I will keep you updated. The dealer has said the same. They recommend to ride for 500 miles and if the problem occurs again to bring it back in.

 

Unfortunately it looks that I spoke too soon. I had the bike on a battery tender and had not started it for about 2 days. I fired her up yesterday and it fired up perfectly! (It also noticeably ran better, weirdly). However, it sat for about 2 hours before I was off work, I tried to fire her up and had the same sluggish start and throwing the VIN ERR on the dash happened. So it looks like the terminal wire replacement was not the fix for the error code.

According to HD techs, the next step is replacing the wiring harness. This, to me, seems crazy. Especially since the bike has less than 8k miles. Replacing the wiring harness would be an expensive and HUGE undertaking.

 

Replacing the wiring harness is crazy! I could not imagine how much that would cost on the 14 like ours. If I were you I would just learn to live with it like I have. Despite its struggling if you wait a second and try to start it again it always fires up. I have 30,000 miles on my 14 and this issue started about when I got 2,000 miles on the clock. Also the bike was 100% stock when it started so it's not related to any aftermarket stuff. But it's never left me stranded as I say just hit it a second time. It's annoying and I think f*** Harley-Davidson every time it happens.

 

Right! There's no way in hell I am paying HD to replace my wiring harness. I will do the same as you and just live with the issue. However, I am going to try one last thing. I am wondering if my Battery is just not pumping out enough cold cranking amps while its hot. So I may try an after market (high price) battery with high CCA. It seems that when my battery sits on the trickle charger for a couple of days I don't get the issue on cold startup.

Regardless if that doesn't do the trick, at least I have a nicer battery. And I will just live with the issue and do the same as you, and forever think f*** Harley every time I start the damn thing.

 

I used to see this error on my 15 Wide Glide all the time. I went to the dealer a few times, and they could not find anything wrong with the bike. I finally replaced the stock battery with an aftermarket one with higher CCA, and it fixed my problem. I believe the original HD battery for my bike is rated at 270 CCA, and I now have a battery with 310 CCA. I don't even put it on a tender every day, and just use the tender during winter. This is year 2 on the aftermarket battery without any errors. With the original HD battery, the bike would struggle to start, but with the higher CCA, it starts right up.

Would highly recommend a higher CCA battery.

 

What brand of battery did you replace the HD battery with?

The dealer did an electrical diag on my street bob and installed a jumper from the the battery terminal to the the fuse box. That seemed to fix the problem for about three days. However, the day I picked my bike back up from the dealer after they did the initial diag and installed the jumper, I found my check engine light was on and throwing a P0051 code. I spoke with a tech the other day and they want me to bring the bike back in and have the jumper removed. They insist that the next step in troubleshooting is to replace the wiring harness. Which is about $1k project... I am absolutely not going to do that. So I may just replace my battery and see if that does solves the error and weak startup.

 

Well bringing this back from the dead again. I have this same issue on my 2016 FXSB and it's always on the tender. Even it's on for days it still has the issue. Been having this issue for a long whole now.
It's the same stock battery, I have brought it in to HD and all they tell me is everything seemed to be fine, all the tests came in clear. (This was when it still had warranty.)
I haven't done anything to the bike still stock no mods. I'm thinking on putting a new battery in it maybe a Lithium Ion. Hopefully it'll fix the issue and be better. If not I may need to check the regulator as someone mentioned above.

 

I just barley fixed my VINNER code for good a few weeks ago. It turns out it was the Battery this entire time. My HD dealer tried to tell me that my wiring harness needed to be replaced... yeah ok, shows how much HD tech network knows. So I'd suggest replacing your battery with a good high CCA battery before you do any other parts replacement.

 

I suffered this V inner for 6 months...Went to a lithium and never looked back. Costly yes! Peace of mind Priceless!

 

Well, this is going to sound like something from the Twilight zone but it worked for my almost constant vinn error.
Disconnect the battery and scrape the terminals down to shiny lead. Sand BOTH sides o the tender eyelets and battery cable. Slather everything with dielectric grease and reassemble.
Do this to both terminals and hook up the tender overnight.
Haven't had a vinn error in 4 years. Still on the original battery.
Obviously YMMV.