My '01 FXD has developed an electrical issue. Me not being any particular electrical guy its pretty much out of my realm.
First noticed this yesterday, hit the switch and nada except for the speedo light came on and the needle twitched slightly. I thought it might likely be a battery even though the one in it is virtually new. After a couple of hours it fired right up, I rode it or an hour and all was good.
Today I went out to start it and had the same kind of results. I took the seat off, checked the battery terminals which were slightly, very slightly, loose. After that it lit up like normal, rode a couple of hours with no problems. At a restaurant it went back to the same deal again. After a few tries everything lit up and it started with no issues.
The bike has 36k on it and has never given any kind of electrical problems. Any thoughts on something like this or anyone seen anything quite like it?

 

If the battery terminals are right (check them again) the next logical thing would be the ignition switch. When this happens, tap on the switch or move it from off to on a few times. If that does it your switch is on the way out.

 

Hard to say based on your description, but it sounds like either an ignition switch, run switch, start switch, or start relay...or any combination of the above, or the wiring in between either or all of these...

Since you honestly admit that electrical problems are not in your realm, I would recommend that you take it to someone who knows this kind of stuff...

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

 

I may have to take it to a mechanic. I was hoping to avoid that because of my economic situation and just trying to keep costs minimal. Based on what I've seen here it seems at least reasonable to pull the switch and inspect it as a first step.

 

Unfortunately, you may not see anything at all wrong with a component and it still be bad...you really have to check the circuits out with a testing device to know for sure...and then still sometimes it goes south on you...Electrical circuit repairs are usually cheap once you find the problem...it is finding out what to repair that costs so damn much...I have literally spent hours and hours of labor trying to locate a wiring problem or component failure and then fixing it with a 50 cent part...then fighting with the customer over the bill...