Bank-Angle Sensor

[Jeff]

Okay so there was some debate over whether to disengage the bank-angle sensor (AKA - tip-over sensor).  Here's my very recent experience...

This last Friday during practice, I came through T1 at Blackhawk farms, 90mph right hander, and the bike died.  I thought it was out of gas or just starved from fuel since I was very low, but it started again so I didn't think twice about it.

It did the same thing on Sat AM in practice, and I vowed not to run the fuel so low.  Thought the bike might just be tempermental with it.

I topped the gas tank and went out for my Middle-Weight GP race.  Running 8th, I just cross the white flag.  1 lap to go!  Hit T1 and the bike DIES!  I get out of the way, but almost get clipped by the two guys behind me in the process.

Having a full tank of gas, I knew that was not the issue.

That only left the Bank-Angle Sensor.

The wiring is the same as the F4I and it CAN be jumper by-passed.

The jumper bypass is the two OUTSIDE connectors tied together at the plug.  (if memory serves me. I'll check tomorrow to be sure) the wire colors are Green to BLACK/WHITE.

I ran 2 more practices and 3 more races without incident...

[BlackOps]

1 lap left! I bet you were steamed about that. >

[Hi-Side]

Where is the sensor located ?

[Christian]

That sucks Jeff. Sorry to hear about that happening to you during your race. Please let us know where these are and how to disengage it so it doesn't happen to us while out riding the twisties. That woudl really suck being on a public road and having it die out. Question.....when it died is there a safety feature that allows the rear tire to continue rolling or does it lock up from being in gear and require the clutch to be pulled in?

[Jeff]

The sensor is located in the front upper fairing.  If memory serves, it's between the headlight and the upper fairing.  You'd have to remove the headlight to get to it.

Terry, on your bike, if you didn't set it up, whoever did either bypassed it or it should be mounted on your fairing bracket.

It's a U shaped black box about the size of a lemon.

Personally I wouldn't disengage it on a street bike as the chance of tripping it is very slim.  Out of 700 race miles, I only tripped mine 3x.  Those are laps are run much harder than street miles are.

As for any safety feature to keep the rear wheel from locking, it's called inertia and traction...  If it were to trip on cold tires or slimy pavement you might lose traction, but when mine tripped, the bike slowed and I pulled in the clutch and coasted.  The most danger came from the guys on my tail who expected me to come out of the corner with the hammer down versus slowing up.  Luckily rider #1 heard my motor cut and rider #2 reacted quickly enough to miss me.

[Hi-Side]

Got it. I have it mounted right up front. In all my other bikes its been located under the tank, so I wasn't sure what relay it was. I've got to strip the bike down for paint this weekend and I'll do it then. Just took it out on the track again last weekend after the dyno work. Cut 2 full seconds off my best time ever on this particular track and still wasn't on the limit, although I was the fastest guy on the track that day. I absolutely love this bike.

[Jeff]

Same here.  My setup is perfect.  I'm no longer shagging tires and the thing is like a razor.

I swapped out the OEM pads for EBC-HH KIT pads (OEM pads were completely gone by 650 miles!), and that helped me a bit more too.  Every weekend I am lowering my lap times...  Going from amateur to expert this year, right now I'm 2-3 seconds off the 1st place experts, and 3 seconds faster than I was last year...

[Tufelhunden]

Same here.  My setup is perfect.  I'm no longer shagging tires and the thing is like a razor.

I swapped out the OEM pads for EBC-HH KIT pads (OEM pads were completely gone by 650 miles!), and that helped me a bit more too.  Every weekend I am lowering my lap times...  Going from amateur to expert this year, right now I'm 2-3 seconds off the 1st place experts, and 3 seconds faster than I was last year...

Jeff you da man.  I was just going to ask you to write up another report of your racing times.  I was curious as to how they were progressing.  Great Job!!!  

[Jeff]

ask and you shall receive:

http://www.cbr600rr.com/pages/082403.htm

[gholcomb]

Hey Jeff,
  Can you confirm the wires you described in the initial post are the ones you want to jump to eliminate the tip-over switch? I haven't had a problem with mine, but I'd rather not have it on at all...

Thanks,
-Gus Holcomb

[Jeff]

Absolutely positively 100%, they're the two outside wires jumped together.  I'll be into the bike in a few hours and will post the colors then...

[Hi-Side]

Yep, I tested it first taking the switch off and simiulating a fall-over, and it turned the bike off, then stuck a meter across the switch to make sure that it was closing the contact to shut the motor off, then jumpered it outide wire to outside wire and it runs fine.

[cpchillin]

For everyone who is using their bike for the street only DO NOT DO THIS!! As Jeff has said he only needs to do this for racing. If you are on the street doing this you are risking serious injury. It is there to keep the bike from doing many things when it goes down including catching fire and exploding. There is no true need for our Honda to need this done. A gixxer that's a different story because they were having problems with the design of their tip-over switch but not our bikes.

[Christian]

Guess I won't be disconnecting the tip-over switch anytime soon.

[Jeff]

For everyone who is using their bike for the street only DO NOT DO THIS!! As Jeff has said he only needs to do this for racing. If you are on the street doing this you are risking serious injury. It is there to keep the bike from doing many things when it goes down including catching fire and exploding. There is no true need for our Honda to need this done. A gixxer that's a different story because they were having problems with the design of their tip-over switch but not our bikes.

AMEN...  If you can get the sensor to trip on the street, bypass it while you're prepping it for the track because that's where you belong.

If you bypass this switch, and tip it over while running, you've got about 20 seconds go get to it and get it shut off before it pops from oil starvation...