Help with lights

[alvamabel2018]

I've already mentioned this before but now I have a bit more info and a few more problems to add on aswell. But here goes...

Arrow When I'm stationary my tail light just sits on as normal. If I press front or back brake then the brake light comes on. Good, all normal there. But as soon as I pull away the brake light comes on and stays on. I noticed it for myself last night as I was doing some countryside riding with my mate and I could clearly see the road behind me was bright red. I noticed if I pressed my front brake the light remained on brake light but as soon as I released the front brake the brakelight went off for half a second then went back on to brake light again. The minute I pull over and stop the brakelight goes off and reverts back to just normal tail light. I'd really like to figure out what's causing this as it's pretty dangerous riding in traffic.

Arrow Secondly, I think every NSR has had this problem... When I'm travelling with high revs, the indicators flash incredibly fast. Just before the redline they're on constantly. Another problem I now need sorted since I've started using the motorway since I passed my test. Cant' really indicate changing lanes properly since the bike is always high in revs on the motorway.

Arrow Been out riding all last night. Half way home my mate pulls over in front of me to stop for a bit, so I indicate to pull in. As soon as I use the brakes I notice the indicators stop work. Then when I stopped I released the brake and the indicators came back on but with each flash the headlights lost brightness then became brighter again between the flashes. I just turned the bike off at this point and got off for a 5 minute break. When I got back on the bike I turned the key to turn the bike on but got absolutely nothing. Tried fiddling about for 10 minutes with the battery and cables but no luck and ended up phoning the AA. Sods law that it suddenly came back to life 5 minutes after that though so I phoned back and cancelled and continued on my way home. The bike seemed ok from then on appart from the two problems I mentioned above.

What the hell is wrong with my bike? Crying or Very sad
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gdgd

[uberkron]

Sounds like rear lights have lost their earth to me.
Indicators are finding earth through brake bulb and vice versa.

The rpm related flash speed may be a failed flasher relay.
But may be related to poor earth.
If indicator loses an earth it doesn't draw current so you get fast flashing.

Check charging voltage too.
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i ride a zip 50 2smoke. It overtakes a hundred times a day.

[Teflon-Mike]

I'm a bit confuddled by the 'arrow' in each statement.. made me think you were talking about a Lexmoto, until you mentioned NSR... which is Italian... which could explain all, TBH......

Asside on that point; the NS predecesor to the NSR was designed in Italy for the Italian market, and production of it migrated to the 'take-over' plant factory Honda aquired in the country to dodge punitive import taxes in the 80's. The NSR, was I believe entirely Itally designed and built. B-U-T, and this is the important bit; far more NS and NSR's were registered in britain than were ever sold by Honda UK. Itally had a continiouse taxation system through the 90's with the tax rate increasing each year to promote sales of new, italy made bikes. Only way to not pay the taxes was to officially deem the machine 'scrap' nevert to be used on teh road again; and much of that 'scrap' was imported to the UK at the time, as the official Honda UK models were ludicrousely expensive. There are a few Itally only models and variants that were never sold in the UK I believe, as well as some quite subtle differences between italian domestic sale models and 'official' Honda UK sales, beyond the obviouse paint schemes and KPH speedo markings.... Make SURE you know what you got, and whether its a genuine Honda UK spec machine, or grey-imported Italian scrap.

Next up; Italian electrics are notorious..... I tend to 'err-nibs bludi guzzi... it has electrics... quite good ones for a guzzi, actually... but like most... they all work.... just not necessarily when they should! and switches work on the weeja principle, I think!!! A honda aught have famed Honda reliability..... but a) its still italian, b) its an old italian, so dont bank on it!

Iit's what, almost two decades old or more? This wouldn't be unusual for almost any old bike, as electrics age, wires oxidise inside the insulation, and most likely your main issue..... contacts in the lamps, and particularly earth contacts to the frame start to corrode in wonderfully salty british brine, sorry rain and brine... more so in the winter when they grit the roads with salt.... which is a rather good electrolyte too... it conducts electric, as well as makes metal rust quick.

There's your start point... look at all contacts in the lamps.... clean the contacts on bulbs and in the lamp-holders with a bit of emery paper or wet-and-dry.. do similar to battery terminals, and open up the multi-way connectors from the generator, and to handlebar switches and headlamp cluster and other equipment, give them a clean with emery and dose with WD40 to detur water ingress.

INDICATORS!!!! Oh dear.

