Quick background:
The PO of my bike said there was a problem with the high/low beam dip switch. The problem was that when in the low-beam position, the lights would sometimes randomly crap out and he would switch to hi-beam. So he jumped the hi-beam wire in the headlight bucket directly into the circuit, effectively bypassing the faulty switch, so the Hi-Beam is on all the time. Not a problem as it isn't a strong headlight anyway (35w/35w).
I would sometimes fiddle with the switch anyway and a few weeks ago, if I flipped it just right, the lo-beam started to come on. Since the hi-beam was perpetually burning, I would get LOTS of light with both filaments burning, in addition to the front running lights. I knew this was putting a load on the electrical system so I didn't do it often, only when the road was REAL dark, such as the last mile or so near my house in the boonies.
On to my tale:
Riding home tonight, I decide to flip the switch down to lo-beam (I keep it on high since it started working), and low and behold, the low-beam ONLY came on. WTF?? The hi-beam and it's corresponding indicator light went off and everything. I was stunned but realized that THAT can't be right because when I flip the lo-beam on, the gauge lights go off as well. So I rode home with the high-beam on pretty much, but kept flicking back and forth to check it.
Eventually I got back to my street (a winding dark road through the woods) and I'm leaned over cooking it through a nice right-hander and for grins I flip down to lo-beam again. All the lights cut out. Mid-corner. In a decent lean. On a narrow road. Pitch f***ing black. Ah S**T! I exclaimed. I pulled over and flipped the switch. No dice. I figured the excessive load of running both hi and lo beams and the running lights put a load on the already marginal electrical system (being the first year of the "lights-on" legislation, it was still geared toward having the light off most of the time and quite overworked with it on 24/7), and it would require me to go all through it at home.
F**K!!!
But what to do NOW? TOTALLY dark road, running engine, but dead lights. "Invisible" to traffic (no traffic for miles though) and about a half mile from home. My stop lamp worked however, so I said "screw it" and slowly rode the last half mile home with my foot lightly resting on the rear brake pedal just enough to light up the rear lamp. The moon was bright, so I could see ok.
I get home and start applying Occam's Razor. Try the simple stuff first. So I checked the fuse panel. Lo and behold again! The stop lamp and head lamp fuses are blown. I replaced them and LET THERE BE LIGHT!!! It worked!! I pulled and checked what fuse activated what and when riding home I must've blown the tail lamp fuse first, which is why the switch started to work (the hi-beam wasn't perpetually on), but on lo-beam the instruments crapped out (unknown to me, the tail lamp crapped too), then that last flick to lo-beam blew the head lamp fuse and that was that.
This weekend I'm going to get into that headlight bucket and fix the wiring back to factory and take that switch and clean the contacts. It clearly works but I'll bet needs a cleaning.
Anyway, sorry for the long story, but that was a real pucker-factor tonight. Having the lights crap the bed in the middle of a corner. Thank God it was a bright night and a lonely road.
