Turn signal/ Indicator

[wildfire]

Great. Always good to get first hand experience. Going to buy it now. Actually going to buy two as I need it for another bike also.

[FJ1100mjk]

The 1100's have aluminum rear brake pedals.
Fred

Incorrect

[FJmonkey]

The 1100's have aluminum rear brake pedals.
Fred

Incorrect

My '86 has an aluminum brake pedal. And I know the steel ones are interchangeable. 

[ribbert]

Thanks for the info Fred. I like having self cancelling turn signals. When I find a newer FJ it will be 89 or 90 because I am now spoiled.    Dave

Sorry Dave, I don't like them. I'm with these guys.

10. Self-cancelling indicators

These have been tried several times over the years but manufacturers inevitably revert to the traditional 'push-to-cancel' layout for a simple reason that it works better. The latest attempt at self-cancelling, on Honda's 2014 VFR800, features all sorts of inputs, including speed and acceleration, to decide whether or not you've completed your manoeuvre. But its little computer brain still doesn't really know, so gets it wrong on occasion. Your own brain, which is a tad more capable, does know when to cancel the indicators. So it still works better.



Read more: http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-top-10s/top-10-pointless-motorcycle-innovations/25963.html#ixzz3QUe4o39M

Noel

[TexasDave]

Thanks for the link Noel. Very interesting about useless things manufacturers are installing on bikes. I agree with every one except self cancelling turn signals. Sounds like Honda tried to get overly complicated taking into account speed, distance and maybe even lean angle. Yamahas old analog system is much simpler but still does fail mostly from old age. Most of these failers are from the reed switch going bad as it has to go through millions of cycles. My 31 year old self cancelling turn signals are still going strong. My point is why if car manufactures can do it why not on bikes? Also the assumption that my brain is more capable of remembering to cancel them than their computer!      Dave

[Arnie]

I had an '81 XV1000RH (920 in US) with the same self-cancelling feature, except it didn't work when I got the bike, used after a crash (or two).  Found that the crash had un-seated the reed switch from the clip on the speedo head.  Put it back in place and it worked as intended.
I liked the feature, but my '91 doesn't have it.

Reed switches have a very long service life, so I doubt that is why Yam dropped the self-cancelling feature.  Probably more about limiting their potential liability would be my guess.

Self-cancel is more difficult for a bike than a car.  In a car you can have a cam un-latch the switch when the steering shaft has rotated far enough.  Simple and cheap.
With a bike the steering stem doesn't rotate very many degrees.  You could try and use a tilt sensor, but many riders keep their bike almost vertical even when turning.  Or, you could go really hi-zoot and use a gps to determine that you'd completed a turn from one road to another.

Arnie
 

[Pat Conlon]

The self cancel on my '84 works just fine, too good, in fact it makes me lazy...the problem arises when I ride my '92 without that feature.

I like the led reminder light. I've got to get a couple of sets.

We motorcycle riders have enough hazards stacked against us without needing to ride thru a busy intersection with our blinkers on...

[ribbert]

Thanks for the link Noel. Very interesting about useless things manufacturers are installing on bikes. I agree with every one except self cancelling turn signals. Sounds like Honda tried to get overly complicated taking into account speed, distance and maybe even lean angle. Yamahas old analog system is much simpler but still does fail mostly from old age. Most of these failers are from the reed switch going bad as it has to go through millions of cycles. My 31 year old self cancelling turn signals are still going strong. My point is why if car manufactures can do it why not on bikes? Also the assumption that my brain is more capable of remembering to cancel them than their computer!     Dave

Dave, failures or reliability are not the problem, it's knowing when to cancel. As Arnie mentioned, self cancelling indicators on a car are easy, regardless of a turn's duration or distance, the steering wheel always returns to centre when the turn is complete and cancels the indicators at that point. The problem is, the bike can't recognise that point, hence Honda and others attempts to incorporate other data to recognise that point.
Having your indicators turn off too early or too late on a bike is dangerous. I've had bikes with distance and time activated self cancelling indicators and they have on many occasions sent the wrong signal to other road users, which only becomes obvious when they nearly clean you up. I ended up treating them like non cancelling ones for safety sake.

As Pat said, we have enough issues to deal with without our indicators doing there own thing.

When you look at the amazing technology on modern bikes it speaks volumes that many of these bikes still have manual indicators and the ones that don't have problems.
Below are quotes from a Ducati Multistrada forum in order as they were posted. I'm sure there are many others. (haha, I had to include the first one)

Yeah, I pretty much consider them manual cancel. The fact that they don't cancel if you go over 50mph is just silly. It's a Ducati, it's not supposed to go that slow! :-) Heck, my beloved 1984 Yamaha FJ1100 had self-canceling turn signals..... (I miss that bike)

Hell no!!! I've disabled the function on both mine. The reason being that I would signal, particularly a left turn, quite far back from a turn. By the time I reached my turn, I would find that I was sitting in the left lane with no signal on. High danger factor!

Pain in the butt. If you can't completely rely on self cancelling signals, you might as well treat them as manual signals.
__________________
Red 2013 Multistrada S Touring

I actually once thought the self cancel had worked after checking the dash indicator. Unfortunately,and with a fatal potential, the dash indicator lamp had failed to indicate.

4-wheeler pulled out and across my lane!

Mine don't seem to work or work some of the time. I think that is more dangerous then not working at all or working some of the time. I think it's more dangerous riding down the road with the turn signal on if you forget possibly telling traffic you are changing lanes or turning when you are not.


I've never had any luck with them and it appears the manufacturers are still struggling. Man on the moon? no problem, self cancelling indicators on a bike that can tell when you've complete a turn, hmmmm.

Noel

[ZOA NOM]

I've never managed to forget the turn signal is on. The dash light is hard to miss.

[cclase]

...or perhaps old school auto canceling signals, made even more effective with modern tech like the context aware signal glove:

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~cart0353/content-pages/ci-scooter-glove.html