Wampy flash rates are down to the flasher unit. Usually an old fashioned electro-mechanical 'flip'flop' device. When you turn 'on' the indicator, the current flows therough a solenoid, when the solenoid trips, it turns itself 'off'... tyhen without being turned off, current tries to turn it back on again... hence you get whats called a flip-flop or a flasher unit, making and braking the circuit that turns lamps on and off. Rate of flash depends on the curfrent load on the circuit, so the wattage of bulbs in the indy lamps.... but also the weight of springs in the flip-flop.. and how well greased they are or gummed up with crud.....

Bain of old bikes, the flasher unit is normally in an aluminium casing, and they aren't well sealed.... they fill with water, they dont let out, the whole lot rusts from within, and the flash rates go all over the place, as the hinges rust or wear, contacts furr up springs break and water puddles in the can to damp whatever movement there may be.....

Personally, having ipened up far too many, drained out the british brine of rain water, tried cleaning contacts and stuff, greasing and putting them back together.... THESE DAYS, I just dont bother!

"Two-Pin" Electronic flasher units from china are available on e-bay for peanuts; maybe £3 a pop.... I think I bought half a dozen of them last time round cos of the cost of postage on them being more than the price of the part! 10A current handling, you chop spade connecors onto the ends of the wires to suit the wiring harness on the bike; they have fixed flash rate set by a chrystal, like a digital watch, they flip-flop the current to indy lamps at MOT happy-making 1-2 times a second regardless, provided the switch works and the bulbs are earthed. Matters not if you have the wrong wattage bulb or an LED in any of the indies... still flashes at fixed rate, and a sealed 'solid state' purely electronic device, they dont fill with water or do daft things.... BRILLIANT!!

That would be my start point on that one..... just ditch the flasher.

Would be worth, whilst you are checking contacts in the indies, what wattage bulbs have been shoved in them, but also to check the earths. Many bikes of that era had a short earth wire between bits of the indy mount to bridge either rubber isolation mounts or plastic fairings... they did not always have a seperate earth wire back the the loom or frame all the way from the bulb holder. These short earth bridges are often not obvious... frequently cos with age they go missing!

Brake lamp? My first suspicion here is that the earth is duff, and that the stop lamp is trying to earth 'backwards' through the tail lamp 'feed', as they share common earth. If so sorting earths may solve the problem.

B-U-T the brake lamp switches also would be worth some attension.

Front brake lamp switch is a small micro-switch on the brake lever, turned off by being pushed 'in' when the lever released. If the lever is a little stiucky then these can often stick 'on'. Remove lever blade... clean the hinge area with that wet and dry again, lightly lube the area with a little chain oil; remove the micro-switch if you can... there's usually a lube hole to actually stick straw from a can of WD40 or chain oil in and give a quick squib... work it back and forth see how it goes... new switches are only about £3 could be worth as shout, but still wont work brilliantly if the lever sticking in the hinge...

Back brake lamp is not a lot different; but has a larger plunger type switch on a spring to the brake pedal... similar deal, make sure all levers move freely, lube as necessary and give the switch a good going over with lube and working in and out to free off.

HINT; little learner bikes get crashed by learners!! Brake levers are something that hits the deck and tends to get bent or broke.

After market front brake levers espoecially cheap ones, more so cheap e-bay ones from china, are notoriouse for not being very accurately made.... they can stick in the picot very easily because the metals not properly finished or the old dies they were made on are worn out of size. The little tang that presses on the brake lamp switch more so. A little time dressing and fettling lever blades with a flat file and sand-paper can work wonders.

Back brake pedals, tend to get less attension than front ones; especially on sports bikes cos "Rossi dont use back brake do ee!" Actually he does, but many racers are rather lazy on the rear, and road riders use that as excuse for being more so... especially if they have powerful hydrulic disc on the front of a fly-weight tiddler that will lift the back wheel almost at will! However.. they get bent, and oft not even bent or hammered straight. There aught be a pedal 'stop' so you can adjust the 'height' of the pedal before it does anything, both on the pedal, and on the rod it works to either the brake drum or master cylinder if a disc rear. Seldom adjusted, and oft damaged in a drop, make sure that the pedal is straight, and does have a good rest possition before anything else. Very common for riders, especially learners to 'ride' the back brake, slightloy pressing the pedal when just resting boots on foot-peg, enough to switch on brake light if not cause drag on the actual brake.... so check stop and check riding position, that you AREN'T riding the pedal. Make sure all is straight and greased and the pedal moves easily and freely and the return spring does shove it all the way back to where it should, and it doesn't 'snag' as they commonly do in the last n'th of travel before the rest possition when the return spring has least spring force on it.

Then check the stop-lamp switch, oil and adjust, and set so it comes on just before the brake does, just after you do consciously press the pedal.

Work from there...... but most electrical gremlins are in the earth contacts.. find'em and clean'em.. many problems will just dissapear... does take time, but is a cheap fix.
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