CAJW
Well-known member
Recently on a 2 week trip (yeah, DC, 2 weeks!) my riding buddies and I had to stop for road construction in BFE about 100 miles out of Ely on Hwy 6. Upon getting the go ahead from the flag man, that more than likely stopped us just to have someone to talk to and share his misery sitting in the sun, I hit the starter button and NOTHING! Since I was riding sweep all my buddies had already split and I was there farting around with my bike trying to get it started. Turned off the ignition switch, back on, all instrument needles sweep and lights light as per normal, but it won't start. Cycled side stand and engine cut off switch, but still no joy. Tried this two more times then pushed the beast to the side of the road to troubleshoot. Kicked the bike into neutral and it fired right up. Hit triple digits to catch the bastages that I was riding with while I mentally went through what was going on with my skoot. Got to the hotel in Ely and put out a few calls (DC was MIA, probably on at a CBA Banquet), but got in touch with MM2, Uberkul and Exskibum. Between the four of us we did the mental exercise of what had happened and found that I could repeat the problem whenever the bike was in gear. In neutral it would start just fine, but in gear, side stand up, clutch pulled in, no joy. I exercised the heck out of the clutch switch (Rich said I should have worked the **** out of it) and found I could get it to start in gear now with the clutch pulled and in gear (side stand up of course). The issue was a sticky clutch safety switch which was cleaned with a local purchase of some contact cleaner. The remainder of the 3750 mile trip was uneventful so the problem was solved. Moral to my story is, keep switches clean (bike is stored in garage and Cali is not known for excessive moisture in the central valley) and carry contact cleaner when in the Nevada desert. Hope this write up saves someone some gray hair hundreds of miles from home and/or dealer help.
JW
JW
