Triumphrat

markbvt · 08-23-2007, 11:37 AM

On Sunday morning I was heading out to go on a dual-sport ride on my Honda XR650L, but the bike wouldn't start. Cranked over fine, but no spark. I ended up tracing wiring, etc, and couldn't find any obvious problems, and eventually the bike started up without issue and I went off on my ride. Bike ran strong the rest of the day.

Then yesterday morning I thought I'd ride the XR to work, and lo and behold it wouldn't start once again. When I got home in the evening I tore into it again, but never got it running. Having done my best to eliminate other potential causes, I suspect strongly that the problem lies in the CDI unit (aka, ignitor box); and browsing an XR forum confirms that XR650L CDI boxes have been known to go bad from time to time.

This has led me to wonder... I've been regularly reading this forum for three years now and I don't recall ever reading about a failed CDI box on a Bonneville. Intermittent issues due to wet connections, sure, but as far as I remember there's no history of Bonneville CDI units simply going south.

So, HAS anyone ever had any issues with their stock Bonneville CDI boxes? (Procom ones don't count.)

I have to admit that as annoying as this situation is, I find the irony priceless that my Honda has electrical gremlins while my Triumph runs flawlessly.

--mark

mlc · 08-23-2007, 11:53 AM

markt

im very green in these matters, but my bonnie is with the dealer now trying to sort some firing issues out. they said that there have been a stack (??) of cdi related issues on bonnie's of late around here. I didnt really go into the finer points with them, but thought it was interesting that they offered that straight off the bat.

interestingly that while my bonnies crook, the loan bike (hondaCBR900) is just awesome. (some major buyers remorse going on at the moment!!)

sl4sh · 08-23-2007, 12:24 PM

it happened to me:
my bonnie worked fine for 2 years, then, all of a sudden, a sunday afternoon, after a stop on a nice roundtrip, the bike wouldn't start anymore.
I had to have it towed to the mechanic.

Fortunately Triumph accepted to replace the CDI unit under warranty.

Anyway, I belong to a Bonneville motoclub here in Italy and between about 60 members all over the country, it only happened to 2 or 3 of us.

sweatmachine · 08-23-2007, 12:28 PM

Per Jojje, we don't even have a CDI!

Colin_In_Ottawa · 08-23-2007, 12:51 PM

The electronic ignition controller was defective on my Bonnie when it was brand new. It wouldn't fire the coils whenever it was below 50 degrees outside. I diagnosed it by warming it with a hair dryer 3 days in a row when it would not start last fall. It took forever to get a new one shipped to my local dealer under warranty. I emailed GILL the manufacturer but never got a reply.

monkeyboy · 08-23-2007, 01:12 PM

I have a Thruxton, but mine failed.

It would not start when hot. It was the strangest thing, and the biggest pain to diagnose as it wouldn't give the dealer any problems. Once we had figured it out, it was replaced no questions asked. Triumph did want the old one, they said they wanted to see why it was intermittant. I don't blame them.

sl4sh · 08-23-2007, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweatmachine

Per Jojje, we don't even have a CDI!

uh.. yes we do...

it stands for Capacitor Discharge Ignition

sweatmachine · 08-23-2007, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sl4sh

uh.. yes we do...

it stands for Capacitor Discharge Ignition

That is what CDI stands for, but ours isn't a CDI.

Skyblue62 · 08-23-2007, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sl4sh

uh.. yes we do...

it stands for Capacitor Discharge Ignition

uh.. no we don't ...

we have an ICU

it stands for Ignition Control Unit

But we know what Mark is on about and no I've not heard of any problems

Bonnie1000th · 08-23-2007, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markbvt

On Sunday morning I was heading out to go on a dual-sport ride on my Honda XR650L, but the bike wouldn't start. Cranked over fine, but no spark. I ended up tracing wiring, etc, and couldn't find any obvious problems, and eventually the bike started up without issue and I went off on my ride. Bike ran strong the rest of the day.

Then yesterday morning I thought I'd ride the XR to work, and lo and behold it wouldn't start once again. When I got home in the evening I tore into it again, but never got it running. Having done my best to eliminate other potential causes, I suspect strongly that the problem lies in the CDI unit (aka, ignitor box); and browsing an XR forum confirms that XR650L CDI boxes have been known to go bad from time to time.

This has led me to wonder... I've been regularly reading this forum for three years now and I don't recall ever reading about a failed CDI box on a Bonneville. Intermittent issues due to wet connections, sure, but as far as I remember there's no history of Bonneville CDI units simply going south.

So, HAS anyone ever had any issues with their stock Bonneville CDI boxes? (Procom ones don't count.)

I have to admit that as annoying as this situation is, I find the irony priceless that my Honda has electrical gremlins while my Triumph runs flawlessly.

--mark

I have an 03 Bonnie and recently my stock unit developed a short at 6600 RPM's.