VanFrederick
05-14-2009, 07:10 PM
Awful, awful.
Sunday I got rear-ended by a teenager whose only concern behind the wheel
was keeping her cell phone up to her ear. That's another story completely.
Suffice it to say that the only reason I'm still alive is because I have a
sidecar rig. If I were on a solo bike, I'd have gone down and been pushed
into oncoming traffic. As it was the damage was restricted to the taillight,
fender and sidecases. I hope.
Tuesday, on my way into Philly to meet with my attorney and get the bike
damage estimate, my kill switch failed causing the bike to die on the
Schuykill near Manayunk. I know it was the kill switch because jiggling it
worked for a while but after the fifth time, it failed completely and no
amount of jiggling could resuscitate it. I'll spare you the details of that
hellish day except to say that what I should have done is unclip the
starter/kill switch, clean off the contacts, and reinstall it. What I ended
up doing was cutting wires and trying to bypass the kill switch by patching
one of the thick power wires into one of the other ones. This gave me power
to the ignition and I was able to pushstart the bike and get it home.
Pulling into the driveway, though, the red battery light came on and the
gear position indicator went out. I got a new brand new combo switch,
installed it. But the gear position indicator is still out and the start
button is ineffective. The red battery light isn't on anymore. Everything
else works fine, headlights, blinkers, etc. It behaves just like it did when
the kill switch failed in the first place: no power to ignition, start
button does nothing, the rest of the stuff on the right combo switch works
fine. It's a brand new switch so there shouldn't be anything wrong with the kill/start.
AFAIK there is no fuse that just regulates the ignition and the gear
position indicator. Is there a relay that just does this? What else could I
have fried? The bike ran fine for 20 minutes! Then, something happened.
I am thankful that it waited until I got in the driveway...if it had died
again on the way home I would have had a nervous breakdown.
BTW the dog is fine. She didn't hit the sidecar, just my rear wheel.
Van
Sunday I got rear-ended by a teenager whose only concern behind the wheel
was keeping her cell phone up to her ear. That's another story completely.
Suffice it to say that the only reason I'm still alive is because I have a
sidecar rig. If I were on a solo bike, I'd have gone down and been pushed
into oncoming traffic. As it was the damage was restricted to the taillight,
fender and sidecases. I hope.
Tuesday, on my way into Philly to meet with my attorney and get the bike
damage estimate, my kill switch failed causing the bike to die on the
Schuykill near Manayunk. I know it was the kill switch because jiggling it
worked for a while but after the fifth time, it failed completely and no
amount of jiggling could resuscitate it. I'll spare you the details of that
hellish day except to say that what I should have done is unclip the
starter/kill switch, clean off the contacts, and reinstall it. What I ended
up doing was cutting wires and trying to bypass the kill switch by patching
one of the thick power wires into one of the other ones. This gave me power
to the ignition and I was able to pushstart the bike and get it home.
Pulling into the driveway, though, the red battery light came on and the
gear position indicator went out. I got a new brand new combo switch,
installed it. But the gear position indicator is still out and the start
button is ineffective. The red battery light isn't on anymore. Everything
else works fine, headlights, blinkers, etc. It behaves just like it did when
the kill switch failed in the first place: no power to ignition, start
button does nothing, the rest of the stuff on the right combo switch works
fine. It's a brand new switch so there shouldn't be anything wrong with the kill/start.
AFAIK there is no fuse that just regulates the ignition and the gear
position indicator. Is there a relay that just does this? What else could I
have fried? The bike ran fine for 20 minutes! Then, something happened.
I am thankful that it waited until I got in the driveway...if it had died
again on the way home I would have had a nervous breakdown.
BTW the dog is fine. She didn't hit the sidecar, just my rear wheel.
Van