A little incident on the trail today prompted me to give a little "public service announcement" of sorts.

If you are like me, you know:
a) the kickstand sensor can malfunction and leave you stranded
b) people have deactivated the sensor to eliminate this problem
c) absolutely nothing about how to deactivate it.

All of a sudden, my bike started acting like it was running out of gas. I coast to a stop and realize that the bike is running fine, except when I want to go forward. This leads me to look at the kickstand sensor, and sure enough, a wire has broken (why on earth did kawasaki route the wires outside the frame anyways?). Anyways, I figure that if I break the other wire, the device will be deactivated. Wrong. The damn sensor will still not let me move forward. I'm losing daylight at this point, and cursing these "safety" features that left me stranded. I then try to place both wires back together...which works. For about 100 feet, until they separate again. Now I'm very mad.

Suddenly, a rare moment of brilliance hits me. It must be a simple circuit that this sensor runs on: either closed or open (forgive my electrical lingo, I don't know the proper terms). Obviously open doesn't work (aka both wires disconnected), so maybe if I connect the 2 wires coming from the bike to eachother, it will close the circuit and I'll be moving. Bingo! After connecting the wires down by the sensor and determining that this would work, I removed the seat and connected the two wires together more securely where the rubber covered joint is. If you follow the wires up, you will see what I'm talking about.

So to sum it up:

If you haven't done it already or don't know how (like myself), all you need to do to eliminate the damn kickstand sensor is connect the two wires to eachother under the seat. Then you can take the rest of that junk off and not worry about getting stranded!

Sorry if this is common knowledge, but I hadn't seen it posted anywhere (though I was wishing I had about the time I realized what was wrong!). I figure at least on person here doesn't know how to fix the sensor.

 

Did it when the bike was less than an hour old. Been there, done that, made the mistake before. We learn.

 

Yep...I resisted this for 3 and a half years, but on my "Epic Oregon Ride" last month, the dust really dried it out and I was having to pull the pin everytime we took off after I had used the kickstand. I closed the circuit after I got home. Its all good now.

 

Nice to know, Thx.
Looking to buy 1 soon

 

Whats the best longterm way to complete the circut. I remember my KLR has a spring loaded cable. Sounds like the KLX is just 2 wires that need to be cut and spliced together?? Does anyone have pictures?

When I get home I want to do this mod, as I have been stranded before on a different bike and always wanted to 'fix' this on my klx, just never got around to it.

 

I'm mixed on this.. I've heard of a few stories where people got REALLY f'd up or even died when they rode away with their kickstand down, and then made a left hand turn.. Instant high side buck-off.

I think I'll keep mine how it is till it starts giving me any problems.

 

It was really easy, the wires don't actually need to be cut. Under the seat, you will see eath wire has it's own connection before they enter the bigger grouping of wires (again, I don't know any electrical terminology, haha). Just unplug each wire from its connection, then plug the connections into eachother and put one of the rubber covers over it. You will see what I mean when you get in there. I think this fix will last a while.

 

i alreadly planed on doing this this weekend, along with a valve check and oil change.

 

Ya, i agree it may be a safty issue, ive left mine down before on my KLR and got bucked pretty good on the first left.....hmmm...

punk, get some pics of the valve check, im going to have to do that this fall and the service manual I got is really weak!

 

I hear ya, I've heard those stories too. BTW, I deactivated the switch on my KLX early on and just took my chances like everyone else. But when I got my KTM I checked and they did not have any such sensor. Instead, they have a little rubber strap to loop over the kickstand so it cannot come down while riding.

I think their theory is, if you ride off with the kickstand down, well, that's just stupid. You probably shouldn't own a motorcycle.

But ... the side stand spring could always break or pop off or some other mechanical problem that would cause it to come down on its own *while* you were riding and that would not be good as noted above. And the little rubber strap is there to prevent that. I think it's a good, simple, trouble free design that guards against mechanicals that you can't control yet is not too overly nanny. Your choice whether to use it or not. I always do, its easy to remember to do it when you put the side stand up.

So perhaps one could do something similar on the KLX if there's an easy attachment point for a strap? You can get the KTM strap for about $5 (KTM part number 50303018000). A workable substitute might be a cross sectional slice from an old tube.