Only had my 1996 (electronic speedo) Road King for around 100 miles so far. Hoping this isn't a harbinger of doom...

Hooked up the GPS to check the speedo - Fantastically accurate according to the WAAS enabled Garmin unit -- Which is a great thing, as my other ride is an almost perfectly consistent 10% off.

Anyway - On with the story...

Literally moments after discovering what a great speedometer the RK had, I was at a light and looking at the dash, noticed that the speedo was reading 47MPH. While I was standing still at a light.

So, in typical American fashion, I knocked on the speedo a few times - Dropped to around 30 almost immediately. Then to around 20, then to around 12 (which is as low as it's been ever since). After that, for the rest of the ride home, it was a mess... Sometimes it wouldn't move - Knock, and it's at 50MPH. Slow down, it's at 50MPH until you knock on it a few times. All the while, never actually hitting bottom.

Knowing it's an electronic speedo, the only thing I can assume is that the thing is actually sticky on the inside. The odo seemed to have kept good tempo if that means anything.

But having a working speedo is pretty important to me... Any suggestions? Assuming it's a sealed unit, I wouldn't imagine I could hit it with a drop of WD40 (which fixes almost everything on my old bike)...

 

You can take the speedo apart, but it's a pain. This site has a pdf file with instructions and helpful hints.

http://www.custombikerstuff.com/faq.htm

 

Just "Bumping" in case anyone has anything else... It's totally intermittent at this point. Sometimes it's sticky, sometimes it's fine. Sometimes when it's hot, others when it's cool - dry, humid, it doesn't seem to be predictable at all.

If it makes a difference, sometimes it sticks when I stop - Stays stuck when I shut 'er down.

Later, I can turn the ignition switch "ON" and it may - or may not - return to "0."

Anybody have a "troubleshooting guide" for this sort of thing?