KIPASS BYPASS Mod by BDF

[rcannon409]

The low battery thing irritated me, too. I felt like the battery would not have been nearly as low had it not kept reminding me how low it really was.

As if soemoen falls in a lake, then spends the next three hours yelling, "I'm drowning"    Well, obviously, you're not, or you would have gone quiet, much earlier.

[B.D.F.]

OFFTOPIC:

That one I think they actually fixed. Kawasaki used to use an different brand and type of tire pressure sensor, and the low battery flaw was inside that sensor. Now they use Schrader sensors (like everyone else) and I do not believe the Schrader suffer from this problem.

Also, the <base> Schrader sensor is readily available every place that sells or services  tires, and it is cheap. Unfortunately, Kawasaki does not use the basic version but has their own made for them so we cannot just swap ours out for standard Schraders but must use the Schrader sensors that Kawasaki sells.

So I guess this is like a good news / bad news joke. Though the original sensors were also quite expensive. So maybe this is really a bad news / bad news / newer bad news joke.... and it is on us, the C-14 owners. Really, at this point in time when much more reasonable systems are available from third- party manufacturers, it now sort of makes sense to just scrap the OEM sensors (disable them- we still need the valve stem) and use an after market setup. Sure it is an add- on and not built into the bike but then again, most of us have about 83 add- on gizmos all over the place so what is one more discreet thingy stuck to the dash?

Brian

The low battery thing irritated me, too. I felt like the battery would not have been nearly as low had it not kept reminding me how low it really was.

As if soemoen falls in a lake, then spends the next three hours yelling, "I'm drowning"    Well, obviously, you're not, or you would have gone quiet, much earlier.

[rcannon409]

Great points on the sensor, as usual.

My rear sensor is an original 08 model, and I had no trouble putting  anew battery in it.

When I took my bike to the shop....not sure when this was.  It went to the shop for the removal of that rear brake clevis guard they had installed on the prior visit...maybe 2012?

Anyway, at that time the front sensor was showing "low battery" so they replaced it.  Im afraid that I ended up with the one where you cant get to the battery.

I love Brians products and ideas. Every product has that, "Duh, why didn't I think of that" feel to them.

[B.D.F.]

Thank you for the kind words. You probably would not love all my ideas though; you have only seen a few of the more polished ones :-)  Some of them..... well, let's just say they cannot be polished and leave it at that.   

About the new sensor: I believe someone opened one of them and the battery is not actually potted, so while there is some cutting and hacking involved, the batteries can be replaced <reasonably> easily Certainly much more easily than an epoxy potted sensor. Now that assumes I am remembering all of this correctly and the sensor I saw is what Kawasaki is actually supplying. I believe it was in a post on this forum (the only vehicle forum I use so it almost has to be this one) so you can probably find it. Or maybe the original author will chime in with a pointer to his / her original post and photos about it.

Brian

Great points on the sensor, as usual.

My rear sensor is an original 08 model, and I had no trouble putting  anew battery in it.

When I took my bike to the shop....not sure when this was.  It went to the shop for the removal of that rear brake clevis guard they had installed on the prior visit...maybe 2012?

Anyway, at that time the front sensor was showing "low battery" so they replaced it.  Im afraid that I ended up with the one where you cant get to the battery.

I love Brians products and ideas. Every product has that, "Duh, why didn't I think of that" feel to them.

[B.D.F.]

To my non- US customers and potential customers: shipping prices have recently dropped dramatically. I have no idea why this is but what was a common price to ship to many parts of the world overseas was in the $20 to $30 (US) range, which was frankly ridiculous. These were the prices actually charged me to ship my products; I do not tack on any extra for shipping. And of course, a shipping charge of $30 was quite substantial on a $50 retail cost product.

I just got a price to ship to Australia and it was $8 (US) which includes both actual shipping charges as well as exchange rate surcharges. Shipping to Canada has been $5 (US) recently.

I just wanted to let the folks outside the US know that my products are now a lot more reasonable to purchase due to a dramatic decrease in shipping costs.

Brian

[Bonsaicat]

Why wouldn’t you just remove the switch solenoid? in the ignition

[Conrad]

Why wouldn’t you just remove the switch solenoid? in the ignition

You're a newbie so I'll go easy.

Did you see how many guys have posted in this thread? Do you think that if the solution to the Kipass issue was as simple as removing the solenoid that someone would have thought of that by now? No, it's not that simple and no, you can't just remove it.

[fartymarty]

Why wouldn’t you just remove the switch solenoid? in the ignition

Different folks consider some work difficult and to others it's just not a big deal as they've been doing it for years and have all the tools and most of the knowledge at hand. The link below shows how Fred Harmon did it years ago, so you can be the judge. I think he just cleaned it and lubed it instead of removing it. Personally I wouldn't do all that until it was an established problem on my bike and it's not something that I'd want to do on a long trip. I think that's the beauty of Brian's product, you simply plug it in the system and it sits silently at the ready to save the remainder of your trip and then get you home where you can either fix it in your garage or take it (ride it in) to the shop. YOMV.

http://www.pbase.com/fredharmon/kipass

[robertv]

Just gotta say, this bypass switch came in handy on my 4 day trip! I've had it installed a few years ago after a stuck switch after a single incident. Fast forward to now...then on my recent trip this past weekend it got stuck all the time after the 1st day.   Luckily I was able to reach down and pull the fuse EACH and EVERY TIME to get it started.

Buddies were looking at me the first time thinking I was hot starting it till I told them the issue. Wasted no time and able to start easily. Thanks again for the extreme life saver Brian!!

But now that I'm back, I need to diagnose why I can't push the switch to activate it. Any ideas on where to start? Think I'll remove the ignition assembly from what I recall on Fred's photos earlier and go from there...

[maxtog]

But now that I'm back, I need to diagnose why I can't push the switch to activate it. Any ideas on where to start? Think I'll remove the ignition assembly from what I recall on Fred's photos earlier and go from there...

It is usually that weak return spring, resulting in a switch stuck in the down (closed) position, if I remember correctly.  Gen 1 suffers from it worse than gen2.  Kawasaki replaced the spring with a stronger one (without addressing the design flaw) so later models either don't ever have the problem, or have it much less frequently.

[B.D.F.]

Glad to hear it is working for you- that is exactly why I make them!

It sounds like you have the dreaded stuck KiPass activation switch. As you have an early C-14, Kawasaki should replace the original spring with the newer, heavier spring used on later models. Between that and cleaning the switch and removing the burrs, it should all work find for quite a while after being serviced. This <should> be a free service, even though the bike is out of warranty as it was a manufacturing defect in the first place. No guarantee though- they may refuse it.

You can work on it yourself of course though it is kind of pesky in that security screws have to be drilled out from underneath the ign. switch housing, after it is off the bike. There are videos and overviews of how to do this out there in 'Net land though so you should be able to get a good idea what you need to do before starting.

Best of luck with this, it usually turns out fine once repaired / improved.

Brian

Just gotta say, this bypass switch came in handy on my 4 day trip! I've had it installed a few years ago after a stuck switch after a single incident. Fast forward to now...then on my recent trip this past weekend it got stuck all the time after the 1st day.   Luckily I was able to reach down and pull the fuse EACH and EVERY TIME to get it started.

Buddies were looking at me the first time thinking I was hot starting it till I told them the issue. Wasted no time and able to start easily. Thanks again for the extreme life saver Brian!!

But now that I'm back, I need to diagnose why I can't push the switch to activate it. Any ideas on where to start? Think I'll remove the ignition assembly from what I recall on Fred's photos earlier and go from there...