Euro-spec 5th gen light switch on US-spec?

[Zazen]

My 5th gen is a US-spec 49-state model, and the right hand controls do not include a light switch; it is blanked out. I have a few questions about this:

1. Does the Euro-spec switch work on the US-spec bike without requiring further changes? (This was the case on my Monster, and I'm hoping that it is the same with the VFR.)
2. Another poster described it as a 3-position switch: off, park lights, headlights. Is there a "city light" in the 5th gen headlight? 
3. Can anyone provide the Euro-spec part# and possibly recommend a vendor?

 

Thanks in advance,

Kirk A.

 

ps - the attached photo shows the blank switch panel. excuse the dust; the bike hasn't been detailed yet this year.

[JZH]

1. I've swapped Euro-spec Honda switch pods onto US-spec bikes a few times.  There are usually things that need to be re-wired, and this never bothered me, so I cannot vouch for anything being plug-n-play.  But we're talking about simple, pre-digital era circuits, so if you can solder and read a wiring diagram (well, two wiring diagrams: the US and the EU versions) you can have a headlight switch on your always-on headlights bike.

 

2. There is the provision for a city light (or sidelight, or parking light) in the US-spec 5th gen headlight.  Access to it is actually the purpose of the infamous 5th gen "tip-over indicator" (what we used to call the little black hatch cover that was notorious for popping out whenever a 5th gen was dropped).  Directly above that cover, on the bottom of the US-spec headlamp unit, is the faint outline of a circle about 12mm in diameter.  On the EU-spec bikes a rubber, press-in 5w bulb holder pops into a hole there, so if you drill a hole and get one of those bulb holders, you can also have a front position light.

 

3. I use eBay.  There is so much interchangeability in parts like switch pods that it doesn't matter which bike it came on: if it looks the part, it is the part.  (That is, if you're willing to make it work.)

 

Ciao,

[EX-XX]

Hmmm...

 

My take?

 

I have an Oz-spec. 5th-Gen, which also has the lights always on, and no on/off switch. On a previous Blackbird, which also didn't have the light switch, I bought both RHS and LHS switch gear from a U.S spec bike, and fitted the headlight "flasher" switchgear to the LHS (because for some unknown reason Y2K Blackbirds in this country also had the flasher switch blanked out). The flasher switch was definitely plug and play. As for the RHS switchgear, surely if you get "all" the wiring from the donor bike on that side, from switchgear to headlights etc. AND retrofit the parking bulb holder/globe, it would also be effectively "plug and play" (noting that you'd be removing and replacing a fair bit of OEM wiring, but not necessarily needing to solder etc.)

 

Or am I missing something?

[JZH]

Replacing the entire wiring harness sounds like a lot of work!  Soldering, in comparison, sounds fairly easy...

 

Ciao,