I have a question, maybe it's stupid, maybe it's not. I'm not sure. Hopefully someone can enlighten me. Me and my wife went on a nice ride yesterday and at around 100 miles I noticed a red glowing reflection coming off the top of outer primary cover from between the cylinders behind the horn. It's a fuel injected 2000 Ultra Classic. This is the first fuel injected bike I've ever owned. Most of the ride was on the freeway and thats when I noticed it. Right before that we where in stop and go traffic for about 20 mins. The weather was 75 degrees and sunny, absolutely perfect for a couple hundred mile ride. I'm not a master mechanic by any means but usually do my own wrenching and figure stuff out. I dont know very much about how fuel injection works but that is all I can see in there. I didn't think anything in between the cylinders got hot enough to glow. It didn't seem to affect any thing. As far as I know it's never happened before, at least I never noticed it before. It went away after about a half hr. When we stopped I looked around for something out of whack but I'm not real sure what it looks like when its in whack. Is this normal? Should I be worried? What, if anything, should or could I do?

 

If ya want's to know what it is, next time stop, and getcher eyeballs in there and check it out. If it's your exhaust pipe, and you've been motivating down the road, might be running a little lean. If you noticed it at a stop, probably a normal deal. I suspect that you'd be better off giving that problem to a mechanic rather than taking a whack at it yourself. Trust me, you'll be happier if you did.

 

I'd guess the red glow was from the head pipes - don't know what you have.

some WWII night combat aircraft had exhaust shielding so the bright cherry red exhaust could not be visible.

 

I remember a time when my wife and I were driving to town one night in our pickup. We saw a flashing light on the mountain range in front of us. As we turned with the road from North to Northwest and back the light seemed to move on the range. We entertained ourselves for about 20 minutes about what it could be until we realized it was my new cellphone's led indicator reflecting off the windshield.

It could be that you had an experience like mine and the red glow was a reflection from an outside source. If not, my money would be exhaust. Nothing else should be getting anywhere close to glowing hot.

 

There are no headpipes behind the horn cover, or between the cylinders.

Horn wire shorting out maybe?

I really need a bit more info...

 

Head pipes aren't between the cylinders - maybe it was a UFO reflection.

 

Thanks for your responses. It definitely was not the exhaust. Harley Davidson motorcycles do not exhaust from in between the heads, as far as I've ever seen. It also is not my phone or any other electronic device. I will look at horn wire to see if it looks bad. I was hoping someone had this issue because usually if you put something like this out there someone somewhere has had the same thing and either fixed it or is still looking for the problem. Coincidentally, the bike will only charge if the rpms are over 2000. This just started on Friday. As far as I know, the charging system does not have any thing under the intake and whatever else is in between the cylinders. I don't know that for sure tho. I know somebody is going to say "why did you go for a couple hundred mile ride knowing your charging system may be going bad?" Well, here in Southeast Michigan the really good riding days are almost gone and it charges at highway speeds so I figured it would be ok, and it was. except for worrying about this thing getting so hot it glows.

 

How long have you had this bike? Sounds like it might be LED accent lights. An infraed thermometer might help too. http://www.harborfreight.com/non-con...9465-8905.html Kinda fun to have around too.

 

It's not lights. I got this bike in February and put over 5000 miles on this summer. The only issue I've had is a crack in the rear exhaust pipe, which I welded, problem solved, and I had to replace the fuel pump relay. It's been an awesome bike. The glow was not near as bright later in the day and it did go away even when I first noticed it. just not sure what could get that hot in between the heads.

 

It was Grog the "red nose Gremlin", if you don't have a bell you best get one.