Why previous owners suck

In the midst of a little rat's nest of electrical stuff I found this electrical tape covered bit.





Curious, I unwrapped it.



Lessons learned:
1) A mangled Toyota turn signal relay will work on a zr550
2)Previous owners suck. I bought a new (used) relay for $10 on Ebay. What possesses someone to do such a hack job on such an important component of a bike? Now I'm starting to understand why the bolts on my camshaft sprocket came loose and killed my engine. I wonder what other slacker treats this guy left for me.

Yeah they do suck, I've found some real gettoed stuff over the years previous owners did. Some people shouldn't own motorcycles.

Some people shouldn't be allowed to own tools. Much less hold/use them.

Some people are just cheap and will spend countless hours making the wrong part work or they're just a hack, or both from the looks of what they did to your bike.
I market ignition systems and have watched guys on forums fool with used parts and spend good money on used electronics trying to 'make' stuff work, I just laugh, it doesn't take any more time to do something right that it does to screw it up...

Oh yes you are so right. Everytime I work on my bike I found something else that was bodged.

So far the list is:

Battery box not welded on securely.
Rear light held on with putty and luck.
Random sections of extra small wires soldered badly in place to extend the loom by an inch!
LED lights from ikea hacked into the loom.
Main negative terminal barely holding it together.
Head light bulb connects trimmed really really badly to make them fit a smaller connector

The list goes on, I'm not massively surprised as this bike was heavily modified in the past, just I was told it was professionals that did it!

Luckily I've managed to sort all these out myself.

While on the road I have had to make repairs that could only be described as hack jobs. I always replace them when I reach home and have time, but I have been tempted to see just how long such hack jobs would last. If it runs, I'll ride it until the proper parts arrive.

Running service in a small shop you see all kinds of abortions. Sometimes I'll just send them home. One time I got a nice bike with the carburetors in pieces in a box. I told the father I would try to put them back together but if parts are missing, I'll charge him for my time anyway. It was ready and they came in to pick it up. I got paid and I felt it was Dad's bike now by the look on Junior's face.
Steve

I've also seen electrical "Wire Nuts", used in motorcycle wiring, and wires twisted together & wrapped with the black tape.. When I do wiring, I apply the knowledge obtained from USAF experience on fighter-bombers. Heat shrunk splices, along with water resistant connector "Boots".

I worked at Northrop for a short time in the late 70's. A guy in the wiring Dpt. offered to make up a harness out of their gold plated and spun color coated wiring. It was my daily driver so I couldn't go for it. God it's pretty.
Damn, what a drag it is being poor.
Steve

Not electrical, but I found a wood screw into the head on an exhaust flange.

Just maybe, people are afraid to ask for help, maybe showing their lack of skills, or knowledge. Sad, but's that's one of the reasons why the repair shops stay in business........

I had a job for a number of years, repairing the Rowenta brand of clothes iron, They'd come in our shop, in really sad shape, after attempts by either the boyfriend, or husband to get it working.. Fortunately, with the spare parts we had on hand, I could get the iron up and working in less than a few hours, and get it ready to send out.

If you buy one of these vintage bikes thinking its going to be easy, you are in for a very frustrating and expensive experience. Most of these bikes have had multiple owners and most people don't have a clue as to how to maintain them. I'm just glad there are vendors out there like Redline and Z1E to help us keep them running!