I'll keep it short. Took many wrong turns and got lost and ended up getting caught in rush hour in the rain for the first time 2 nights ago. Had my first go at filtering, was ok but a few people changed lanes without looking etc, so I decided to put my full beams on and continue. Did this for an hour or so. Once I got in to Nottingham I turned full beams off, everything is fine. Put her in my garage and turn her off, all ok.

Go to start her up this morning (she was stuck too, brake must of seized on or clutch must of stuck - had to get a push off my dad to free her) and all is ok, but now I can only get sidelights on. No full beam, no dipped, only those tiny bulbs at the bottom - and the ones I put in are japanese spec, not UK (aka nowhere near powerful enough).

Checked all fuses under pillion seat, fine, checked all bulbs, fine - even tested a known working bulb to no avail. I'm crap with electronics, I do have a multimeter but literally no idea how to use it. Possible one of the (many) light switches has gone?

Sidenote; my passing trigger has never worked, nor has it on my friends bike.

You'll have a knackered left han switchgear... get it off and open it up. Clean the melted crap off it and lots of WD40 and it might work OK again...

Someone, some time, will have fitted the wrong bulbs...so a high beam session draws decent load through the switches..

That's my guess....

Cheers for the quick reply, I'll go take the unit off the handlebars and have a peek inside. Took off the high beam switch and had a look inside but that looks ok.

I think I just realised, there's been a bodge job around the light switches. I've always had the toggle switch that's built on (the one you push with your thumb), the HI/LO button AND a little unit for the full beams. Let me take a pic and report back.

Where my thumb is in the first picture, that's a little box that's always sat on the bar, it has a switch that can be pushed forwards or pull towards, at the moment it's pushed forwards. It has a small set of wires that lead in to the massive black wire that comes from the battery (I assume that's where it comes from roughly).

Is that not meant to be there, and full beams are meant to be controlled by the HI/LO switch, because when on Lo I think there's no lights, when on Hi I get lights (and the extra switch lets me toggle full beams).

Does it look like someone's fudged it up, if it's a major kludge I'll be annoyed

That is not right... I'll bet your switchgear is fecked and that you are looking at a good bodge!

New switchgear for a few quid and you'll be sorted.

Haha, one of many bodges I seem to have discovered on this bike so far... slowly restoring her to standard (minus the exhaust) bit by bit. Already removed shit loads of imitation carbon fibre and anodised gold bits in the last couple of weeks for standard, I'll get on fleaBay and try find some better switchgear!

Cheers!

Sorry for all the multiple posts!

I've cleaned it all out etc and managed to get it working again back to how it was before. Could someone briefly explain to me how the switches are MEANT to work, here's how mine currently work;

Toggle Switch = LO
Slider Position 0 = No Lights
Slider Position 1 = Sidelights (small bulbs)
Slider Position 2 = Dipped main lights (You can use external toggle switch for high beams here)

Toggle Switch = HI
Slider Position 0 = No Lights
Slider Position 1 = Sidelights (small bulbs)
Slider Position 2 = Sidelights (small bulbs)

From what I imagine, when the switch is HI and position = 2, then I should have full beams - however nothing changes and I have to use the full beam switch.

The full beam switch only works when switch = LO and position = 2.

I'd quite like to lose the external box and get it working back to normal (whatever that is). The external box has a wire going in to the switchgear, then a wire leading to the lights at the front (and a lot of connectors), will I have to rewire all the lights :'(

Right..

Sorry I havn't had time to read the full post yet (very busy at work)

However, there is a common problem with Lights on the NC30.

The JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) bikes originally had 35/60watt bulbs.

UK H4 headlamps are 55/60 watt and can be modified by snipping the tangs off to fit in the NC30 lamp holders.

The UK bike which ran H4's has 2 relays (one for high, one for low beam)

Since the Japanese bike draws less power, Honda opted for no low beam relay on the JDM NC30 and the switch itself handles the power for the lights.

When retro-fitting H4 bulbs to the UK bike you really must add a relay for the low beam too, otherwise, overtime your light switch tends to melt due to the extra current flowing through it.

http://www.vsource.org/VFR-RVF_files/NC ... mRelay.htm

This is a guide on how to retro-fit a low beam relay to the NC30, its worthwhile familiarising yourself with it and checking over the bodges on your bike, when you get it all back to standard, if it does run H4's and is a Jap model and you don't have a relay i'd fit one :)

Chances are the switch melted originally due to this and somebody bodged it..

Cheers very much Neosophist, great answer!

The inside of my switchgear is a bit of a mess, full of dirt and bodged soldering by the looks of things. I'm going to get a new set of LHS switchgear of a guy from another forum (or eBay if he's lost his set) then once I've got it all working, I'll attempt the low beam relay mod!

This will be a small learning curve for me as I'm shite with electrics, I still don't really understand what a relay does!

Cheers for the help,
Dan

iDemonix wrote:This will be a small learning curve for me as I'm shite with electrics, I still don't really understand what a relay does!

You'll be right - it's all spade plugs