In the early 90's i had a FJ1200A, lovely bike BTW.
I bought it new and when i got it i had the option of a new trick alarm system to be fitted. Now being a bit of a gizmo ejitt and a long adopter of all things new i thought i'd have it fitted.
One of the tricks is that it could start the bike remotely. When the bike was parked up in my back yard as it was then, and it was chilly, i could hit the button from the kitchen window it would start, and be nicely warmed up by the time i had my helmet and gloves on. No key was needed either.
One nice summers day with the bike parked up in the middle of a packed Darlington high St, i did my usual trick. As i walked up to the bike i hit the button to start it up. This was usualy a pretty good trick, walking to bike, bike starts, onlookers impressed with my magical powers
What happened next though was at the same time the funniest thing i've ever seen and also the most heart gut wrenching.
As i hit the button, the bike started, jumped of its sidestand hurled its self about 10ft forward and fell over, keeping the engine revs at redline, probably to make sure i had the most attention possible all with me at least 10 yards away. As people were running away from this haunted bike that had just tried to leg it up the high street by itself, i had to go up and hit the kill switch to turn the thing off.
It was with much embarrassment i picked the bike up, got on it trying not to make eye contact with anyone including the pigeons, restart it and took it round the corner before i even stopped and checked it for damage. Luckily it was just the usual plastic work that was scraped.
Thankfully it didn't hit anyone or anything. Imagine that on the claim form.
Q: where were you when the accident happened with your motorcycle?
A: Up the street watching it happen!!
The bike's engine was not supposed to start if it was in gear, and i later found out it was partly wired into the neutral indicator light. This hadn't been connected correctly and eventually earthed it self allowing it to start in gear.
It had been fitted by Cusworths in Doncaster who denied all responsibility for the problem when i got in touch with them. The alarm was removed pretty damn quick after.