kickstand sensor fustration

my kickstand indicator on the dashboard will not go away. Whether is the stand is up or engaged down the sensor light does not go off. It will still shut the bike down when put into gear... I checked the sensor itself and appears to be working. Cleaned contacts and filled with dialetic (sp?) grease. Any help would be appreciated. I would love to avoid watching my bike be towed to the dealer...

The sensor is just a microswitch with 'normally open' contacts. When closed (side stand down), it simply shorts one pin of the ECU to ground.

I would check the wiring in the microswitch all the way up to it's connector for shorts to ground. Look to see if it has rubbed through to the frame or engine cases.

Also, to confirm it is the switch or associated wiring, simply disconnect the plug from the loom. If it the light goes away, it's the switch wiring or the switch itself.

Yup, but I would get it fixed. While many will say that it's an un-necessary bit of mollycoddling by a nanny state the fact remains that most of us have become used to a sidestand cut-out and I remember only too well a case of a bloke who used to be a regular contributor to a couple of boards I frequented who was killed on his GRiSO in the UK a few years ago.

He had been frustrated by some niggling problem with the switch so he'd disconnected it. Unfortunately he left it, (The sidestand.) down one trip and it pitched him into oncoming traffic and he died under a bus. That was near Cambridge and I can remember when I went over there a few weeks later to visit family there was still a memorial at the roadside and detritus from the crash.

Please fix it.

Pete

I just replaced mine.
There cheap and there a easy swap out.
As Pete said, there a great safety item.

If you are a hater of complicated electronics there are 2 other options.

1. The (Ducati) auto retracting side stand, but if somebody bumps your bike it could fall over.
2. Honda CT110 has a fat rubber leg that extends past the bottom of the stand, it will flex and retract the stand if you leave it down.

While I've seen those switches fail on every brand of bike, the occurrences are few and far between.
The inconvenience of a break down tow is minor compared to a crash tow and Ambo.

I hardly think a microswitch is complicated electronics.

Thanks for the advice all.

Yeh, it looks like the wire as it runs along the front frame was zip tied a little too tightly. Easy fix.

On the plus side, it was comforting to see an electrical connection full of grease, that I did not put there. I'm choosing to believe that my bike was built on a "good day" in Italy. The reality was that Moto International probably that "dotted the I" on this one.

Thanks again

Excellent!

Ongoing problem... It seems my fix was only temporary. Kiskstand sensor shut the bike down at highway speed. Anybody with a 1100 have other electrical problems? Kickstand sensor is a funny thing with the 2007. Does the dashboard "kickstand" light shut the bike down or is it the ECU? Before you say what you think it should be look at the wiring diagram.

Maybe a voltage problem. Turns out my battery was weak.

Anyway she got towed to the shop (embarassing) and they can't replicate the problem.

Do our Guzzi's have a error code history?

joshct wrote:

Ongoing problem...  It seems my fix was only temporary.  Kiskstand sensor shut the bike down at highway speed.  Anybody with a 1100 have other electrical problems? Kickstand sensor is a funny thing with the 2007.

I don't know from ECUs, and I appreciate others' warnings about this being a valuable safety feature, but mine (also a 2007 1100) had the same problem as yours. Several times when accelerating to pass, suddenly I would find the bike cutting out as if it had run out of gas or was experiencing some kind of vacuum lock or whatever-the-fuck. It freaked me out until one day I went to pass another bike and it happened and I just happened to glance down at my dash and see the side-stand light illuminated. "What the fuck?", says I! When I started asking my riding buddies about it, they confirmed that it was, most likely, the side-stand-sensor-switch engaging, probably due to high-speed vibrations and I should just bypass it. Well, of course, all due respect and condolences to Roper and his dead friend, the right thing would be to replace/repair it, but the simplicity of bypassing the switch made sense to me at the time (and still does) and that's exactly what I did. Since then, no problems. I'm always conscious of raising the side stand before setting out - which for me is super-easy to remember to do since I have super-short legs and am always frustrated that it's such a P.I.T.A. to raise the motherfucker! I've never absentmindedly driven off without pulling that fucker up and I'm even thinking about clever ways I could add a little piece of something to the "meathook" to assist my unnaturally short left leg in retracting the offending side stand.

PLEASE DISREGARD THE PREVIOUS. IF YOU HAVE ANY SENSE OF SELF PRESERVATION (OR HONOR FOR THE DEAD), GET IT FIXED AND SAVE YOURSELF A LIFETIME OF REGRETS.!

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Being vertically challenged (5'2"), this is the solution I came up with for retracting the side stand. Quick rattle can and HEY!  Doesn't look any different when retracted. Just a longer pin passing up past the starter motor. It's been there since November 2012 and no problems.

Here's how it went for me : Duc 750 ss, sidestand switch missing from when I bought it. Stopped on way home one night to sort something. Figure I must have flicked stand down to get off but then fixed whatever it was while still on the bike. Brain faded and off I went, stand still down. Nice long right hander then nice long left hander. Got half cranked over for the left and and stand hit. Couldn't crank over enough to get round and couldn't lift without piling straight across median strip into oncoming traffic (we are on the left remember) . Drifted right across the lane and started up curb which was just enough for stand to tuck under. The spark show was incredible and I still have the ground down stand as a reminder. Frightened the hell out of me. Maybe I'm the only git in the world to do this but i'd still say fix the switch...

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That's the ticket! That's exactly what I had in mind though I figured I'd make something more elaborate/complicated for no particular reason. I'm conflicted, "keep it simple" is my mantra, but my artistic tendencies want to turn everything into sculpture.

KISS. Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.
Bit of steel plate with an old screwdriver shank, ground and bent to shape, pigeon shit welded (by me) to plate and........ Stumpy legs can reach!

Good job.