(2) Still in the 70s friend with a Kawasaki Mach III started his bike and then realized he'd forgotten to unlock his handlebars. He shut off his engine and reached around to the handlebar lock with the key, but the key wouldn't go in. He got off the bike and looked at the handlebar lock and discovered a broken key in the lock. He pulled the broken piece of key out and found that it matched his ignition key. A few months earlier the handlebar lock had fallen out of his bike and he had replaced it with one that used a different key.
Wait, what?
I'm not sure what you are asking... Perhaps I did not tell the story well. Let me try again.
Ron rode a Kawasaki Mach III. A couple of months prior to this incident, the handlebar lock on Ron's motorcycle had fallen out. As I recall, it was held in with a pressed in rivet-like thing and the rivet had come out. When the handlebars were not locked, that rivet was the only thing holding the lock in place. Ron replaced the lock, but the replacement did not use the same key as the ignition. So Ron had two keys on his motorcycle ring, one for the ignition and one for the steering lock.
Ron and I were college roommates, and lived in a dorm. Our bikes were parked in a open parking lot. One morning, Ron mounted his motorcycle, put his key in the ignition and kick started the engine. Then he realized the handlebars were still locked. Since the two keys were on the same ring, Ron turned off the ignition and removed the keys. Ron is 6'5" tall and has a long reach. So, rather than get off the bike and walk around to the front to put the key into the handlebar lock under the headlight, he was able to reach around and under the headlight and get the key into the lock while still mounted on the bike.
The key wouldn't go into the lock. When Ron got off his bike and looked at the lock, he found a key had broken off in the lock. He was able to get the broken piece of key out of the lock, and discovered that the broken piece was a match for his ignition key.
Apparently, the would-be thief had gotten Ron's key number off of his ignition switch and ordered a replacement key from the Kawasaki shop. It fit the ignition, but because of the lost and replaced steering lock, it wouldn't unlock the steering, and he broke the key off in the lock in his attempts.
So, the only reason Ron's bike wasn't stolen was because of that accidentally lost steering lock.
After that incident, not only did I buy a new steering lock for my bike with a different key from the ignition, but Ron and I both bought heavy chains and chained our bikes together and to a post in such a way that either of us could unlock our own bike and the other bike would remain locked to the post.
Well. I hope that explains it. Sorry for the confusion
