So some @$$hole tried to jack my bike last night and totally shredded my ignition switch.

Anyone have any experience with these ebay ones!? http://m.ebay.com/itm/Ignition-Switch-Gas-Cap-Seat-Lock-Key-for-Suzuki-GS500-89-00-GSX400-GK79A-94-99-/201386693323

Or am I looking at a call to my. Insurance broker?

Haven't had to replace my ignition switch, but I just wanted to say I'm really sorry someone tried to steal your bike. If your insurance covers theft, making a claim may be a good option for you. Have you filed a police report yet?

Someone tried to steal my car when I was 16, and the guy was a complete moron:

1. He tried to use a phillips head screwdriver to force the ignition. Obviously wouldn't work, he basically just destroyed the cylinder. I know it was a phillips because the guy left the screwdriver in the car.
2. He also dropped his ID in my car while he was failing miserably to steal it. I called the cops, filed a report, and gave them the ID and said "Pretty sure this is the guy who tried to steal my car. I don't know the person on this ID and I found it at the same time I discovered the screwdriver." They were even more surprised than I was at how stupid this dude was. Apparently he had a record of break-ins and stuff, so I think it was pretty easy to get a warrant, given the circumstances. They just went to the address on the ID and arrested the idiot.

Thanks for the kind words man, yah, it's a major bummer but tbh with the weather turning I'll just take the bike off the road for a couple months and get all the body/custom work done I've been planning.

I haven't contacted insurance or the cops yet, I have a 300$ deductible on comprehensive coverage so I doubt it'll be worth it to go through insurance. Not sure I'll bother with  a police report but maybe I'll make one this afternoon for awareness sake.

Removing/replacing the ignition switch is not super easy on a GS500. Who knows what the insurance estimate would be, but the labor is not going to be close to zero for doing it, and a genuine Suzuki part plus the price of rekeying probably puts it way over your $300 deductible.

If your work you are doing over the winter includes pulling the triple clamp off, then you can get the ignition switch off then (or so I am told .. I need to replace mine too). If not, then you will have to do that to get to it, and that's why it's a big job (again, or so I am told, as I have not done it yet).

Good luck in any case. Funny, around my neck of the woods, the weather is just now changing to make it very pleasant to ride. In CenTX we get 8 months of fabulous weather a year... it's just four months in the fall, take a short break for the less than a month of winter, then four months of spring, and then when summer hits full on, I'll tear my bike down to do all those repairs

Yah I am already planning on taking the triple clamp off so I think it will be pretty trivial to change at that point. I usually ride year round here as our "winter" in Victoria, BC is more like cold fall and there's maybe a week or two that its actually unsafe to ride (we don't even usually have any actual snow, altohugh we should get some this year apparently) as opposed to just being wet.

I have been long planning some major custom pieces and a full paint job as well as some maintenance items I need to get to though so now or a couple months down the road isn't a massive difference.

I am sure you are aware that the switch itself is held on with anti-tamper bolts, not impossible to remove but time consuming. Quite why Suzuki went down this road is a mystery to me because the switch can be by-passed in seconds by anyone with a basic knowledge of circuitry and the steering lock can be forced with one or two decent and well placed kicks or a length of scaffold pole between the forks!

Of course if you are replacing the switch smashing it off leaving just the bolts in place makes it easier to remove them.

The best way out of this, if you can find one is to get a used clamp with the switch still fixed to it.....then just swap them over.


Jumping the switch is easy, if you want to know how...........PM me 

It has occurred to me to go completely key less on the ignition and just wire up a hidden switch so I could ditch that clunky clamp but I haven't had a chance to take a look if it's something I can just delete off the bike.

On my "other bike"...I removed the key switch completely...replaced it with two waterproof toggle switches.  (the key switch was actually two switches in one)...One switch turns on all the electrics...lights etc...the other switch turns on the ignition coil...works great.

possible to use one switch if it is double pole...I'd have to look at GS500 wiring diagram...

Del City has the waterproof toggle switches...

https://www.delcity.net/store/Sealed-Toggles/p_807270.h_807271.t_1

Oh yeah...had to use a carbide bit in a Dremel tool...and a lot of cussin' and grindin' to get the tamper proof bolts out..

Cookie

Quote from: lefty1615 on October 22, 2016, 08:50:01 AM
It has occurred to me to go completely key less on the ignition and just wire up a hidden switch so I could ditch that clunky clamp but I haven't had a chance to take a look if it's something I can just delete off the bike.

Used an angle grinder with a super thin blade and just cut s slot straight down through the middle until the slot cut the antitamper nut in two. The switch is stuffed anyway. Then chucked the studs and replaced them with a couple of dome allen bolts. No one is gonna know it aint stock.

On mine the anti-tamper bolts are recessed deeply into the switch. You guys who cut slots, did you first cut or break the switch around the recess so you can get to the bolts? Or are some switches different? Curious.

this is why I used the dremel tool with carbide bit...just grind off the head  even though recessed..


Cookie

Quote from: mr72 on October 23, 2016, 04:38:03 AM
On mine the anti-tamper bolts are recessed deeply into the switch. You guys who cut slots, did you first cut or break the switch around the recess so you can get to the bolts? Or are some switches different? Curious.