keep the key in

[Bartman]

My son has had my bike up in Kentucky for the last few months and I just got my bike back the other week before he moved to Texas. Last night I thought that I would ride it around and make sure all is good. I have recently gotten a new truck and have more keys and fobs in my pocket. The motorcycle key chain has gotten heavy with some of these fobs. While riding I got to looking at the keys and wondered what I would do if the key fell out while riding. SO I thought that I would be smart and stop and take the key out with the bike running. I did just that. Stopped on the side of the road and pulled the wad of keys out of the switch and put them in my pocket......
Later when I got home and went to turn off the bike the key wouldn't go all of the way in. SO, I assume that the tumblers moved around while riding and now I have to take the whole key switch off and disassemble!

Anyway, for those of you that haven't made this mistake.....don't. Just lighten the load on your key chain...

[JeffH]

Yep, all that extra weight with any wad of keys isn't good in any ignition switch. Car or Truck included.

Maybe you can get lucky with a bit of 3-in-1 oil on the key and drop of oil on the pins inside. Maybe that would save you that tear down unless the thing is totally fubar.
Good Luck! Just want to make sure the contacts are good so you don't get stranded.

Jeff

[Bartman]

My son had made me take the front fairing off before he took the bike to Kentucky, so all I had to do was take the front light off and then the key switch off the bike. Disassembled the switch and cleaned and lubed as I went. Less than an hour later all back together and all is good.

Now I need to put the fairing back on because this old man doesn't like bugs in my teeth...

I did put my keys on a new take apart key ring. No more stresses of too much weight on the switch. And as stated earlier, I have an old 1980 RX7 that the key switch went bad on and it was due to the weight of the keys. That is one of the things going through my mind to start with and why I took the key out while riding....

[skids]

(snip)

Now I need to put the fairing back on because this old man doesn't like bugs in my teeth...

I did put my keys on a new take apart key ring.

A few keys won't hurt anything. Get some help with installing the faring. Those things are so cumbersome!

[fredintoon]

- - - Now I need to put the fairing back on because this old man doesn't like bugs in my teeth...
....

Hi Bartman,
FWIW the visor on the old man's full face helmet wouldn't let the bugs get in his teeth.
The wind whipping past a rider's body is an essential part of motorcycling. Windshields is for cars.

[Bartman]

So tonight I started putting the fairing back on and also my key has been having a hard time turning for the last week or so. Once I had the lock apart and was looking at it closely I found that the end of my key had broken off. Luckily I had a spare key. Note: check key before taking lock apart...

I had to tear the whole basement apart till I found the wiring harness. It's amazing what you can lose in just a couple months. I finally got it all together and rode up to Publix’s. I got to thinking that I didn’t check my turn signals so when I stopped at Publix I checked and found that the right turn signal was now my running lights. I had no blinkers, so guess what I’m working on tomorrow night..