The check engine lamp comes on for for several seconds several times during my ride. I have 41,000 miles on my Sportster and it was serviced last at 40,000 miles. The motorcycle runs great but this lamp coming on worries me. What could be the cause of this lamp coming on?

Just a thought it could be shorting out on the frame some where. Does it flicker?

No it did not flicker. It stayed on a few seconds and after a varied amount of time it came back on again. So I went into the troubleshooting section of my repair manual and found that the Sportster has a Dignostic computer like our newer cars. The readout is in the odometer window. So I followed the procedure and found that I had a P-code. The code was P0563 which indicated that I had a system voltage problem.
I didn't have the special HD troubleshooting test equipment so I just used my multimeter to check for voltage drops with ignition on and engine off. Then I started the engine and watched the voltage climb up to 14 volts indicating that the alternator was working OK. So to all indications the system was working fine. So I cleared the code and tightened the connections starting at the battery. The problem has now gone away and checks for codes has shown that I really don't have any new codes. So if anyone sees the check engine lamp going on my advice would be to put your Harley in the dianostic mode by holding in the odometer reset button and then turning on the ignition and then push the reset button to check for codes.

Larry,
Great info! I am sure that this will help someone in the future. Thanks for the share.

Lenny