When it rains...

We all know the saying, when it rains, it pours.

Well, this could not be more truthful for me and my motorcycle over the last month or so.

My bike was due for a service, overdue if I'm being truthful.  I'd been putting it off but it got to the stage where I knew it had to be done.  So, I booked it in.  I mentioned when I dropped it off that there were a couple of issues that I was having in regard to starting it at times as well as an odd glitch that had just started happening with the headlights.  This was what had prompted me to finally book it in.

The issue was that when I'd turn the ignition on, all looked fine, but sometimes when I thumbed the kill switch, the high beam light would come on on the dash and the headlights would go off.  Nothing I did would turn them back on either.  Something was seriously amiss.  I let the guys know about all this and they said they'd look into it.

I get a call later that day to tell me that there were a whole lot more things that needed doing, but the biggest one was the starter motor clutch.  This was worn and was the cause of the bike not wanting to start.  They also thought they'd worked out the headlight issue as well.

So, $1700 later, I pick up my bike and away I go.  It was the week before mid semester break so the bike pretty much went into the garage and didn't come out till I started back at Uni.  And of course, it was it this point I see that the headlight issue hasn't been fixed.  I call them back up and let them know that it's still an issue and organise to take it in the next day.  Because I have uni, they can only have the bike for about 3 hours and of course that morning everything is working perfectly.  They change part of the wiring loom between the headlights and the switchgear and they believe that this will fix the problem.

Fast forward to Monday night.  I've had a good day at Uni, been out to dinner with some old workmates and played a couple of hours of D&D.  We finish up about 8:30 and I'm on the bike starting to head home.  I'm in one of the back streets of Fortitude Valley when I flick on the high beams...  And bang!  Well, actually, there wasn't a bang, in fact, there was nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  No power to anything.  So, obscenities restricted to within my helmet, I manage to pull the bike up to a stop at the bottom of the hill.  Of course, there are no street lights and I can't get it started.

In the end, I push the bike to the nearest hotel and send the night in the city before I can contact the mechanics and get them to come and pick it up the following morning.  I got a loaner and headed home to try to get some work done on assessments and what not, all the time wondering just how bad things were, what it had fried, how much was it going to cost and would it be worth it.

When I spoke to them later that afternoon, my worries were put to rest.  Seems that the no-power issue was due to a short that had blown the main fuse, exactly what should have happened.  The cause of the short?  A worn wire that ran from the high beam bulb.  Seems that when I'd flicked on the high beam, this had shorted, blowing the fuse and killing all power to the bike.

So this morning I picked it back up, and checked that the high beams didn't fail and kill everything again.  So far so good.  i just hope that this is the last time I have to go in for some time to come.