Yes, exactly right. You can open / reconnect the gray connector and it will accomplish the exact same thing as using my harness. Further, you can cut and splice a fuse holder, or switch, into the bike's harness and have the same effective performance that my harness provides. I worked out how to do that very thing way back in the early days of the C-14 and posted that info., along with photos, on this very forum at least as early as '08 (might have been '07). What my harness offers is an easy, neat and unobtrusive way to get into the activation circuit without taking anything apart (after installing it of course) and being able to return the bike to fully stock; that can't happen if the wiring is spliced.
No matter what method is used, once the activation switch is sticking the only way to fix it is to take the ignition switch assembly apart, free up the original switch or replace the assembly. Kawasaki does the former and further installs a heavier spring to help alleviate the problem in the future. I would assume they are using this new, heavier spring in the later model bikes but we have seen 2011 models suffer from the same stuck activation switch as the original '08s.
To the best of my knowledge, Kawasaki is fixing sticking activation switches only after they actually stick and will not act preemptively. That said, everyone can check with his / her dealer to see if something can be done before that switch sticks.
And as always, there are plenty of references to KiPass on this forum: some real, a lot imagined and almost all of them humorous in some way or other.
Brian
So just to make sure I have this right -- if I don't get the harness, and I have the problem, I can remove the left side black panel and disconnect/reconnect the gray connector, start it immediately, and I'm good to go. Then presumably I would go to the dealer and they would replace the spring, and it should not happen again. Right?
Has anyone gone to a dealer to see if they would replace the spring on a pre-emptive basis since it's a known issue and they must have a TSB or some communication from Kawi on it?