[Burnspot]

Maybe I'm imagining things or maybe not. Was in the last 10 minutes of a 220 mile ride today and the sun was setting...to the point where the speedo's glow was beginning to show up. Turned off a major highway to head for my apartment's street and noticed that the speedo had dimmed...I also didn't notice any headlight shine on the ground- I had JUST switched off the high beams (I run all day with high beams- I haven't done the headlight mod). I pulled over and got off the bike to inspect the headlights and found them on, but dimmer. Decided to run the 1/2 mile to home, turned off the bike, unlocked the garage, and fired up the bike to move it in...the lights were bright again.

Anyone ever experience a temporary electrical dimming? I did a quick inspection of wiring I could see and didn't see any issues...I'll dig deeper tomorrow, just in case.

 

[greatzippy]

Hum .... interesting. The first thing that would come to mind would be a weak battery, but if that's the case I don't think you'd be able to start the bike again after you shut it off.
Unless your battery terminal connectors are loose. That happened to me once, was out riding and noticed my head light going dim then bright. When I turned off the bike the thing just died ..... not even the tail light was on. Turned out the + battery screw was loose.
While your riding the vibrations could shake the wire causing the lights to dim, perhaps when you stopped & turned the bike off/on it had a chance to settle letting you start the bike again.
I would suggest charging the battery after you check the terminal screws to make sure thier tight. Other then that I'm not really sure what else could cause it. There shouldn't be anything on the bike that starts up when riding that draws more current the usual to cause something like that .... unless you installed it after-market. Even a bad alternator shouldn't cause you lights to go dim, at least I don't think it should.

 

[Binary Jay]

A bad alternator (speaking of cars, anyhow) will cause inconsistant charging - the battery could be getting charged more or less, and could be hovering closer to the point of causing the dimming you noticed only occasionally.

Unfortunately, I learned this lesson with the attitude that I would "wait until spring to replace my old battery", when the alternator finally failed to keep the battery charged altogether and causing a slow derangement of my car's functions until, finally, it got to the point that the ignition simply failed leaving me stranded.

Have to give credit to Ford though, even while the computer was freaking out causing just about every dummy light on the dash to be on, wipers were wiping on and off all by themselves, the ignition system was somehow ensured to always be first in line for the last drop of power from that battery.

Anyway, I digress... Go Leafs Go.

 

[Burnspot]

I took a pretty good look at everything and found nothing really indicative of a problem. A long ride the next day revealed no problems either....maybe I DID imagine it, lol. I should hit 16k miles on the odo shortly and I plan to take her to the dealer to let them do all the b***** items on the checksheet...I'll have them give it a look then unless something crops up beforehand.

 

[taurus574]

Ever walk from a really dark room and then into the outdoor when it's really sunny out? Ever walk from the outdoors when it's really bright out and then indoors to a dark room. It might be the fact that your eyes were just adjusting, that's all.