Do I need a sidestand relay?

tinkering with all my elect problems over the last week, i found my SS relay was bad (good coil, contacts remain closed always). When i put it all back together i just left the relay out. it runs just fine. my question is, is there something inherently unsafe about this? I figure they put it on there for a reason.

Thanks as always.

 

Now you can start the engine with the tranny in gear and w/o pulling the clutch lever. That's about it. So, just don't start your bike with it in gear with out pulling the clutch first. Sounds easy enough to me.

 

Actually the sidestand relay prevents you from attempting to ride with the sidestand down by killing the engine if the bike is in gear, the clutch is out and the sidestand is down.

It's like all safety devices - it protects you from yourself.

Get up some speed and lean into a left turn with the stand down and you're in for a nasty surprise.

 

Now i gotcha! I was imagining going down the highway and the spring breaking on the sidestand (cant imagine how) and the thing bouncing off the highway and rattling. I was thinking how bad could that be? Now that makes sense. Thanks MiCarl. I'll just pick up an automotive relay to stick back in there.

 

FWIW, a couple years ago my sidestand relay went bad so I just bypassed it. I had to constantly remind myself to check it. A couple times I forgot to put it up right away, and heard it scrape as I'd start to move. Scary, cuz I'd feel it, too. So I determined that I really should fix it sometime. Sometime. Well, the following spring I rode to work as usual. During the day there was an accident in town. After work I found out what happened. A local bike shop owner had gone into town on his Harley full-dresser, heading to Walmart. As he approached the last traffic light, it turned green so he went into a left turn. His kickstand was down for whatever reason......bad switch obviously cuz the bike didn't shut off whenever it had gone down, whether it was down for awhile, from home, sudden broken return spring, whatever........ end result was at less than 20 mph he was thrown from the bike, and the local shop got closed because the owner is now DEAD. MY end result?-----I replaced my switch ASAP. REPLACE YOUR SWITCH, man.

 

I don't think I've ever accidentally tried to take off with my sidestand down. I guess it's just natural to put it up for some people and not for others?

I do like my sidestand relay though. If it ever dies I'll just take it out (the Seca is already like that) but I like pulling into a parking spot and just kicking my sidestand down to cut the engine rather than using the key.

 

Two observations folks:
1. Safety equipment is there for a reason. Some lessons are written in blood. Enough said.
2. Everyone, bar none, should be in the habit of sweeping the sidestand up upon sitting down. If you make it a habit, sad stories of the poor dead fella will become few and far between. It will keep you from being bitten by a bad relay and finding a nasty surprise someday.

 

We don't need no stinkin' safety switch!
Safety switches are for sissies!

 

LOL, Steve.

OK, here's another lesson: Don't throw sh!t away. I took the little relay, cut the ridge where the blue and black plastic pieces are glued together with my bench grinder. I pulled the cover off expecting to find the contacts welded together. They were perfect! The problem was that one little area inside the relay had some rust. The rust flakes vibrated loose and found their way under the contact arm where a little magnetism resided. I blew it out, wire brushed the rusty spot, covered the rust with epoxy, put the cover back on, and epoxy again.

It's not just the little things i'm learning......it's the tiny things. You can get a 12v relay all day long anywhere. But you got to make it fit your harness and you got to mount it. This little project took like 20 minutes tops, to get another life out of a $60 relay (if you could still get one)

Like i said DONT throw anything away!

 

I have removed ALL safety switches from my bike,,,but choppers arent supposed to be safe are they? I have taken off on the suzuki with the stand down,,,never crashed but scared the crap out of myself a time or two.

 

Well, i dont think i'd ever do that, but ya never know. Better to spend the 20 min and fix it than make a hard left and realize i left it down. My push mower switch is taped closed and my rider is where i can get my arse off without the thing going dead, but i usually aint going 80mph on either (though i wish i could)

 

I still have mine intact, but if it gets bad, I'll try to fix it or just bypass it. I can't imagine taking off with it down. I guess it's second nature for me to kick up the side stand before attempting to ride off with it down.
Some seem to need all those safety switches I guess. PD

 

My V65 had a rubber piece that extented from the front side of the kick stand end.
This way if the stand was down and you took a left hopefully the rubber would hit first pushing the stand back, keeping you on the bike.
I like the kill switch on the Seca so there is no chance of leaving it down.
Still it's something else to go bad and fix.