Interesting day, and a milestone!

[Jerry]

shouldn't be turning the headlight off on a bike, should you? I've always been under the impression that the headlight was supposed to stay on, as a means to give car drivers something else to notice, to see the bike.

But yes, I'd certainly like more details on the bike!

I can't remember the exact year, but older bikes, at least here in Va, do not have to have the headlight auto-on feature. I believe that it may have been in the 60s when that became standard, and those bikes manufactured before then are not rerquired to have it. They still may be legally required to manually turn on the headlight though. I never paid a lot of attention to the exact rule because my 1980 Honda CB 750 had the auto-on headlight. It also had an auto off feature one time. Believe me, it's quite scary riding down a dark stretch of rual interstate at 11 pm, doing about 60mph or so and have your headlight go out.

[Buddha]

I can't remember the exact year, but older bikes, at least here in Va, do not have to have the headlight auto-on feature. I believe that it may have been in the 60s when that became standard, and those bikes manufactured before then are not rerquired to have it. They still may be legally required to manually turn on the headlight though. I never paid a lot of attention to the exact rule because my 1980 Honda CB 750 had the auto-on headlight. It also had an auto off feature one time. Believe me, it's quite scary riding down a dark stretch of rual interstate at 11 pm, doing about 60mph or so and have your headlight go out.

its a national requirement from the 70's any bike built after 7/1/74 had to have a running light and turnsignals. My cb450 was built 6/28/74 so I had the switch for the headlight and no turnsignals.

[Archangel]

I can't remember the exact year, but older bikes, at least here in Va, do not have to have the headlight auto-on feature. I believe that it may have been in the 60s when that became standard, and those bikes manufactured before then are not rerquired to have it. They still may be legally required to manually turn on the headlight though. I never paid a lot of attention to the exact rule because my 1980 Honda CB 750 had the auto-on headlight. It also had an auto off feature one time. Believe me, it's quite scary riding down a dark stretch of rual interstate at 11 pm, doing about 60mph or so and have your headlight go out.

I believe if you check the records of this "feature" you'll find that it was alarmingly common and that a person who solved the problem and sent Honda a letter detailing it and the fix got quite a surprise. A letter from Honda lawyers arrived as well as a notice of lawsuit for defamation and a gag order. One of the magazines picked up the story.