I'm trying to leave work and the bike won't start. It appears as if the bike is not recognizing neutral. I can't get a neutral light, and it won't even fire when the clutch is pulled in. voltage on the battery is good. No ews warning present. I'm baffled. anybody run into this before?
If it thinks it is in gear, then you should be able to still start with the clutch in and the kickstand up. I also got hung up one time when I didn't realize the red kill switch above the starter will stay pushed in when pressed and remain in kill mode until you actually push it again to pop it out.
disconnected the battery to kill power to everything, thinking it would reset the sensor. No change. WTF, over?
Hasenpfeffer is the winner. I originally tried that, but it did not work. After the battery reset, I forgot to try it again. It started. Now to figure out why this happened...
So I set out on a long ride home with several stops along the way. I cannot seem to recreate the original problem.
It was the kickstand switch which was the culprit right? Moving the stand up and down once or twice has probably dislodged whatever it was that was causing it to stick - a bit of road gunk perhaps. I wouldn't be too concerned that it won't do it again on cue.
Hey Donkey, I had the same issue (I suspect). Video in this thread tells the tale. Glad you got it running. http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/strada-struggling-to-start-or-sss-syndrome.34058/page-2#post-323274
I suspect not, because even if that switch was malfunctioning, the bike still would have started in neutral. Never having had a bike with that safety switch on it before, that was the very first thing I looked at when it wouldn't start. I disconnected it and everything was clean and neat, as I had just gone through that when I installed the skid plate about 500mi ago. The dielectric grease was still there, and all was well. The failure was affirmatively a failure to recognize neutral. I'm guessing the sensor fritzed out on me momentarily. I didn't have the "click" that Next had. I had absolutely nothing. I never even could the the neutral light to come on, even though I was clearly in neutral, and had pushed my bike several feet to prove it. I even dropped it back in gear and pushed it a bit thinking it might be the crankshaft position sensor. All this talk of "sensors" is making me frustrated. I need a beer and some quality time with my old Triumphs. This is why I hate modern motorcycles. Give me carbs and a set of Whitworth tools and I'm a happy man.
I'm with you Donkeys, happened to me last week, dash goes vvvvvroom blink blink, press the button zilch, WTF. Go thru all the stuff you did and turned it off, made a cup of special Mocha Coffee, no Mocha cake at this time, calmly approached the bike and did what I have done for the last 8000ks and FMe, it started. Woodsie is on to these Italian stallions, always have strong Mocha coffee or cake on hand because you or the bike may be a bit dozey.
"The failure was affirmatively a failure to recognize neutral." If the failure was a neutral switch, why wouldn't it start with the clutch pulled in?
I'm postulating on this, but a 1968 Triumph with no sensors will attempt to start in gear. The starter fires, and the bike lurches forward. A modern bike with sensors will not fire when in gear unless the clutch is engaged. The bike has to sense this somehow. I'm guessing this is through a neutral switch/sensor. If that were malfunctioning, the starter wouldn't fire in neutral or in gear with the clutch engaged.
I am not so sure. I know once I disabled the clutch switch and the kickstand switch on my last bike it would start in gear when the neutral light was not on. The neutral switch was still intact and operating, I did not disable it in any way. Before disabling those switches it would start with the kick stand down ONLY when the neutral light was on. It would start in gear with the clutch pulled ONLY when the kick stand was up. When you had the issue with the netural light not coming on, did you try to start it with the clutch pulled AND kickstand up, or just the clutch pulled?
As embarrassing as this may be, I tried taking off one day and every time I put it in gear, it died. I thought the bike had a power issue. Then I put up the kickstand and all was good.
I did have the kickstand up for a good portion of the original troubleshooting. I was also pushing the bike around bouncing from 1st to neutral to 2nd trying to get it to recognize neutral. When I can't seem to find neutral on some of my older bikes, often times giving them a push with the clutch engaged and then releasing it so that the transmission turns in 1st/2nd will make it easier to find neutral. I tried this in the parking lot while troubleshooting. Of course, after each attempt, I would try to start it too. So I'd be willing to bet that I tried to start it at least 5 times with the kickstand up and in gear.
Got me a couple of times with this one ! Only just the opposite- slowing down to a crawl feet on the pegs and hit the throttle to take off only to find you are in false neutral with no indicator light and about fall over-always laughing and having fun though !
Check here. http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=20637479&highlight=Kickstand#post20637479 I believe it's a pretty well explained procedure. Haven't done it myself yet though.
Might be worth eliminating that switch anyway. Then if you have continued problems you have at least eliminated that as a possibility.
