Bike started kicking like a mule.....

[John Armstrong]

My current 1100 hs had the side stand switch bypassed and I knew you can't leave the bike idling on the side stand if its as it came from the factory, but the rest of what I could remember has long gone

 

[essjay]

Yeah, I might look to bypassing that switch at some stage. It's a pain in the hole.

 

[Wrigsby1]

If the RID goes blank then it points to something that is a total ignition loss. Either ignition switch or wires (goes with you fitting the bar risers?), side stand switch, or kill switch.

Had the same on my GS and it was a botched repair to an ignition switch (less than £20 from one of the usual). Also with a K100 which just needed the contacts cleaning at the bottom of the ignition barrel. Also had clean or repair issues with the side stand and the kill switches on BM's.

As this is the more usual GS thing, then the switch/switch wires to the loom would be the 1st to check. As with many of these wiring things, remove cable ties and "wiggle" wires to check for breaks. Same with kill switch and sidestand switch. If you work the switches slowly you can check for duff or intermittent connections.

 

[essjay]

If the RID goes blank then it points to something that is a total ignition loss. Either ignition switch or wires (goes with you fitting the bar risers?), side stand switch, or kill switch.

Had the same on my GS and it was a botched repair to an ignition switch (less than £20 from one of the usual). Also with a K100 which just needed the contacts cleaning at the bottom of the ignition barrel. Also had clean or repair issues with the side stand and the kill switches on BM's.

As this is the more usual GS thing, then the switch/switch wires to the loom would be the 1st to check. As with many of these wiring things, remove cable ties and "wiggle" wires to check for breaks. Same with kill switch and sidestand switch. If you work the switches slowly you can check for duff or intermittent connections.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I think it's going to be a long job sourcing this problem...... I think I might start by shorting out the sidestand switch (as it's the easiest first thing to check).

 

[Wrigsby1]

Yip, I have shorted out the odd sidestand switch as well. It takes a lot shorter than writing to check and the kill switch on my K11LT took about 30 secs to find and about 30 secs with the WD40 to fix. The good thing about BM switches is it's usually a dirty connector rather than a wriecked switch. Good luck

 

[essjay]

So shorted out the sidestand switch and went out for around a 10 mile ride. No issues whatsoever. I'm not convinced that it is the that switch as I ran the bike on idle until warm earlier and revved it a few times up to around 5k. No issues then either and the sidestand switch was not shorted.

So I'll leave the sidestand switch shorted for the time beaing and if the problem starts again, at least that's one thing I know it not.

Cheers for all the replies lads.