Motorcycle Repair: 1982 Honda Nighthawk 750 blinkers, j c whitney, honda nighthawk 750

Question
I only have the two front blinkers on my bike.  They don't blink when I turn them on.  When I turn one of them on, all it does is light but it doesn't flash.  What would you suggest me to do from here?  The rear blinkers are missing from the bike.  Is there some reason that I need the back blinkers hooked up to make the front blinkers work?  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer
Ray,
 Yes, the blinkers are designed to work w/ two lights per side.  There is a device that makes them blink called a relay and is located near or on the fuse panel.  If one light is blown or dosn't exist the current is no longer dived amongst two lights, just one.  This causes the relay to act quicker (you'll see this on cars w/ a rapidly flashing blinker, usually because the coinciding blinker is not working).  Over working the relay like this causes it to fail prematurely and will be left stuck in the closed position, a.k.a. "ON", no more flash.  You can replace the relay and it will probably last quite a while but it will eventually fail again due to the other missing light.  You may want to replace the other lights at the rear.  If you can't afford stock ones there are cheaper aftermarket ones you can order through a bike shop or get from "J.C. Whitney" online.  Hope this helps,
Mike