Self revving.

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Jan 5, 2014
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I've been taking some good rides. Either 80 MPH average runs at the beach or some 60 mile twisty runs, mostly third gear. When the bike gets hot, for the past few days, she's been idling and self revving from 1800 rpm to 2400 rpm at the stop lights. Anybody else experiencing this? Usually she idles steadily at 1200. When I got home, I shut it down and restarted. Its seemed to have gone to normal. I only ran it for a minute at that point. Also, after letting her sit for maybe 15 20 minutes, I have to warm it up all over again or it stalls. Does it really cool down that quickly? Anybody think my air filter may be getting saturated? One more minor issue, my tripometer has self reset to 0 twice while riding. A sign of my battery possibly getting low. A buddy with a Ninja said that happens to him at low battery but his clock resets too, not mine.
 
My clock has reset with an almost dead battery. I did have some surging, though not as severe as yours. I found that the 3 bolts around my header pipes were loose which could have caused an airleak and bad info at the o2 sensors as Swooshdave suggests. There was also a slight discoloring around the flanges suggesting a leak!

You can check the air filter in 5 minutes, not much to think about there! Do you have a friend that can help, we know you don't want to go to the dealer and don't blame you a bit!!!

Also, make sure the bike is stone cold before attempting to re-torque the header bolts!

And did you do the re-map?
 
BP. Thanks for the tips. I'll check the headers for an air leak and/or loose bolts. I checked the O2 sensor to see if it was loose as suggested by Richard7. Its tight. Never did have the seat off to check the airbox/filter. I'll get to that. The tripometer held the right mileage this trip. 50+ miles of some pretty hard riding. This symptom happened intermittently the last few times out but pretty much did it all the way home this time out. Like I said, it normalized after shutting it down for a minute and restarting. On a high note, the bike ran great. I was holding my own with the Aprilia and Ninja on the twisties.
 
As BPHORSEGUY said... first make sure to keep battery in perfect condition. It can cause problems even if it seems allright. Stalling when cold is one of many.

My clock never resetted caused by the battery, but it does every time i drive in the rain. I suspect the button for letting water in at a faster rate than out on mine. If one of your rides were in wet conditions... it could be this.

My headers came loose a couple of times also. I did remove them once to see why, only to find the large crush washers disintegrated completely. The original crush washers on my bike were very low quality. Also, 4 of 6 studs corroded and became stuck on the nuts. New crush washers, studs, copper nuts and all seems fine now.
 
This is crazy. This happened to me on Sat but it was my fault.

I thought the idle was a little low so I turned in the SET SCREW on the throttle stop half a turn. I was so please for the first 15 minutes. Got up to 80kph for about 10minutes then came to my first stop. Then surging at idle to 2,200 rpm every stop. I turned it back, went out for the rest of the day and the problem went away. Talked to my dad about it. He said that grub screw is only to prevent the flaps inside from touching and that the EFI controls the idle so don't touch that screw. Hope this helps, may not be related tho.. keep us posted.
 
I also had the auto idle speed increase issue. Last year before my remap, in very hot weather 90+, in stop and go traffic, while sitting at a traffic light. Idle suddenly shot up from 1200 to about 2400-2500 rpm for 5-6 seconds. With loud exhaust, it’s very embarrassing to say the least. Was about to hit the kill switch and push the bike to curb to check the throttle cable. Then suddenly idle mysteriously returned to normal. I just thought it was the motorcycle Gods messin’ with my mind. After the remap last November, have not had a similar experience. Of course, I haven't ridden in 90+ weather yet this year.
 
BT, exACTly what happened to me. Good hard ride, 85 degrees. This has happened intermittently a few times. Once I had to grab the clutch real quick because I lurched a little. But the last ride, it went from 1800, revved to 24to2500 then back down every 10 seconds or so at every stop light. People probably thought I was a douche for revving it so much. Like I said, turned it off at home for about a minute, restarted and it was back to 1200 steady. Annoying little niggle. Hope it doesn't happen every time I beat on it a little. Time for me to get that seat off and check the air filter. I may pop for a new battery too even though its been on a tender. If the battery is a little low, could that cause the quirkiness? Never had an ECU in a bike before, so this is all new to me.
 
I gotta think that it has something to do with an exhaust leak. Seems like the ECU detects a change in O2 level and adjusts the fuel pressure on the injectors. I did notice last year that there was carbon smudge on the cooling fins of my right front head by the exhaust port/pipe junction. Could only have come from leaking exhaust. Perhaps this was allowing air into the pipe upstream of the O2 sensor. When I brought my bike into GC last year for the remap, I asked them to check the exhaust gasket and tighten the exhaust nuts. Since my remap, I haven't had another overrev-ing event. If I get my bike back before the summer is over I'll be able to run some better hot weather tests.
 
