We’ve all encountred half-*ssed work done by previous owners and even professional mechanics. My pre-gen starting having difficulty starting last week. Figured it was cold-temps and rain causing issues with fuel-evaporation in carbs. So i moved it into heated garage for evening storage. Nope, still not starting. Going through standard checklist, which means measuring resistance of fuses ....

... and I find this!!!
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!!! :eek:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1xcSnW0xVoGgbeoHTrgP2yF6Ym3DpKus9

... and another one!!!

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1uzIOHeVOPFazG0kBNHiPjcfy48K3UWo-

Good thing I was home and not out in middle of nowhere when corrosion got bad enough to kill current flow! Luckiky for PO, he lives hours away... grr...

Ha! Fun little surprise on those. What do you think was their intent, making it less likely a broken fuse will stop the bike, at the cost of potential fire and further electrical issues?

No frickn way! What was thePO thinking?

hey, ya gotta give him props for creativity.... sure beats trying to jam a penny in the contacts!!! :D

DannoXYZ Reminds me of a certain Triumph 675 I encountered last summer...maimed and bastardized electrically...hey maybe the same PO's? :eek:

This is the pile of crap removed from the wiring harness....methods reminiscent
of your fuse guy. Wire nuts, yes, the picture includes wire nuts removed from the harness which was tortured, cuts, adds, bypasses. Ugh, you'd have to see it to fully comprehend the abuse.

The only possible explanation behind crap like this has got to be...."fix it , sell it, IDGAS"

Wow. Glad you found it and did it right!

What do you think was their intent, making it less likely a broken fuse will stop the bike, at the cost of potential fire and further electrical issues?

No frickn way! What was thePO thinking?

I suspect they weren’t great thinkers! Probably something along lines of, ”huh, huh, it works! Cool!”. And probably though they were so clever!

DannoXYZ Reminds me of a certain Triumph 675 I encountered last summer...maimed and bastardized electrically...hey maybe the same PO's? :eek:


Wow. Glad you found it and did it right!

Yeah huh? Considering there’s far fewer ways to do things right than there are ways to mess things up, I can’t comprehend how you would go about coming up with idiotic things people do!!! I mean, it’s so simple:

1. Blown fuse, eh?
2. Replace with new fuse.

How easy and fast is that compared to that mess of wrapping wire around blown fuses? &/$@\*%# Eeeediots!!! :eek:

I suspect they weren’t great thinkers! Probably something along lines of, ”huh, huh, it works! Cool!”. And probably though they were so clever!

Yes, but you also have to remember that every "DIY" and "garage hack" is this to some extent as well.

Just look on our forums here, as well as the ninja250wiki. What have we seen over the years that's hack-tastic?


Cutting the airbox off the battery box.
Slapping some other shock onto the bike from another bike.
Using diodes to prevent crossover at the dash indicator and stop the dreaded 4-way flash with LED's in the turn signals.
making your accessory wires switched (https://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/Making_your_accessory_wires_%27switched%27).
ziptie throttle mod


Obviously those aren't direct safety hazards like ghetto-rigging a fuse, but my point still stands that all garage tricks are just hacks to some extent.

True, "good" hacks have some benefits. I'd call them "upgrades" because they improve some aspect of bike.

Save "hack" for something that's not quite good because it was done in haste, shoddily when there's better ways of doing it. Obviously "bad" hacks like that fuse mod... with absolutely zero benefits and tremendous amounts of downsides... no... don't even know what to call them. They're below "hack" status... Ghetto-hacks I guess! :thumbup:

Some people :doh: So many people think the way to fix a fuse that keeps blowing is to put a bigger fuse or do this, it's unbelievable. It's even more common on cars.

wow, freaky