Hello Folks,

I've been having a few electrical bugs that came to a head today.

Last week I noticed that three of my four running lights were not on. I still had signal lights and I wasn't worried about it. It went onto the list of stuff that I need to do, eventually. Then two days ago I had my left signal light stopped working. It would turn the lights on but wouldn't flash. Eventually, became "I'll do it Wednesday after work". On the way into work the yesterday the left turn signal blinked fine. "Grr"
Then last night when I went to go home I went to fire it up and there was nothing. I shifted gears a couple times to make sure I was in neutral, took the key out, flicked the kill switch a couple times, turned the key and my neutral light came on I hit the starter and drove home. At this point my left turn signal didn't want to blink again.
Then this morning, I turned the key and the appropriate lights came on until I hit the starter. At that point it did the same thing that it did last night before I went home. Complete power failure, it was as though the battery was missing completely. Hit the switch and all lights go out. No amount of wiggle jiggle was going to get it started up. I pulled the seat, and the fuses and connections there looked good. I didn't have any more time before I had to get to work so I took the wife's car.

Anyone have this happen to them? I'm sure I'll get it back up and running in fairly short order. I'm just annoyed with it at the moment. Any suggestions where to start looking?

greenmonster wrote on 06/17/14 at 09:35:24:

What lights have you added or do you not know there are no running lights at the rear?
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Check connectors for corrosion
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and yeah... check the ground... err battery ground to the case.  you can check the ground later... for loose change.  

absolutely, lenses would have to be red.

this is why the brake light is also a running light, because the lens is red.

So for anyone who wanted to know...

I went home and cracked a beer then sat down to figure out where the electrical demon had taken up residence in my bike. The first thing I noticed is that my positive terminal screw was backed out over an 1/8".

Tightened that up and she runs like a champ again.

I guess this shows the difference between trying to fix something when you are late for work and fixing something when you have time and beer.

Moral of the story: if you need to fix your bike, beer is more important than work.