Hitchcocks Forum

Little problem here for the more knowledgeable amongst us. I am no electrician.



1. My indicators are running at double speed.

2. The flash relay makes a lot of noise. (Buzzes)



All the lamps are working. Is it the relay that is dying?

A quick check in the shed; I put the bike on the battery charger, engine off, ignition on and tried the indicators. Still noise from the relay and still at double cadence....


I have a suspicion that my battery is not too good either. But that is easily solved....

2003 classic Bullet 500

Get an electronic relay, they don't care about voltage or amps within reason.

How is it with the engine running?

Engine seems to run OK.. I've been out on the bike today. I noticed the problem at a traffic light. Strangely enough, the engine cut out there. Started OK afterwards..

At first, I thought I'd just blown a lamp.. which would give the same double tempo blink.. but no. All the lamps are OK and lighting..

It does sound like a failing flasher unit. I have had one do exactly this before it died!

REgards, Mark

Hi matey !!------- with the older, electro-mechanical relay the heat generated in the bi-metallic contact strip relied upon the correct wattage bulbs being in the circuit and thus giving sufficient resistance ( time ) to allow the strip to deflect its' full distance---cool off---re-set and the cycle repeating itself....If only one bulb blew or went "open circuit" ie a break in the circuit, then the resistance time would be halved and the flash frequency of the remaining bulb doubled..... I'm not fully acquainted with the electronic version but it would seem to me that if both L/H AND R/H are giving the same result then you have a fault in the flasher can rather than a blown bulb etc....Why not order a new can from our hosts anyway and whilst waiting you can try remembering your hand signals ---LoL !!

Oh dear, yes hand signals...



You puy your left hand in,
your left hand out
you turn the handle bars

and a car gives you a clout,

you shout out 'Dopey mopey"

then you hit the ground,
That's what it's all about.


"Sorry, mate I didn't see you..."

"Sorry, mate I didn't see you..."

"Sorry, mate I didn't see you..."

Knee scarred, arms scraped, ow, ow OW!

Have fun!

I'll be ordering a new flasher relay/can/thingamajig then...!! Thanks for the replies lads. I'll let you know how it goes.

(Might be getting a new battery too... We'll see.)

I can't find any indicator relay in the Hitchcock catalogue. I may have found one locally. A two pin job that looks like an in and out connection.

As I said, I'm no electrician, so I went to the great internet to find a circuit diagram.

Does this accurately portray the circuit on a 500 bullet? If so, I'll get cracking. Thanks in advance for comments.