Thought I'd take advantage of the nice weather down here yesterday, so arranged to meet up with a few peeps from SW Bikers forum for a bimble. Got the SPS out and rode the 8 miles into town to meet in Sainsbury's car park. Filled the bike up with juice and she wouldn't start again. Turning over - albeit slightly sluggishly - but wouldn't fire. I checked the fuses, tried a jump start all to no avail so reluctantly called the AA and the rest of the group headed off for their ride. AA turned up at Sainsbury's within 30 mins. Took over an hour to diagnose the fault. ... Jump start .... No dice. No spark .... Hmmmmm. Confirmed fuses OK. Multimeter out. Lots of phone calls back to base to check wiring diagrams etc. and finally it gets tracked back to the kill switch circuit. Attach live feed direct from the charger to bypass the kill switch and she starts .... Only to die again only 10 yards down the road. Thankfully the AA man hadn't signed-in the job as complete so I grabbed him from the garage and we dismantle and clean the kill switch - even though it ain't dirty - and he bodges a live feed from a fuse to the relay under the seat and jump starts the bike from the charger again. Half a mile down the road it conks out again on the J25 roundabout. I'm waiting to see the AA van head off up the M5 without seeing me but lo-and-behold he heads my way, stops and tries again for the third time. This time it clearly isn't going to last so he calls for a truck and says his goodbye. He is due to take his bike test on Thursday - good luck Terry. By now it is 7pm (4 hours!) when the guys come past on the way home from their ride, turn round, come back and mercilessly take the piss while we wait for the truck (Tim also lends me his phone - thx mate). The truck arrives 30 mins later and the driver proceeds to take the piss even more. Ho-hum. Still, we have a nice chat on the drive home about his old RG125 and the fact that he really ought to take his bike test! So that was my Sunday afternoon - 5 hours or so to travel 8 miles, get some fuel and 8 miles back home - 7 of 'em on the back of a truck. Still - it's the only time she's let me down in over 5 years - honest!
