Paging the my-rear-light-burns-a-tad-too-often-isti

But first, an ode:

Oh how I appreciate thee, o nameless Suzuki engineer,
who has thought of putting a rubber cap on the back of the rear light
assembly,
so I can change the burnt bulb in 30 seconds with no use of tools
whatsoever.


And now to the question:

As you can guess, brake light got burnt and my mate and previous owner of
the bike says that it tends to happen rather often (he didn't specify how
often). Any suggestions what I should be looking for in case there's a
slight electrical fault? Could it just be blamed on too many
vibrations/shaking around due to the fact that the bulb sits rather loosely
in its fitting? It's a Suzuki Freewind and the roads around here are more
than just bumpy.

Side question: Is it normal for the bulb to go completely dead when it burns
only one of the two filaments?


Geo

 

You do realise that one filament is the rear light, the other is the
brake light, don't you? Each should work independently.

 

Is there any blackening of the bulb glass? That's often a sign of a poor
connection to the bulb - sometimes you can bend the contacts of the
holder a little to give slightly more spring pressure.

 

I do, which is why that behaviour puzzled me. I thought it might be some
sort of perverted security feature that I failed to comprehend, e.g. "if
brake light filament burns, then whole bulb stops working, in order to alert
the rider more easily". I realise it makes little sense, but I had no better
explanation.


Geo

 

Thanks for the tip, I thought an LED would be a nice upgrade either way but
left it for some other time. Hope I won't need to replace the bulb again too
soon.

Bugger. Suggestions anyone?


Geo

 

Take a leaf out of TOG's book, and don't use the brakes at all. No
brakes = no wear on the bulb filament.

HTH

Paul.

 

Cool, just thought I'd better check.

Have you tested the individual filaments with an ohm-meter?

 

Not to mention the even more substantial savings in brake pads....
ITYF however that pads/bulbs are more easily replaced than broken
bones/ruptured spleens/torn ligaments/impaled arseholes (for the extremely
unlucky). Even worse, all these Indian replacement organs on the market are
hardly acceptable OEM quality.


Geo

 

Heh. See YTC on this. If TOG's brake lights come on, it's a good idea
to use yours.

P.

 

The bulb was quite clean as much as I remember (I'm not home atm), but I'll
check again tonight.

Geo

 

Erm, not yet, I'll fish the bulb out of the
garb^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H test it tonight.

Geo

 

As you can guess, brake light got burnt and my mate and previous owner of

My old GSX550 suddenly started blowing head/tail/stoplight bulbs. Turns out
the voltage regulator had decided to commit suicide and was letting
much-too-high voltages through. Replaced that and all was well.

Do you have one of those volt measuring things?