That FI light business

[Biggles]

At 2:30 this morning, after I started Ruby at the Shell ready to depart on my FarRide to Bargara, the FI light came on.
Last time it did that was after a brake pad change, and it resolved itself after a restart.  IanB (ex Beatup) had a similar problem that his Honda mechanic couldn't fault.  So I pushed on into the night.  I did two rolling shut down/ restarts to no avail.  It was only after a complete shut down when I refuelled the next time that it reset itself.  I've had five starts since without a problem.

Danged electrickery!  I've been interfering with Ruby's intestines with the grip heater install and driving light repair, but none of that should have upset the ECU.  The only possibility I can think of was I may have cranked the starter before the FI extinguished in the boot cycle, but I'm sure I've done that plenty of times with no ill-effect, even though it's best practice to wait.   

[Biggles]

The bike I bought back in September just passed 43000km, of which I put on 6000.  Last week the wretched FI light came on and went with a reset.  On Friday I rode 400km and the light came on after an enthusiastic spurt around some traffic.  It went out on the next restart.  And so the familiar saga repeats itself, but disappointing on such a low kays bike.  I'm in the midst of trying the ECU Reset regime.  I've had two other bikes throw up the FI light and never noticed any difference in the engine's behaviour.
My question to anyone who has ever ridden with the intermittent FI light is, has it ever caused a complete engine failure?  Reading through the posts I see someone mentioned a "limp home" mode that sounds tedious.
I'm planning to ride to Canberra like everyone else this week and would like some peace of mind.  IF the worst happens before then there's always the V-Strom option for the extra hardy!!   

[PC]

Hi Bill the FI light has been doing that on my bike for a while now haven’t noticed any difference in performance approximately 10000ish ks
However my alternator has failed and will be interesting to see if it is still there when the new one is fitted later this month

[Biggles]

JD Biker posted this over in the 2026 Rally thread:
"Have you checked what the malfunction code is? Could be something simple, very common for the connection at the knock sensors to go bad from heat damage."

The FI code is 26, the RH knock sensor/wiring.  So it looks like a common ST13 bug. 
Thanks for the encouragement PC.  The manual notes that it doesn't affect the engine running.  I doubt an alternator change will have an effect, but electrickery is a dark science!