Kill Switch

 I left my sporty at the dealer for a new tire.  When I picked it up it
wouldn't start because they had turned it off on the handlebar switch as
well as the ignition switch. Then I remembered that some newer riders
habitually do this.  I have even had one dealer rep turn mine off for me
while I was sitting on the bike with the motor already off. It'd a minor PIA
except on my Hog, where I have rewired the switch to permit cranking the
bike without starting it.  Why does anybody do this?  Are they afraid their
bike will start itself?

 Vito wrote:

The usual explanation is that it gets a person in the habit of using the
kill switch so that in an emergency they will instinctively go for the
kill switch rather than take a hand off the bars to use the key.  I
haven't yet heard a good counter-argument.

 

I've never heard that one, but as you say, it's the only explanation
that makes any kind of sense.

They would have been especially useful on some early Hondas I owned,
which had the ignition switch mounted on the left-hand side, under the
fuel tank[1], but they didn't actually fit kill switches to those bikes:
only when they moved the ignition switches to more accessible locations.

[1] I remember BMW put them in the left-hand side of the headlight
shell, which always struck me as particularly daft.



--
BMW K1100LT  Ducati 750SS  Yamaha XT600E  Honda CB400F & SH50
GHPOTHUF#1 chateaudotmurrayatidnetdotcom
Nothing is more dangerous than an ignoramus with a workshop
manual, a 'can-do' attitude and a cheap set of tools

 On Oct 15, 7:04�am, totallydeadmail...@yahoo.co.uk (The Older
Gentleman) wrote:


When you found out that motorcycles had kill switches, did you
complain that the manufacturers were making "death threats" and
stalking you?

 

No? Why, d'you think I should have?

Loser.

--
BMW K1100LT  Ducati 750SS  Yamaha XT600E  Honda CB400F & SH50
GHPOTHUF#1 chateaudotmurrayatidnetdotcom
Nothing is more dangerous than an ignoramus with a workshop
manual, a 'can-do' attitude and a cheap set of tools