why no self canceling signals?

[wyly]

The newest bike I've owned is my 84 1150 with self cancelling signals.

I took part in a group ride with some young guys on newer bikes who became intrigued with my signals asking how they worked, "I have no idea they just do". They were peering at it from all directions trying to figure it out.

Up to that point I just assumed all modern bikes had them too.

 

[rphillips]

Totally different from cars. The Suzuki auto. turn signals will never stop flashing if you are under 15 mph. Over 15 mph. they calculate distance, I'm thinking 250' above 15 mph & the signals turn off. Not perfect in every situation, but way better than nothing. Another thing from the past, Does anyone miss the gear position indicators? I loved them from "77" thru "86", then Suzuki took that away also. I've found & installed an after mkt. gear pos. indicator on my "05" Bandit & love it. Why did Suzuki discontinue that? Everyone I knew loved it, & the Kawa. & Honda riders I knew wished they had it also.

 

[Steve]

Totally different from cars. The Suzuki auto. turn signals will never stop flashing if you are under 15 mph. Over 15 mph. they calculate distance, I'm thinking 250' above 15 mph & the signals turn off. Not perfect in every situation, but way better than nothing.

According to the manual, they will stay ON until the bike travels more than 10 seconds at more than 10 MPH. (The manual actually says 15 kph, which is close to 10 MPH.) I have found that to be just a little shy of what is necessary to change lanes into a left turn lane, slow down and stop, waiting for the signal, so I usually push the button to restart the cycle before it times out. On the other hand, I have found that to be a little longer than what is necessary to just change lanes on the highway. The full cycle will get 10 or 11 flashes of the signal, I usually find 7 to be enough, so I cancel it manually.

Does anyone miss the gear position indicators?

Every time I get on my Goldwing.

Many things better on the Wing, but there is no gear indicator.

.

 

[wymple]

I had a new XS650 Yamaha in 1980 and they were self cancelling, I think 10 seconds or 100 yards. Other Yamahas had them several years earlier, maybe 1976? Both my early Viragos had them.

 

[Grimly]

I would think, it wouldn't be too difficult (for an electrical engineer) to design a module for this. Sounds cheap to make, and easy to replace...

Trivially simple to incorporate a timer into the feed to the flasher unit. Ten seconds is enough for most instances, and you still have the manual cancel.
The extra complication of speed/distance is not needed.

 

[TxGSrider]

Heck if think 90 seconds would be fine. It beats the heck outta me riding for 15 minutes before I realize it's still on. Lol

 

[TxGSrider]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/231144223931

 

[Steve]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/231144223931

That one is nice, but won't work on a GS. In its description, it's for a bike with individual, momentary-contact switches for left and right signals.

There are other units available, but they are similarly expen$ive.
https://kisantech.com/signalminder.html

 

[rphillips]

Not fair steve, you went by the manual, I went by memory, that gave me the right to be a little mistaken. Either way, time or distance, the Suzuki system works pretty dang well, & it should still be in use.

 

[gbw]

There are other units available, but they are similarly expen$ive.
https://kisantech.com/signalminder.html

Those look pretty cool. They even have one that fits my Tiger. I'd like to have one, but instead I'll probably spend the 100 bucks on gas for the bike, and try to remember to cancel the signals manually.

 

[Steve]

Those look pretty cool. They even have one that fits my Tiger. I'd like to have one, but instead I'll probably spend the 100 bucks on gas for the bike, and try to remember to cancel the signals manually.

In that case, don't forget to stock up. :-k

This 16 oz. bottle is $8.95 on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Fluid-REALIS...&keywords=blinker+fluid&qid=1585708399&sr=8-4

 

[bwringer]

Turn signal canceling is one of those things that can be handled with a trivial bit of software on the newest bikes. The old Suzuki system with the electronics that count and time pulses from the magnet in the speedo is clever and useful, but certainly wasn't cheap.

What I find aggravating and inexplicable is modern throttle-by-wire motorcycles that don't offer cruise control, or where it's part of an expensive upgrade package. It's a bit of software and a few buttons.

Anyhoo, you can give an old bike modern electronics -- the Motogadget mUnit does many, many useful things, and auto cancel turn signals are just one of the functions. They also make a little flasher unit with a simple 20 second timer.

My GS is my only bike with auto cancel, so for many years I've been in the habit of canceling my own signals anyway. However, about two years ago the original speedo in my GS850G finally pooped out entirely at about 135,000 miles. The only replacement I could find quickly at Cycle Recycle II (I was headed to a rally in a few days) was from a GS that did not have the little magnetic reed switch for auto cancel. I'm used to it now, and I can't say I really miss auto cancel all that much, or at least not enough to expend a lot of effort finding a correct speedo.