Dark
Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2015 7:45 am
I went for a run last night after work and it's the first time I have been out on the bike on country roads in proper darkness in a good while.
It's great how manufacturers like to change the positions of the switches on the bars every now and then. The full beam switch on the V-Strom is on top of the left hand thumb controls which is fairly conventional. However, the same switch is the one you use to flash the lights. You push the side nearest you to flash the lights which means that when you are switching from full beam to dipped beam you end up flashing the lights.
The index finger trigger which flashes the lights on most other bikes just changes the display on the instruments. A great feature when you remember about it but rubbish when muscle memory takes over when you want to flash the lights in a hurry. In those sitionations you are not really interested in seeing the fuel economy or outside temperature!
This is the second bike I have had with a hazard light switch. The switch on the Versys was great. It was a latching push button just above the indicator switch. Easy to find and operate. The V-Strom, however, has a crappy sliding switch mounted on the top of the left hand controls along side the full beam switch and really hard to find on purpose with gloves on but very easy to catch by accident when putting full beam on as I found out last night.
The other road users must have wondered what the hell I was up to as I tried to find the hazard switch in the pitch black but with my hazard lights on and only being able to find the full beam switch and not the hazard switch all the time concerned with either running off the road because I was looking at my bars and at the same time blinding other road users with my disco lights not to mention the thought of hitting a deer.
How difficult would it be to illuminate the switches the way they do on cars to give you some sort of fighting change to find the controls. It will only get worse as manufactures try and fit more and more switches to the bars.
Big Kneed Al (master of the emergency stop & "stand up" comedian).
It's great how manufacturers like to change the positions of the switches on the bars every now and then. The full beam switch on the V-Strom is on top of the left hand thumb controls which is fairly conventional. However, the same switch is the one you use to flash the lights. You push the side nearest you to flash the lights which means that when you are switching from full beam to dipped beam you end up flashing the lights.
The index finger trigger which flashes the lights on most other bikes just changes the display on the instruments. A great feature when you remember about it but rubbish when muscle memory takes over when you want to flash the lights in a hurry. In those sitionations you are not really interested in seeing the fuel economy or outside temperature!
This is the second bike I have had with a hazard light switch. The switch on the Versys was great. It was a latching push button just above the indicator switch. Easy to find and operate. The V-Strom, however, has a crappy sliding switch mounted on the top of the left hand controls along side the full beam switch and really hard to find on purpose with gloves on but very easy to catch by accident when putting full beam on as I found out last night.
The other road users must have wondered what the hell I was up to as I tried to find the hazard switch in the pitch black but with my hazard lights on and only being able to find the full beam switch and not the hazard switch all the time concerned with either running off the road because I was looking at my bars and at the same time blinding other road users with my disco lights not to mention the thought of hitting a deer.
How difficult would it be to illuminate the switches the way they do on cars to give you some sort of fighting change to find the controls. It will only get worse as manufactures try and fit more and more switches to the bars.
Big Kneed Al (master of the emergency stop & "stand up" comedian).