Using 12v lights on a 6v system

Early four-stroke Suzuki electrics were, indeed, dreadful.

A very common mod on this side of the pond, too.

Twin-choke carbs. Common in the car world. Kawasaki used the same system
on the early Z1300s (only the bike had three of them, of course).

To be fair, this could be said of most (but certainly not all) Jap
bikes.

 

*Sensible* engineering, that's what. It's someone saying: "Well, we know
we've built a decent system, but batteries do die, and people neglect
them, so just in case, let's have a system that can start the bike with
a flat battery."

MZ - some of the most sensibly-designed bikes ever made, no matter that
they were Commie - had exactly the same facility.

You can't call it crap engineering. It's *good* engineering.

 

Indeed. I wish I had that in current bikes. The battery in my SV-650 is
too tucked away to use regular car jumper cables, and I got stuck at
work once because of that. So I've had to add the feature myself.

The reason the battery was dead is that goddamn "park" position at the
wrong goddamn position on the ignition switch.

A moment's inattention and you switch one position too far, and later
you come out of work and see your taillight dimly lit, and you know
you're fucked.

Why the hell couldn't they put the position somewhere else, like the
other end of the arc?

I've disabled it on ALL my bikes. What a pain in the ass.

Is this a US-only horror or are people all across the world cursed with
that crap?

-gc

 

No. we get it in the UK, too, and I bet everyone's managed to leave
their parking lights on at least once.

What I can't understand is why old B12, Green Pea, and whatever he
calls himself now should yammer about it: I mean, it was on a Honda
half a century ago. There were some far stranger "engineering
solutions" around at that time.

MZs, incidentally, had a special detent position on the ignition
switch for "flat battery start". You turned the key one click anti-
clockwise (IIRC), and kicked it, and it would start. Lovely.

 

I kicked my SV a LOT when the battery got killed, and it never started.

Oh, *that* kind of kick!

Seriously, why did it need a particular position on the key? What am I
missing? I don't understand.

I actually enjoyed my RZ-350, it rarely never took more than 3 kicks,
and usually started on the first, if it wasn't too cold.

-gc

 

No idea. It just had one.....

 

Disconnecting the alternator from the battery probably
unclamped its output voltage from 11 volts or so battery
and allowed more voltage to get to the ignition system.

Did the owner's manual warn the rider to immediately
switch back to the normal ON position after the engine
started?

Or did MZ rely on the lighting system to keep voltage
down to a manageable level?

 

If they went to trouble of adding a switch position, it's possible that they added a capacitor to
substitute for the battery. My guess is the extra position diverts all alternator output to the
ignition system - no lights, no battery.