This is a bike we did some light work on this summer, but what could it be…?
Since I’m the one who took the carburetor apart, it looks pretty suspicious. The rule of thumb is to suspect yourself first?
Unfortunately, I found nothing.
We definitely confirmed there’s rust in the tank. At this point, we swapped the silencer for a quieter one and took it for a test ride on the Third Keihin. No change at all. First gear revs fine, but from second gear on it won’t rev properly (though it does turn over).
It’s unclear whether it’s electrical or fuel. I predicted the odds at 90% electrical, 10% fuel, so next I checked around the pickup coil but found no issues. I swapped the ignition coil but still no change.
Suzuki bikes rarely have electrical system problems, so this is genuinely puzzling. Could it be the igniter?
I thought about that, but I don’t have this year’s Bandit 1200 or the later GSF1200 on hand.
So we decided to check the unit itself.
When I unwrapped the mysterious electrical tape… oh no. The pink signal wire was just touching.
I mean… hmm.
We didn’t have a pink wire in stock, so I made sure to wire it in a way that anyone looking at it later would understand.
And that’s how we fixed it. By the way, it wasn’t the current owner who did the wiring. When they swapped out the fender for a fenderless one, the temporary connection must have come loose?
You see bikes where people have done their own wiring work.
The mature thing to do is to think again when installing: “Will this get in the way during future maintenance?” “Could a broken or shorted wire cause problems?” “Will it stay connected and not break even if handled roughly?”
I think what was installed this time was a homemade resistor limiter cut. Sure, you can make a limiter cut by just inserting a resistor that costs a few cents, but just connecting it like that gives you a few-cents-quality result. The important thing is to put it in a box or make it robust so that no matter who touches that area later, it won’t come loose or break.
This case was another valuable learning experience where we could actually feel the symptoms.