BritTwit said:
I gotta think that it has something to do with an exhaust leak. Seems like the ECU detects a change in O2 level and adjusts the fuel pressure on the injectors. I did notice last year that there was carbon smudge on the cooling fins of my right front head by the exhaust port/pipe junction. Could only have come from leaking exhaust. Perhaps this was allowing air into the pipe upstream of the O2 sensor. When I brought my bike into GC last year for the remap, I asked them to check the exhaust gasket and tighten the exhaust nuts. Since my remap, I haven't had another overrev-ing event. If I get my bike back before the summer is over I'll be able to run some better hot weather tests.


Thanks for posting this!! I checked my exhaust bolts only because of this post. I thought, its free to check and peace of mind even tho I feel my similar issue was self inflicted by that grub screw - and I'm 90% positive it was. My right side header into the cylinder head nuts needed a tighten. The left side were 1/4 turn, and the right side were 1 1/2 turns each until tight. All else on the system was tight. I must admit, I couldn't get an idle of the button since I've owned it and I have map 077. Well, thanks to this post, this morning in 8 degree C it started off the button for the first time. Maybe not related but that's a first. I was always just thinking its a break in thing.
CHEERS :mrgreen:
 
Great! Glad it helped.
These bikes do seem to noticeably change characteristics as they accumulate miles. Unlike the more traditional Japanese machines which seem to be the model of consistency right out of the box. Mechanically speaking my engine is quieter now than when new, and the clutch feel has improved so it now has a broader engagement than when new. My remap solved a few problems, especially a flat spot that I had between 3400-4200 RPM with the SBT Dominator exhaust. Now the only issue I have is the cold start/idle.

The HT coils that you where suggesting might just do the trick. I don’t know how much spark energy the stock coils produce, but if the new HT coils are significantly better, I might try them out. Back in the day when I was racing, I had a Yoshimura stage 3 Kawasaki 1000, If was a 130 HP Superbike motor that would not idle in the pits lower than 1500 RPM. At 1500 RPM it would often die.
Cook Nielsen, a racer/writer from Cycle magazine put out an article on ignition systems back then (1973-74) were he discussed the terrible ignition systems on production bikes, and how to improve them. One way was to adapt 12 volt Volkswagen ignition coils. They produced 50% more energy than the best motorcycle coils of the day. I put 4 of them on my bike. They looked like 4 big cans of Coke strapped to the chassis. However, with no other adjustments, the damn bike would idle at 1000RPM. It was a lumpy idle because of the cam, but a strong idle. They made starting easier as well.

Maybe I need to call Matt or Carlos at SBT to discuss the coils.
 
Re: Seelf revving.

richard-7 said:
[

Hey Richard, I thought I was the first to post about loose header bolts leaking and foiling the o2 sensors back in the second post.... Just kidding hope your idle is better!!!!
 
Re: Seelf revving.

BPHORSEGUY said:
richard-7 said:
[

Hey Richard, I thought I was the first to post about loose header bolts leaking and foiling the o2 sensors back in the second post.... Just kidding hope your idle is better!!!!

Bob,

indeed you were. :D
 
Richard, how about an update on your starting and iding since the header 're- torque'.
 
As per my post on the TT thread, I think you will find that the fast 2500rpm tickover will be down to the idle motor which is the black unit just behind the cyl head with in and out air pipes. It aids starting and idling by allowing air into the inlet tract beyond the throttle bodies - it is just a solenoid valve. I had the fast tickover after the bike had warmed up - the factory changed the unit but I still had the same problem. If you locate the pipe from the airbox and block it with a bolt or something, you should revert to standard tickover. You can run it like this permanently but may have to alter the little screw on the throttle spindle to adjust tickover - you also need a bit of throttle when starting. It get very hot round there and I think the idle motor valve gets stuck - I wrapped the idle motor in exhaust bandage to isolate it from the heat and this seemed to work for me as it has been fine since - Alan
 
regental said:
As per my post on the TT thread, I think you will find that the fast 2500rpm tickover will be down to the idle motor which is the black unit just behind the cyl head with in and out air pipes. It aids starting and idling by allowing air into the inlet tract beyond the throttle bodies - it is just a solenoid valve. I had the fast tickover after the bike had warmed up - the factory changed the unit but I still had the same problem. If you locate the pipe from the airbox and block it with a bolt or something, you should revert to standard tickover. You can run it like this permanently but may have to alter the little screw on the throttle spindle to adjust tickover - you also need a bit of throttle when starting. It get very hot round there and I think the idle motor valve gets stuck - I wrapped the idle motor in exhaust bandage to isolate it from the heat and this seemed to work for me as it has been fine since - Alan


Great tip!!! Thanks
 
Aha! The idle air motor bolts were backed out quite a bit and there was a good 1/8 inch gap on the flange. Finally made reference to my manual and found what I had tightened. Makes sense, no? Bike idled fine all day. The right side hose form the air box hooks up to it.
 
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