I *love* alarm installers - at least I got that sorted

As I hinted in my earlier post to UKRMC the VFR has been suffering from
an(other) annoying electrical problem for a while as the lhs indicators
were on an extended holiday and would occasionally drop by.

Finally made an attempt to get it sorted today. It required a bit of
fiddling with cables but I finally traced the problem to a broken cable
in the indicator loom. Of course it wasn't "just" broken, the guy who
had removed the alarm from the bike (why?) had soldered the cables
together in such a clever way that a clean break had occured and the
whole thing was only held together by the heatshrink tube that had been
used around it. Re-soldering was pointless as it would break there
again - the cable was too long due to matey soldering in an extra
length of cable; of course the extra strain had broken the soldered
joint in the first place...

Fortunately I had a similar connector in my box of electric trickery so
I could just replace the little wire stub and the crimped connector in
the block. Wahay. After about half an hour of tracing the wiring and
fifteen minutes of swearing, I've got reliable indicators again.

Next jobs, fit new front disks as the old ones are warped, put a set of
bar raisers on and sort out the squishy front end. And then I may want
to go and insure and tax the bloody thing again.

Anybody got a front paddock stand I can borrow?

 

Maybe. Where are you?

 

Ashford, Kent...

 

*Waves*

 

Consider it borrowed then, thanks.

 

It's designed for Ducatis.

 

It's designed for Ducatis.[/QUOTE]

A trellis framed paddock stand?

 

How does it hold up the front end then?

 

It has a small compartment to hold the spare spark plugs and the number
for the AA stenciled on the side.

 

I tried to avoid being bitchy but you just couldn't resist could you?

 

Absolutely not, I can't see a belt without punching below it, grabbing
and twisting.

 

Single sided, perchance?

 

You utter, utter ****.

 

The prongs fit into the bottoms of the fork legs.

 

Which should work on the Honda as well, unless Ducati uses really
spindly fork compared to Honda, and I somehow can't see that happening.

 

Timo Geusch says...

Probably for the same reasons I've removed the alarms from almost every
bike I've ever had with one fitted - because alarms on bikes are shite
and will always give you trouble.

My ZX-9R alarm was going off at 2am and wouldn't turn off on the fob,
simple solution was to snip the fucking alarm wires with a pair of side-
cutters and remove the back up battery from the unit. Next morning I
traced the loom back and soldered it all back to standard. I also ripped
the alarm box out of my Thunderace and threw it in the skip at the Black
Horse.

I just know the Triumph's Datatool alarm will play up one day, but I'm
ready for it and know what to do now.

 

Well, I'm more of the "I'm not going to have an alarm in the first place"
persuation - the salesweasel at Auntie Carole was about ready to have his
head explode when I explained to him that no, I was not going to have an
alarm fitted to the BMW (sorry), and *especially* not by one of their
mobile guys.

And herein lies part of the problem - soldering cables that are exposed to
vibration isn't necessarily a good thing as they can break if you don't do
it right. The bloke that played with the electrics/removed the alarm on the
VFR couldn't. I was glad that it got away with a non-working indicator as
it could've been worse. Like, turning off the engine while doing about
50mph on the M20 like the other "professional" electric repair I've had on
that bike.

Aren't those things just plugged into a secret connector in the Triumph loom
anyway?

 

Timo Geusch says...

Oh that's right, just give the fucking game away, why don't you.

 

FFS, those who nick bikes already know that. I mean, it's even been in
*DiRE*.

 

But not as much trouble as not having petrol.