Josh

Right okay great i'll have a look at that tomorrow then thanks a lot.

Well i've checked all the wires and connectors that I could get access to and everything seems fine. I replaced my position light as well. I haven't actually changed my headlight bulb so I will try that, although the fuse did blow when the front headlight wasn't connected (switching to low beam with it disconnected still caused a short). The only other bit of information I have from today is my starter button seemed to develop a short lived problem after me putting the plastics etc back on my bike it stopped working - it didn't blow a fuse but it just made a single tick noise (almost identical to the tick made by an indicator in a car). I bump started the bike and then after that the starter button worked fine again?! Seems immpossible! Again thanks for your patience and help although I wouldn't be surprised if you give up soon lol.

Oh right okay, so i'll check the green wire for the position light and also the white for the dip beam. If I replace the position light bulb and it shorts again will that blow the bulb? Also I was thinking if the bike runs fine as long as it's not on dip beam then maybe the position light has just been blown for a while without me noticing and it's of no relevance.

I've already had the headlight and tail light on without the fuse blowing I just couldn't put it on low beam because of the position light coming on I think.

Ahhh well that would make sense haha. From that diagram for the little position light I am looking for a green or brown wire though right?

This helps to show the other wires that it comes from.

The bulb that is actually blown is the 12v 4w 'position light' which is shown on the diagram as having a green and brown wire (the brown wire was the wire I took of picture of with melted plastic on it). However it is still the case that the fuse was blown only with low beam on. This picture shows the brown wire (which comes out of a big bunch of wires that leads down from the handlebars and light switches etc) which has a plastic casing around it (cylinder shape) completed melted.

Right okay thanks I'll go and have a look for that white wire in a minute and make use of my insulation tape, I'll write back and let you know how it goes.

Haha yeah sorry I couldn't really get to it properly. I seem to of narrowed my problem down to being the low beam headlight, I found the bulb was blown and took it out - I flicked the headlights up to high beam and everything was fine, went down to low beam and as it has done before, lasted about 3 seconds then blew the fuse, however this can't be because of the bulb because I had already taken it out so simply replacing the bulb won't help, right?

yes that's what is blowing, the 15a tail/headlight/horn fuse. I removed the whole front part (headlight section) and checked the wiring behind there and found something which could be causing a problem. basically the big wire here (which I assume is the connection to headlights switch and whatever else) it looks like the earth wire here has caused the plastic to melt around it (not sure if this is a problem)

Nope they don't have an on off, only a high beam/low beam. Just in case these are helpful at all.

Thanks a lot for all of the helpful replies. Am I safe in saying it isn't the starter motor if the fuse blows before I press the starter button? The only things that come on are the dash lights and headlights automatically come on. So if I can find a way to disconnect the headlights then it might be able to narrow it down?

I don't really know where to start with the multimeter, all i've done so far is taken some wd-40 to it with no success and another blown fuse.

So I should probably check all the connection for water/loose connections? I've got a multimeter but I wouldn't know at all what to do with it in this situation.

Turns out I have a blown fuse, I put the spare fuse in and it blew instantly after turning the key and the electrics coming on.