Triumphrat

johnnyjs1 · 07-30-2007, 10:32 AM

Well, it finally happened.....the unthinkable. Took my first spill over the weekend. went for a long ride with some buddies. On the way home, stopped in a Walmart parking lot to stretch out, smoke etc... Leave the parking lot, make a right and ride for about a mile. I'm in the right lane doing about 35mph. Went to get into the left lane, lean the bike a bit and scrape, sparks, down I go, slide about 20ft (thank god for leather). Riding buddy almost runs me over. Its night time, no helmet, only got temps. 2 strikes right there for the coppers to ticket me for. Lift the bike off of me, wheel it to the sidewalk. Take a quick look to see the damage: left mirror cracked, left blinker snapped, left headlight mount cracked, windshield busted up. Holy cow....not a scratch anywhere else; not on the tank, not even on the pipe. Thank god for the highway peg!!! I'm thinking my chain took a crap, what else could of caused what happened? Riding buddy tells me he saw sparks, realized what was going on and tried to catch up and warn me....too late, I was already on my way down. KICKSTAND was down!!!! Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but i thought the kickstand on my 99 Adventurer had a kill switch on it, for this exact reason; to prevent idiots like me from riding with it down. If anyone could me correct me or advise me on that I'd appreciate it.
Thanks,
Johnny

MickMaguire · 07-30-2007, 11:24 AM

Sorry to hear of your spill.

Yes, all triumphs have a kickstand cutoff switch. Unless somebody removed it and or bypassed the wiring you would not be able to ride with the stand down. Normal failure mode of these switches is to not allow the bike to run it seems unlikely it could have been down, but stranger things have happened.

Are you sure there was no gravel (or some other foreign object) on the road - it only takes a small amount if you aren't going very fast.

TailHooker · 07-30-2007, 11:35 AM

that sucks, man. I did about the same kind of damage on my Tbird... BikeBandit had pretty much all the parts i needed at reasonale prices. Should be a quick fix

johnnyjs1 · 07-30-2007, 12:48 PM

100% positive it was the kickstand. The guy riding next to me, saw the sparks, and tried to tell me it was down, but by the time he tried to warn me, I was on my way down, I've tested the kickstand several times, by putting the bike in gear, and sure enough....I can still ride even with it down. How can I check if it is disconnected? Or better yet....how do i fix it.
Johnny

MickMaguire · 07-30-2007, 12:51 PM

sounds very much like the switch is screwed. shorting out somewhere either internally or in the wiring. Start there - you can see it bolted just above the sidestand, check the plunger goes in and out as you raise and lower the sidestand for a starter - it might have got stuck in the "in" position... Now I come to think of it I have heard of that happening before... so maybe my claim that the normal failure mode is safe is actually incorrect

johnnyjs1 · 07-30-2007, 12:54 PM

Thanks a bunch, I'll take a look at it when i get home. Thank god i was only doing 35 and as luck would have my girlfriend (who rides with me 98% of the time wasnt with me that night

MickMaguire · 07-30-2007, 01:22 PM

You were very lucky, a friend of mine had this happen some years back at a much higher speed - he ended up with his bike wrapped around a tree and himself wrapped around somebody's porch - he has plates in his arm to this day from that accident.

MickMaguire · 07-30-2007, 01:25 PM

If you do find the plunger is stuck then I'd replace the switch rather than trying to fix it. If it isn't stuck then you need to identify if its the switch that is faulty (most likely) - you could do that by substitution with a new one or by testing it with a meter. The switch connects to the main harness up near the carbs.

zs-cafe · 07-30-2007, 07:08 PM

It may seem stupid but ....I just finished assembling a legend basket case. During a quick post ride inspection I noticed the sidestand switch had lost a screw allowing switch to rotate just enough to not function. At a quick glance Everything appeared to be in place. After bolting it where it belongs everything was working properly again.
BTW sorry to here about the incident. At least your ok.

johnnyjs1 · 07-30-2007, 08:26 PM

Thanks for the kind words guys, I'm gonna check it out now. I doubt i'll find anything out of the ordinary( not very good at solving electrical issues) but i'll do my best to figure it out and post back. Thanks guys.
Johnny