Well,last week I went out riding and decided to push the bike a bit.I was on the interstate going around 85mph when the bike just started to act funny at around 5000+rpm's.I slowed down and all was good.The other day it did this at low speed and reving the engine corrected it.This led me to believe there is an electrical connection that has some sort of fault like corrosion or being lose. This all started on the morning I headed out on my last trip up to my camp.It was fine after the initial 3 little bucks the engine did for the next 2500 miles then on the way home 2 weeks later the bike died and came back to life after moving the kill switch back & forth. The problem was like a ghost that would come and go. Yesterday I took out the computer that sits over the battery and cleaned all the contacts in the connection.Then I did the same for the connection for the gas tank ,and the throttle stop switch as well as all the fuses.I cleaned everything with electrical contact cleaner and then put dilectric grease on everything. Now the bike runs like a top ! Took it for a 50 mile test ride yesterday and there is no more funny stuff.So,today I take it out for a hundred or so miles. Lesson here,clean all the contacts on a regular basis ! This was a no dollar fix done with no special tools that took no special skills or test equipment and probably a wise thing to do before you spend money at a dealership .

Absolutely!   Thanks for reminding me that I need to revisit the ignition switch on my RT.  It was acting up a bit on my last trip out West.

On the advice of a mate who was a BMW, Harley tech I bought my 75 twenty plus years ago. He told me the first thing I should do was spend a weekend cleaning all the electrical contacts and using contact grease on the connections. I did all the connections except one which was too hard to get to. This was the only connection that failed twice. After the second failure I cleaned and lubed it properly. The connection in question was the temperature sensor and has been fine ever since.
Regards Martin.

And I will do as you did Martin.Before spring I will do every connection in the bike so when I travel out west next summer and fall the bike will be happy. I took her out yesterday and did a little over 100 miles and she ran great.I took her up into the rpm range where the problem was and it was fine I went slow for long periods and it was fine I got on the interstate and did 60 miles and it was fine .Today I rode another 40 miles and all is good.I'm a happy man tonight. Ed

Ride long and Prosper.

Hi guys,

Thanks for posting. An important topic, and one to be proactively done indeed.

Might I ask what connections you clean when you say "all connections" ?
My speedometer is acting up again and I can't seem to find the malfunctioning contact. It's intermittent, so pretty confident it's electrical.

Background : After buying the bike last year, I had some initial issues with the speedometer dying, so I cleaned all of the contacts around the battery as well as under the right side plate. I my deduction is correct that should be the speedometer, fuel pump an brake light. At the time it sorted out the problem but now the gremlin is back.

I have redone the above mentioned contacts, but without improvement. What other connections do you clean, and from where do you access them ?

Best regards,
Einar.

Einar, unscrew the small Allen head from the final drive speedo sensor, give it a gentle upwards wiggle, then give the magnetic surface of the sensor a good cleaning, also trace the two wires up to the connector on the RH side under the side panel and De-oxit those. The main connector to the instruments may need to be removed and cleaned as well. These are a good place to start. While in that same region under the RH side panel, unplug the four-wire connector which goes to the petrol tank and De-oxit there. Also, remove and deburr all of the fuses on the LH side to eliminate them as potential culprits.

@ TWB : much appreciated. When you say main connector to the instruments,  that would be the plug behind the Speedometer ? It's the only one I haven't done as I'm not feeling very confident removing the console etc. Looks tricky with the fairing in the way.

Yes, the main multi-pin plug at the back of the instrument cluster is what I'm referring to. It is not terribly difficult to remove. None of the fairing panels need be removed. The easiest access is to unbolt the cluster's shock absorbed mount to the triple clamps then carefully slide the cluster up and back to access the back side of it. Depending upon the year(?), a small Allen head is all that's needed to remove the plug from the back of the cluster for a thorough inspection and cleaning of both the female and the male pins.

It's not impossible to get to the cluster connector.  By turning the bars hard over you can get to the screws that hold the cluster in place.  Same thing for the screw that holds the connector in place, but sometimes it's easier to reach up from the bottom of the fairing. 

It's not easy, but with a bit of patience it can be done.

I had the same intermittent problem with my speedometer. I would clean the two wire connector from the speedo sensor under the right side cover and all would be well for a while. Then it would act up again, I would clean it again, and it would work for a while. The last time I cleaned it I put dielectic grease on it and it hasn't given me any problem since. That was about a year ago. Hope that works for you.

Hi again, 
Thank you for the very useful advise.
I will follow instructions and attempt to clean the speedo multiplug as soon as I'm back from travels.
As long as there are no springs and clockworks popping out like a swiss watch I should be able to deal with it.

As for the dielectic grease I will get some of that, I assume it is what I'm used to calling silicone grease.

Thank you TWB, P-S-F and JSFR80j for your quick and constructive replies ! Much appreciated.
Einar.