can get a cup of coffee and I can show you some roads you may not have found yet. There is also a group that rides from Charlotte, including our own Mike Kelly. They have a website called CMR Charlotte Motorcycle riders and that is a good way to hook up with folks from there to make a run to the mts. I saw some folks from that board yesterday in Little Switzerland at lunch.

[Ole Bike]

Originally posted by R111S
Well yes, that's why it's a wild guess..."sporadically"?...another wild guess?

For one thing spark plug wires become leaky as they age and the high voltage current looks for a better place to jump off to ground instead of the Spark Plug Gap. It's easier to see leaky plug wires at night and if the wires are wet it helps a little more.

From what I've seen in the Lab, the primary voltage must increase to jump the spark gap as the load or compression ratio is raised. Does the problem manifest itself mostly under load, steady-state, or trailing throttle? If one more than another then old plug wires maybe the culprit...or it could be a vibration induced intermittent electrical connection...so many possibilities, but for sure perseverance will win the day if you're willing to keep digging.

Plausible but a long-shot. The sender sends a very tiny voltage but not the kind usually susceptible to EMI and since the wiring diagram doesn't indicate the lead is shielded that suggests BMW thinks so too. But try snapping on a "ferrite bead" (like those lumps on some the cables on your computer) to zap stray EMI. Good move for a few places on bikes where legitimate signals are in the lower-frequency range and false signals are in the higher-frequency range. That's most places.

Might be the quality of the signal from the rear-end sender and that might be influenced by the alignment and precise location of the sender unit. Or faulty wiring along the way.

Electric gremlins often arise on bikes from peculiarities of the ground system although the S electrical system was carefully designed to address this. But sometimes riders contaminate the grounding system inadvertently.

Hard to know.

[lht]

It could just be a bad pickup in the diff. I had the same problem on a K -bike . Installed a used one and the problem went away.

[Bob Hancock]

Originally posted by lht
It could just be a bad pickup in the diff. I had the same problem on a K -bike . Installed a used one and the problem went away.

That's the solution I want! I sure don't want to replace the speedo. I did check the wiring and it seems to be where it should be. I'll get me another sender unit....new or otherwise. Thanks for the discussion, guys.
PS.....thanks for letting me steal yer thread a bit, Charlotteboxer. We now return to your regularly scheduled welcome aboard thread.

[Rapid Dog]

Hello Charlotte...can I interest you in a pair of zircon-encrusted barbacks...

[CharlotteBoxer]

Rapid, did we trade seats a couple of years ago? I swapped a stock for a corbin with someone on the list in So Cal.

[Rapid Dog]

...could be, I've been thru at least 7 seats..