Self canceling turn signals: love em or hate em?

On the plus side, you never have to worry about them staying on. On the minus side, they sometimes cancel before I make a turn.

I also ride a Kaw which does not have self cancel and I'm leaning toward disabling that feature on my XJ. I think I'd rather not have it cancel too soon than forget and let it blink.

What are your thoughts?

 

I personally like them; even though my '81 still exhibits psychotic behavior at times (they cancel, then throw in a stray blink or two a couple seconds later. Very intermittently.)

 

Self canceling is nice........ when it works. I personally would not spend much time fixing this feature if it broke. But then my bike does not look anything like BigFitz's bikes do.

Loren

 

I like it, Its not any problem to keep them working. When I changed the tail lights on my XS I spent many hours to modify the OEM flasher to keep the auto cancel feature and to keep the OEM looking flasher.

 

Hi, Loren and all

I like this feature a lot and I have had no turn signal problems so far.
I need to add this feature to my GPz now.
After having both makes now, I see why there are so many more old Secas and Maxims still running. The GPz550 seems to need a lot more TLC and harder to get help and parts.
The Yammies just keep running even after being left in the rain and not started for weeks.

 

Mine seemed to act erratically so I manually override it, ie: I intermittantly toggle the signal on while I'm waiting to turn or toggle it again right before entering the turn. It may still be on, but my eyes are typically on the road and not on the guages.

I manually turn them off.

I also have a Kawasaki with no self cancelling. I prefer the Yamaha set up where I press the button in to cancel rather than sliding the switch. I dunno why *shrug shoulders*

A note about the GPzs. It seemed like back in the day they were more common than the XJs. I'd be curious to know sales figures for XJs and GPzs. I always figured there are more XJs surviving because they weren't abused as much as the GPzs.

 

I like the push in to cancel feature a lot too.
"Back in the day" all I saw was GPz550's but it took me three years to find one I wanted. The Secas took about three weeks to find. I see old Secas and Maxims everywhere in Vancouver, a lot look like refugees from the scrap yard but they are still running.

 

back in the day. there was an abundance of motorcycles. but then the economy came to a halt. and all those bikes not selling. yamaha had excess maxims and secas. the bikes retailed for $2400. yamaha offered a $300 rebate and the dealership also offered a $300 discount. bringing the price down to $1800. yamaha had tons of radio advertising for a moonlight madness sell. my stepdad cosigned for me and that was my very first vehicle i ever owned.

for a breif period yamaha was the #1 selling bike. but then honda introduced the V45 magna. and V65 magna the following year. then it became a tie between yamaha and honda for most bikes sold.

by the way. i prefer self cancelling. but then, i don't actually turn the signals on untill my turn is close instead of 1 mile down the road. LOL.

my suzi doen't have the push. i have to slide it over to off. yes it sucks.

 

I like the self cancel, but living nearly in the boonies, I tend to turn them on FAR from the turn and renew them.

I could live w/o them. The cluster lights are bright enough in case you forget to turn them off.

 

I like the self canceling, what I don't like is when I am at 1500 rpm's and lower they stay on, they don't blink. Is that the way they are suppose to be or do I have an electrical problem? My 1st bike I don't remember if it had turn signals or not the last three no signals no frills

 

i can't stand them. as a creature of habit i've gotten very used to turning my signals on and off (like i automatically turn my lights on when i turn my car on no matter what time of day). but ive been considering disabling the auto cancel unit as of late, since it seems to have made a reappearance. my lights used to ignore it, but now they randomly turn themselves off. maybe i have a wiring issue, i don't know. couldn't hurt.

 

Don't like the self cancel. My bike likes to cancel on me when I don't want it too and I have had a couple drivers honk at me for it.

 

the canceller is designed to shut off after 6 seconds according to the manual.

 

Depends on the model. Some of us have distance sensor. A counter that runs off the speedo cable and cancels after a certain number of spins, thus a particular distance traveled. Or so I understand from my manual and wiring diagram, my blinkers were one of the original faults that caused the PO to park 'er years before she came to me. Got an aftermarket relay so no auto.

I too like the "push to cancel" simple operation.
I never used to use hand signals until I rode an effing beemer.

 

Get a multi-meter and check your voltage at idle. You could have worn out brushes, weak battery, crusty electrical connections - etc.

What I don't get is why self cancelling, which came out in 1977 on the XS750, and was on almost all street models, is NOT on my FJR 1300 !!
It even has the "push to cancel" switch.

 

Your FJR IS a Yamaha, and it is 4 years old... you sure it's not just broken?

The irony is, I HAVE a brand new NOS flasher relay and a brand new NOS flasher cancelling unit and a bunch of reedswitches so I'm sure I could easily cure the psychotic cancelling behavior. But I don't want to-- it's part of that bike's personality.

I too live in a rural area, and often end up "renewing" as I approach my turn, but it's a minor inconvenience compared to the overall advantage.

I think it was a neat techno-triumph for Yamaha at the time, and it did work quite well all things considered. Everybody should read SQLGuy's thread, http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14068.html (about LEDs but he deconstructed the self-canceller very well) it's amazing how sophisticated it is, especially compared to some of the other systems.