Concerned, ADVICE APPRECIATED

[pbboxer]

2004 GS1200, 9300 miles
Was riding home today and noticed the speedo seemed to have a mind of its own, needle jerking about. Wasnt overly concerned and then have noticed that every few minutes, the orange warning triangle blips for a fraction of a second and the engine, battery and oil indicators flicker on at the same time. Its happening so quickly and seemingly only every few miles.
Im wondering if it's a connection issue or whether anyone else can advise on having a similar problem?
I only bought the bike on Tuesday evening, from on here.

The motor is a little rattly but nothing worse than ive heard before, maybe a valve clearence type noise, will get it looked at.

The speedo thing hand in hand with the lights all coming on smacks of a connection or something intermittent to me, but Im not experienced with these bikes enough to guess where to look.

 

[araspitfire]

I personally wouldn't try "riding through" this kind of thing... With the master computer making decisions, something that would leave you without a speedo on a simpler bike, might just leave you with a non-running motor.. (though in my experience so far, BMW have done a good job of designing the firmware so that it is fault tolerant)

I'd be in having BMW read fault codes if it were mine...

edit: Hmm.. off warrantee... There is a tool you can buy that reads fault codes:
http://www.hex.co.za/gs911/index.html... As a most basic measure, I'd be looking for green slime around any exposed connectors... not necessarily do do with the speedo.. it's told what to indicate by the computer.. if you are getting digital noise into the console, then it could be almost anywhere doing it...

Al...

 

[Shep]

Sounds like a loose connection thing, i'd check the battery terminals first as its easy to loosen them putting the seat on if thats OK check with the previous owner and ask if he has removed any extras fitted prior to your purchase, this would point you to the first place to look, if no joy there put the bike on its centre stand and with the ign on move the bars back and forth and check for signs of th efault showing, early 1200's looms were a bit iffy on a few bikes.

Good luck

You may find a visit to your dealers diagnostic set up necessary. IME they dont charge to just pop the bike onto the GT1 to diagnose a problem.

Shep

 

[pbboxer]

Thanks a lot. I suspect it's a connection too.
I have already asked teh previous owner and am happy that he knew nothing about this sort of issue. I did take teh seats off on tuesday evening and will check teh battery before doing anything else, then check various connections before calling on BMW.

Many thanks for your replies so far.
PB