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Turning off the. Bike

11K views 42 replies 21 participants last post by  whiting57 
#1 ·
How do younturn off your bike?
Tonight when i arrived home, i turned the bike off immediately after stoping using the handle bar switch, the bike was on 1st gear. It made a cracking sound i did not like. Do you have any idea what i was, have this ever happened to you before?
How long shouldmi wait to turn off the bike after stoping?
 
#36 ·
Sound normal to me. As my bike does wants to be in neutral to start. I also wait for the fi to do its thing before starting.
I always park in first gear. When I start the bike I do slip it into neutral turn on the ignition, and let the FI do its thing before starting. I have not had any issues starting in first with the clutch pulled in though, however I have had trouble if I hit the starter before the FI has finished its noisy little performance.

I have never gotten into the habit of using the kill switch. The only time I have really stuggled to start the bike was at the Grand Canyon last spring. I was starting to go into panic mode when........you got it, I noticed the kill switch was on. I felt relieved and stupid at the same moment.
 
#38 ·
Didja ever notice how you look around to see how many noticed your dumb mistake? I have done it on the boat, on both bikes, and on tractors I would sometimes leave the PTO on as additional safety, then forget.

I leave things undone when starting, like putting on seatbelt in the car or putting on gloves on the bike. This helps make sure the oil circulates before I go anywhere and put strain on the engine. I learned many years ago to turn on the ignition, let it think a couple of seconds and then start. I wait for the noise to stop on the bike.

Does the elevation at the Grand Canyon make any difference? Or do you already live up that high?
 
#41 ·
I live just below 5000ft. Elevation was not an issue, I had just bumped the kill switch and failed to notice. By the way I spent the second night of last Springs "Grand Canyon trip" in Kingman. Stayed at the Best Western. I left early to beat the heat. I took a picture of the bike in front of the Big Old Locomotive you folks have parked down there, then followed Route 66 to to the Grand Canyon. That was the hot leg of the trip.

I guess I have strayed away from the context of this post abit. To tie back into the original context the bike started and stopped perfectly through a temperature range of below 32 in Utah to the high 90's in Nevada and Arizona on that 5 day run. :)
 
#40 ·
Not sure what the specific mechanical issue is, but in the 70s as they started adding anti-pollution devices to the engines (specifically catalytic converters) manufacturers started warning against push-starting. I think it has to do with pushing unburnt fuel into the exhaust system and fouling sensors. That said, I have push-started my Custom: the weekend I was 500 miles from home and the stator was busily frying itself and not charging the battery!
 
#43 ·
heres what i do, bike in nuetral, kick stand down, key off ... i never use the kill switch, for those who have been riding before electric starts were the norm .... try to push / bump start a bike with the kill switch off, right after you have spent the last half hour kick starting the crap out of it, kinda like turning the fuel petcock off to stop the motor from flooding while sitting ..... yep those were the days.
 
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