CB left me stranded today

[pdedse]

I like to do my own maintenance on my bikes when I can, but I'll readily admit to shying away from electrical issues because nobody every "learned me" and I haven't had to much with some simple exceptions. Cool that you were able to diagnose the trouble spot.

With shop manual in hand, eggs, bacon and three cups of coffee downed, started in on the problem this morning and quickly diagnosed.

The starter relay is defective. This relay is the first connection from battery and has two feeds, a 20 amp fused cable on the left and a 30 amp fused cable on the right. The right side cable from the relay feeds directly to the ignition switch. Whilst at roadside yesterday afternoon, I checked for battery on the left side cable only and battery was present there. I then checked both fuses with the multimeter and both were good so I assumed the trouble lay beyond this juncture. If I had checked the right side cable I would have found no battery. Going over all this morning I quickly discovered this and removed the relay and found it to be open on the field side of the fuse and thus not passing battery to the ignition switch.

Had to order a new starter relay at $67 and while speaking to the parts man was informed that Honda has a recall on two models now for this same problem. Unfortunately the CB not being one of them.

What does it take for an issue like this on a particular bike to come to Honda's attention so that they do announce a recall? Is it because dealerships report multiple cases, or because of customers contacting Honda directly? When riders fix the issue on their own, maybe it's best to contact Honda anyway so that they are made aware?