betcha never seen THIS before (electrical

so i went out for a quick jaunt this afternoon. i stopped at a couple of places and on my way back to the bike (seca 750) i see a light on the rear end. thinking it MIGHT be the sun i dont pay it too much attention...

when i get there i block the sun from the tail lights and low and behold the taillights are lit. the light i saw was the plate light. i stepped on the brake pedal and got no secondary filament and the key switch was in the lock position...

i didnt try to start it without the key (thinking there was a short someplace) but by the time i got home, it apparently fixed itself because they went out wheni parked it...

weird. i gusss ill have to get ready to pull the fuse next time...

 

Sounds like you turned it past the "lock" position and put it into the "park" position!
The steering will still be locked put the tail light comes on also.

 

are you sure it wasn;t the brake light stuck on?

 

I think Nick hit the nail on the head.............

 

I'm with Nick and Chacal.
I've done this myself before.

 

Add me in. Everyone does it at least once.

 

The second day I rode the bike to work I did this. Meant to just lock the steering, but ended up in Park. Almost nine hours later she no start.

Luckily, I had a jump box in the store.

 

ha! count me in! Kinda hard to know about this "feature" when the labels on the ignition lock are all wore off

I left mine on for a good 2 hours.. Thankfully it didn't empty the battery completely, and I roll-started the bike.

 

+a bunch on "Park"

My question is... what could possibly be the use for that?

 

It's a European law that bikes must be able to have their lights lit when paked on the curbside.....go figure! And they obviously didn't want to design & engineer two different ignition switches, so North American bikes got it too.........


HCP7281 Aftermarket ignition switch outer ring POSITION DECAL, correct reproduction of the original, precison die cut black decal with white lettering OFF, ON, LOCK, P, IGNITION. Self-adhesive backing. Fits all XJ550, 650, 700, 750, 900, and 1100 models.
$ 8.50

 

Nick is right. It happened to me once. Friend saw my bike parked and told me my taillight was on. I said it couldn't be. I was wrong :-(

 

Add another one to the 'been there, done that' catagory. Fortunately, my wife noticed it as we were leaving the garage.

mikeg

 

I always wondered what that function was for! I have dont it 2-3 times. I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder who is in my driveway.

 

So how do you just lock the steering? A turn to the left, but not quite as far as Park? My decal has also gone on to a better place..

 

The difference on the two spots is about as far as
8-O-clock is from 7-O-clock. Not a lot of space, but
it should feel like it wants to settle into the 8-O-clock
spot. Interesting to learn about the Europe standard,
my buddy Dan told me when I was learning that it was
so you could stop on the edge of the road at night and
people could still see you, but that seemed like a terrible
idea anyway, especially as you'd only have that little light
for them to miss. Why do they need to have the capability
to have a light on when parked at the curb?

 

Remember that in many of our cities the roads date from before the car. My terraced house is 1901 and wouldn't be considered old. Consequently there is no off-road parking and just room for one car down the middle of the two lines of parallel parked vehicles. Country roads can be much older, just horse and cart width... one vehicle wide on a 2-way road with a 60 mph speed limit, 10ft high hedges and sharp bends. If I broke down at night on one of those I'd definitely want some lights on without leaving my keys behind and there are places I definitely wouldn't park without leaving lights on.
VW cars do a similar thing; Pull over on the left with the indicator on, turn off the ignition, the right hand rear light and front parking light will stay on. Sometimes I think the Germans get a little too keen on finding solutions to absolutely everything !

 

Maybe for fog? I've seen some Audis with the tail/brake light brighter on one side too (no, not a busted lens).

 

in one of the Bugs Bunny cartoons he is a knight and Yosemite Sam is as well. Sam has a pet dragon with allergies and everytime he sneezes he blows flames out his nose which invariably burns Sams backside. Sam calls him an Ijjit Dragon....


well, im an Ijjit Dragon too i guess. did i know about this? if i did, i obviously didnt REMEMBER that i knew about this...


thanks. i guess you guys HAVE seen this before....