2 problem after 1,722 miles this weekend

Took Friday off and logged 1,722 miles this weekend on the Seca. Trip was from PA down to TN/NC boarder area. Stayed a few nights in White Pines TN and a night in Asheville NC. Went to Deals Gap Saturday after riding through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.

Sunday rode the Blue Ridge Parkway around Asheville for a few hours but it was busy and slow moving.

Both problems happening on day one.

Problem #1 - Speedometer cable backed itself out of the instrument cluster on interstate 81 right before a rest stop. Simply pulled over and screwed it back in.

Problem # 2 - High beam of the head light bulb burned out. The Seca computer monitoring system immediately picked it up. The low beam still worked fine, just the high beam burned out. I do most my riding during the day and always use the high beam. Service Station in town had the replacement in stock, a $12.00 fix.

Cool how a 30 plus year old bike can go that far with so little trouble. These bikes truly are amazing, thanks everyone for sharing your tips on how to care for them

 

Wow man nice ride good for you... how many miles to a tank on that ride?

 

At least they were easy problems to fix. I have had my speedo cable fall off on two of my bikes. My perminate fix-put some electrical tape around the nut to keep it from backing off.
I have put 25K miles on my XS11 in the past 5 years with hardly no problems, 10K miles on a 550$ Venture with the same results.None of my Yamahas have left me stranded. With normal maintenance they will keep going.

 

Thanks man, went with my dad and not sure how many of these he has left in him.

Mileage was conditional on how fast I was traveling. Maintaining 70 mph about 145 miles per tank before reserve. Than I would go to reserve, find the next exit and top off. Each time I was adding 3.5 gallons of gas.

Maintaining 80 mph mileage dropped down to about 110 per tank before reserve and refilling.

The most gas I added was 3.8 gallons.

mlew - Super easy fixes, I like your idea on the tape. I might be able to use some blue loctite. Allot of the fasteners on my dads Excellsior Henderson use red loctite. The loctite is stronger then the hardware, if you don't preheat the fasteners to the point where the loctite starts dripping than you strip them.

 

If you put loctite on the speedo nut you would never get it off. Heat would dresroy the cable and speedo. Tape is much easier to remove.

 

+1 on what mlew says... locktite will destroy the speedo if you need to get it off. I'd go with the tape....

 

Loctite comes in various strengths. I always use the non pernament one for all brakes and any component subject to vibration where a spring washer is not practicle to use . It does the job ,but still can be removed normally. The non pernament one would be quite ok to use on the speedo cable nut.

cheers, Murray

 

There's a trick to keeping cables from "unscrewing" themselves.

HOLD the sheath by the flats on the ferrule with a small wrench when you tighten the lockring.

This keeps the sheath from twisting, and prevents it from "preloading" itself to unscrew under vibration.

 

i always wondered what those little wings were for, nifty.

and in terms of the loc-tite, i cant imagine that a tiny dab of blue would hurt anything, its more of a teflon tape once it dries to prevent the connection from rattling loose. no heat or alot of force is required to disassemble the joint once it dries.

now the red - stayyyyyy away, that shit WILL make it impossible to not destroy the cable if you ever want to take it apart again.