Clutch switch?

[MrDavo]

Why does my K1 import have 2 wires going to the clutch lever? Why does it want to know if I've got the clutch pulled in or not?

[Bullit]

Safety feature so you can't start it in gear? But then surely the neutral switch could do the same job?

[SteveD CB500K0]

Like most modern bikes, I guess they won't let it start without the clutch lever being pulled in.

Years ahead of their time...   

[hairygit]

The idea is that you CAN start in gear, but ONLY if the clutch is pulled in or in neutral. Chances are your K1 has a later switchgear fitted by a previous owner, as I seem to recall they started fitting the "Safety circuit" from K3 onwards.

[royhall]

Americans, you have to make allowances. They treat their entire population like they are thick.
Disconnected mine on the F2 as its a pain in the arse.

[Spitfire]

Here's how it works (F2 diagram)


Cheers

Dennis

[SteveD CB500K0]

So those of us on modern bikes must be even thicker...

We're not allowed to start our bikes even in neutral without the clutch lever pulled in.

[royhall]

Well you know us bikers need protecting from ourselves. Left alone we probably couldn't get our socks on the right way round.

[Bullit]

And don't forget about the side stand switch.

[RGP750]

I do seem to remember back in the very early 70's
a mate being very cool in front of the local girls
having his bike on the side stand and while putting on his helmet he hit
the starter button and it lurched forward and fell on it's side, OOps!
red face and he didn't pull

[royhall]

"O yes" the good old side stand switch, had forgotten about that. The worst sufferers for that are Ducati owners, had one on my 750SS.

I probably do what many others do. Open the garage and get the bike out, start it up and put it in the driveway, leave it running to warm up whilst I go shut the garage door and side gate. Put your helmet on then your gloves etc, get on the already warmed up bike and go.

Not on a Ducati you don't. With the engine running put the sidestand down and the thing stops. Not too bad on a modern Jap bike, but as 1999 air cooled Ducati's wont run at all when their cold you have to get ready to go and sit on the bike whilst it warms up. A real pain in the a***.

I was left in the ridiculous situation of leaning the bike against a wall whilst it warmed up. Nice and safe is that Ducati, not really thought that through have you.

Disconnected that stupid idea as well.

[royhall]

I do seem to remember back in the very early 70's
a mate being very cool in front of the local girls
having his bike on the side stand and while putting on his helmet he hit
the starter button and it lurched forward and fell on it's side, OOps!
red face and he didn't pull

If he was anything like me in the 70's a clutch switch wasn't enough. The police should have a machine that checks for Testosterone then they should take the keys away. 40 years later, where the hell's all that Testosterone gone?

[MrDavo]

Chances are your K1 has a later switchgear fitted by a previous owner, as I seem to recall they started fitting the "Safety circuit" from K3 onwards.

Which explains why I am now having a nightmare reconnecting the wires in the headlight from the switches following my handlebar swap, and why there are a couple of extra wires with heat shrink sleeves over their ends. I will look at the K3 on wiring diagrams to see if any of the colours changed.

At the moment I have no working kill switch (ignition is always on), and only one throttle cable (and only one nipple hole on the twistgrip) I would like at least one of thse items put right, the ignition switch doesn't look easy to reach when the throttle is stuck wide open.  The hardware is there under the tank for the throttle close cable, it's just not connected to anything.

[Bryanj]

from memory the kill switch has a black wire and a black/white wire which connect when the switch is in the on position, if your ignition is on all the time I suspect that the black and black/white from the loom are connected in the headlamp shell.

THIS ONLY WORKS FOR SOHC4 SWITCHGEAR as you have only one cable hole the switch may be from a totally different model and could work differently!!

[MrDavo]

I have the 2 holes for the throttle cables in the twistgrip, with a second thread for the adjuster, so I'm still assuming that I am using CB750 switchgear. I'll check tonight when I'm back in the garage.

If reinstating the kill swich is as straightforward as that it will be a pleasant surprise, I'll need a multimeter on the swicth to see if it works Ok - my guess is that it was disconnected for a reason.