Triumphrat

tuffy22 · 09-03-2006

I recently bought a new 2001 Platinum 1200 Trophy after totaling out my '96 BRG 1200 by hitting a deer.
I bought the bike out of Baltimore. I live in Eastern Oklahoma. A friend of mine from Raleigh, NC went up to look at the bike for me. He listened to it run, inspected brakes, tires, sprockets, chains, looked for rust, and detailed the general condition of the bike for me.
The bike is slick. Not a scratch on it. It has only 6,000 miles on it. I had to remove some junk like homemade mudflaps and highway pegs, etc.
Here is the story about the wiring harness. I learned a few lessons in this project.
The bike was trailered from Baltimore to Nashville by my friend. I met him with truck and trailer in Nashville to haul it the rest of the way home. I am still not up to all day riding after my accident, so I trailered it to within 100 miles of my home and off loaded it so I could ride it the rest of the way home. I rode the bike 5 miles before it quit with an electrical problem. Loaded the bike back on the trailer and brought it on home.
I called the guy in Baltimore and told him to confess and tell me what he did to the bike so I could fix it. Here goes: It would not start for him. Here is what he did.
1. Changed ignition coils.
2 Replaced the pickup sensor.
3. Bypassed the Side Stand Relay and switch.
4. Eliminated the connector on the pickup sensor.
5. Bypassed the connector at the ignition box.
I think he touched and or moved every bit of wiring on that bike. The harness had not one section of original wrapping on it. It never could tell me what, out of all of the things he did, fixed it. The problem was probably something simple like the starter button, kill switch, or battery, but the guy messed with everything.
After listening to him, I ordered a wiring harness. It hought it was my best bet to go back to stock and go from there. Replacing the wiring harness was a relatively easy job once all of the body work was removed. The only problem was tracking down all of the wiring that he had put in which bypassed the wiring harness and diagram altogether. Anyway, once all of the wiring was complete, the bike started up, ran, and has not given me a bit of problems for ~300 miles. It should stay that way.
Lessons learned.
1. Always inspect the wiring when buying a used bike.
Look for Black tape. I want to tell the guy to let me know
next time he plans to work on a bike so I can buy some
stock.
2. Go look at the bike yourself, don't send someone else.
3. You will learn alot about your bike when you must rewire
the whole darn thing.
4. Don't mess with the wiring harness unless it is a very last
resort.
I wish I could have found a brand new 2003 on a showroom floor, I would have come out ahead. As a lady rider, I cannot afford to have an unreliable bike even though I can wrench on one myself a little. Some sicko would really love to see a woman on the side of the road waiting for help or working on a broken down bike. This guy bragged up the reliability of the bike, and it was not reliable at all. What a RAT.

In the wind again and loving it.
Tuffy

MilwFreddy · 09-03-2006

Glad to here the bike is back running like it should. Sounds like quite an experience. You live and you learn.
_______
Ride on.
Paul

trophyrider00 · 09-03-2006

Glad you got another bike Tuffy, and you're back in the saddle again. I always wonder why people will just start changing parts and messing with stuff without having a clue as to what they are doing hoping they finally fix a problem. Must have been a pride thing with this guy not wanting to admit he didn't have a clue and taking it to the dealership. After reading what he did to the bike, I would have done the same thing as you and replaced the whole harness.

The lessons you learned and posted are great advice, especially about the wiring. It's not something that I would have thought about looking at either unless something wrong was right in front of me.

trophy_cup · 09-05-2006

Glad you got the bike sorted! Great riding up your way (Eastern OK and Western AR).

Smart move on replacing the harness once one has been butchered. Not a trust worthy seller if they did not disclose though.

I had an issue with my 2000 Trophy I picked up in San Angelo TX back in May. Test rode it myself but did not use it hard so everything seemed OK. Later found a big hesitation at full throttle that seemed to come and go.

I finally broke down and pulled the air cleaner which was very dirty. Luckily it was a K&N and I could clean it easily. Also found a split metal ring that just feel out of the filter assy. Looking at it further revealed the ring is used to hold the filter assy to carb boots open and had not been put back in place correctly during last service.

Turns out the ring kept getting lodged into the right side carb intake based on pitting at the carb intake and on the air filter assy at that carb. The split in the ring was enough for it to get stuck in the intake.

Still has a bit of lean surging at low RPM however that seems to be normal and can be tuned out.

Dave