Total Turn Indicator Failure

Do you believe in a coincidence?

On my recent trip to Holland I stopped just after I had crossed the French – Belgium border to use the loo at a service area. When I came back to the bike I noticed the right mirror pod was hanging by its retention strap, someone must have knocked it off!

On the ST1100 the mirror pod also houses the turn indicator and wiring, when the pod had been knocked off the wires had come our of the indicator bulb socket, so I reconnected them and refitted the POD and then tried the indicators, sadly no go.

I decided to proceed on my way to Tilburg in Holland and on arrival at the hotel gain access to the fuse box to see if the indicator circuit fuse had blown, hoping that the fuses were clearly marked.

The journey up to Tilburg went fine using hand signals, fortunately it was dry and on arrival at the hotel I was able to park directly under a light. So I checked in made my self a cuppa and then went back down to the bike to have a look at the fuse.

On the ST1100 to access the fuse box you need to remove the left pannier and seat and then remove the left side panel which isn’t too much of a problem as long as you have tools, fortunately I always carry a tool kit and I was soon looking at the fuse box, just next to the battery.

It was clearly marked on the fuse box lid that the stop light and indicators shared the same 10amp fuse, so I switched on the ignition and depressed the foot brake, the stop lamp lit up which proved that the fuse was ok, at this point something inside told me to physically check the fuse anyway just in case some previous owner had reconfigured the wiring, a last ditch hope really – the fuse was fine. So I reassembled everything and gave up and resigned myself to the fact that the return journey next morning to UK would be done with hand signals.

Later I spoke to my wife, Shalini on the phone and explained what had happened and that I though the flasher unit had most probably given up, but what a coincidence that it should give up the ghost at the same time as the mirror pod was knocked off.

The trip back to UK, some 360 miles or so was uneventful, although my left shoulder was really painful after putting my arm out into the air flow to make turn signals (remember I broke my left collar bone last year), but main things was we got home safe and sound.

If I say it was like riding naked not having indicators I am sure you will know what I mean.

Later that afternoon I rang A1 Honda in Stamford, my local Honda dealer and explained what had occurred and they requested me to take the bike into them first thing Saturday morning which I did.

It turns out the fault was a broken wire, this wire was on the left side of the bike and not physically connected to the mirror pod, so the fact that the mirror pod was knocked off could not had had any effect on the wire, so there is the coincidence, but now the indicators are fully functional again and riding is a whole lot safer.

At this point I would like to express my special thanks to the team at A1 Honda, on numerous occasions now they have fitted the bike in for repair at very short notice and have always done an excellent job at a very reasonable price, in fact this is twice this year they have done short notice repairs for me, the first incidence was about a month ago when I realised that my fork seals had popped, think this must have occurred as a result of a meeting with a pot hole in the road.

The guys at A1 Honda fully understand how crucial it is to have the bike in tip top order when you are a courier and having their backup is real a real comfort.

If you live in the South Lincolnshire area I would really recommend you either talk or go and visit the team at A1 Honda for all things to do with Honda motorcycles, you can find them on Broad Street in Stamford or on the web at:

http://www.a1honda.co.uk/

All the best and safe riding

Dave