Agreed on bad coil or ignition module.

Just replaced the module on mine last week. Was having the same symptoms. Heat gun works great.

 

make sure BOTH battery cables are in the right way. Its hard on my bike to see the other cable but if check both cables at least its a easy fix. or rule out that's the problem

 

As stated, sounds like the coil or module........But check the little 90* connectors on the coil. I had the exact same issues a few years back. As I was coasting to the side of the road the last time this happened, I started fidgeting with every wire I could grab......Once I wiggled the little wire to the coil on the right side, the bike came right back to life. On the side of the road, I pulled that connector and gave it a good squeeze to snug up the gripper connector and slid it back on.....Fired right up and have not had an issue since.

 

I know it may appear uncalled for in this thread but he has a habit of doing that whenever I post. Just rubs me the wrong way.

 

Yet if you posted a question about a mechanical issue with your Sporty, cHarley would be one of the first five in the thread.

Try to think of this as a conversation over a few beers and not a HS debate tournament.

EDIT: To the OP, I agree with the others: check the connections, and check the coil connections first.

 

Yep my bike did the same thing. Take a hair dryer while the bike is cold and heat up the ignition module for about 5 mins or so. Then attempt to start your bike, if it backfires and turns off then you'll have a good idea of your problem. Hope this helps....

 

as soon as i changed my plug wires on my '01 xls the coil went bad. It's a cheap design with three different pieces for the shell. There was separations all over the coil. HD told me they don't have the four post coil anymore so i went aftermarket and solved the problem.

 

Sorry if I ruffled your feathers, I guess I should have put a smiley face after the sentence.

I admit it, sometimes my answers may tend to be short, abrupt, or even a bit smart-*** sounding. I guess that's what tends to happen occasionally after you've responded to the same questions hundreds of times or repeatedly read answers to OP's questions that are either misleading or flat out wrong.

I am far from a "know it all". I post here to share what I've learned about Sporties and most of that is from the school of hard knocks. At the same time, if I think answers to an OP's questions are misleading or sending the OP in the wrong direction with misinformation, I'm going to say so.

Wrong answers to questions are often worse than no answers.

 

+1 Seems like the older I get............ lol

 

I had the same thing happen years ago to my sporties (both the 2000 and the 2003) found it to be a bad ground cable, Harley had a bunch of bad cables back when the 1200s was being built, don't trust just looking at it, they look ok on the out side you have to grab it and pull on it and the cable comes out of the eyelet where it attaches to the frame. The tach and speedo fluttering off and on is a good indicator of this problem.