[in your best Scottish accent, aka Mr. Scott from Star Trek] “Cap’n I am given her all I can, but if the engine and frame reach a resonant frequency of 5800 RPMs…the engine could shut down!”
All kidding aside a recall that started in Australia a few weeks ago (and reported on The DawHouse #269) has made it to America. Apparently it is possible that the engine vibration at 5800 RPMs could cause the ignition switch to move to the ACC position shutting down the motor. I am sure we all know what could happen if you were doing 80 MPH in the center of a multi-lane highway, just in front of a Tractor Trailer and the engine clicked off….not a pretty picture!
The NHTSA has issued campaign number 14V413000 that affect 3,361 2014.5 Dynas, built between 1/6/2014 and 6/19/2014, in the US (and based on fact that they were recalled in Australia I assume all 2014.5 Dyna motorcycles are affected).
This recall is self-reported by HD. It first found the problem at the end of March 2014 when a bike turned itself off while on a dynamometer. Further testing determined that this was a true safety issue and they reported the recall to the NHTSA at the beginning of July.
Owners may contact Harley-Davidson customer service at 1-800-258-2464.
This happened to me but on a gilera sc125 whilst I was doing 127kmh. Any idea why other than this one above?
I checked the US NTHSA recall list and the SC125 has no American recalls applied. I have not heard of any other instances where the vibrations caused the key in the switch to move. But modern bikes have so many electronic parts that anything is possible.
If you are in the US, go to SAFERCAR.GOV. You will have to search around a bit but you will find a place to enter your VIN to see if your bike has had any issues.
Also drop a note to the company. They have a duty to collect safety issues from the public, and if they a certain number of similar comments they must do an investigation.
If it happens again let me know and I will make a post on my blog about the bike and see if there are others with similar problems.