One click too far

[fredintoon]

My son phoned, his bike wouldn't start after he'd parked it overnight and used the steering lock for the first time ever so it'd be more stable on the sidestand with a cover over it.
"One click too far!" I cried.
"Duh?"
"The last little leftward click on the key turns on the rear light, you have run the battery flat."
"What (expletive deleted) genius dreamed that up?"
"It's a safety feature."
He then used combinations of bad words in denigration of that feature that amazed me, followed by "Can I borrow your battery charger?"
I told him, "Yeah, sure. It could have been worse, you could have been 200 miles from home like I was when I did it."
So, how many have actually used the lock+parking light feature on purpose, rather than running the battery flat by accident?

[b.walker5]

Not me. I've never managed to get the bloody steering lock to work, let alone the park light feature....

[DGXSER]

Never here either Fred. Although I have not run the battery out, I did manage to leave it on once during a short stop. Came out and saw it on and from then on watch it like a hawk when locking.

Brian, I was recently rebuilding a lock and found that the orientation of the locking cylinder when inserted effects if the lock feature will function. So, if someone has been dorking with your lockm that may be the cause of it.

[TADracer]

I left it on overnight once a long time ago. Now I am in the habit of passing my hand by the rear light while I walk away so I can see a red glow if I went too far.

[XSive Okie]

I have never used the steering lock at all, live in small-town Oklahoma where not too many people mess with your stuff.

[psycoreefer]

I turned my key to park once, after cleaning the ignition switch, just to see if it worked. Other then that I never use the park, or lock, positions.

SWMBO on the other hand has some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to "locking" things. When she rides she always uses the lock position, I've tried to convince her that no one wants to steal our crappy old bikes, and if they actually did want it having the steering locked wouldn't stop them.

[BigRed]

I use the steering lock when I park at work, but never the light "feature". I was lucky the first time when I turned one click too far, as I was in a parking garage, so the light was obvious. I first thought my brake light was stuck on, but then figured out what the problem was.

[bchaffin]

I did it when I first bought my bike. Left it on for almost 8 hours, turned the key foward and it still started. I got lucky.

[Ivan]

I have. Now when I use the lock, I walk around to the back of the bike and make sure the light isn't on, since there is no real detent between lock and park.

[Poprock]

I always turn mine hard left, then back one click. So far that's worked. The label thingy is gone, so I had to learn the count.

[petejw]

my first road bike was a 78 xs250 back
in 82 it has the same ignition set up as
its bigger brothers, i did it on that bike,
but havent on the 11.

[madmax-im]

I never knew this... Gawd thats embarassing...27+ yrs of ownership and I just learn this now Is this feature on my '82 XJ ?...if it is I have never seen it on...then again I cant even recall ever using the lock feature...Just yesterday I did try to get the lock to work to no avail.

[mstic2000]

I've turned it to the parking light a few times by accident but never left it to where the battery went dead. First time I did it I thought, "Now what prompted someone to add this feature?" There's gotta be a story behind it.

[bikerphil]

I always figured that feature was there so if the bike broke down on the side of the road at night, you could lock it to prevent it from being stolen while going for help, and having the marker lights on so no one ran the focker over.

I use the lock on my SF because I leave it outside, but the lock is a little worn so it won\'t make it to the light on position. On my F, the lock position is disabled because of the FJ triple trees.

[kjohnson]

I never knew this... Gawd thats embarassing...27+ yrs of ownership and I just learn this now Is this feature on my '82 XJ ?...if it is I have never seen it on...then again I cant even recall ever using the lock feature...Just yesterday I did try to get the lock to work to no avail.

The XJ has a separate lock on the steering neck to lock for parking, but I think there are also positions on the ignition for park lights. Neither seem to work on my XJ the last time I checked.