Afternoon All,

The wifes 1200 Custom Sporty has recently been giving me grief.

We rode to Melbourne just before Xmas and all was good, lately it has been a problem.

At 50 to 60kph in 3rd or 4th gear it feels like it is missing or has a hesitation, the other way to describe it would be, the way an older lawn mower is always hunting.

This continues in top gear at 80kph to approx 95kph. Above 95kph it is all smooth.

Also does it when cruising (not accelerating) down hills.

Acceleration is normal in all circumstance.

The local Steelership has not found the problem, initially they replaced the airfilter and plugs and said it was good to go.

Less than 5 minutes on it and she turned around and took it back, no difference.

Today they said it is rider error and that nothing is wrong with the bike.

I can confirm that I have also experienced this problem on her bike.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

Sharpy62

Is it a carby bike or EFI?  How many km has it done?  Possibly dirty jets in the carby or clogged injectors if it's EFI.  Put a bottle of injector cleaner in the tank when you fill it up and see if that helps.  Could also be faulty plug leads or loose electrical connections at the coil etc.  Could also be a leaking inlet manifold or loose exhaust pipes at the cylinder head.   You'll have to tighten and check everything as a process of elimination.  Good luck. 

Tmode.

Has the bike had any mods done like a fuel tuner?

If not, I would also check the leads and check the voltage to the coil.  Also might be worth draining the tank and replacing the fuel in case you  got a bad batch.

Thanks for all of your suggestions.

I checked all of the areas suggested and found nothing.

I took it back to the Steelership and they checked it over and again said rider error.

Funny though, no charge and we rode to Everton Pub Sat from Sydney and then back Sun and it ran like a dream.
Same way it used to ride.

Answer to some of your Question though. 09 Sporty Custom 1200. 13,000K's. Screaming eagle pipes, no other engine mods.
Checked all exhaust for leakages and found none. Fuel lines all good.
Ruled out dirty fuel, as we ride together (I have an 05 Softail Standard) and I fill up both bikes from the same point each time.
Checked the fuses, no moisture evident.

Cheers

Sharpy62

Had a similar problem on my friends sporty.found out to be the ht leads where they plug in to the coil there was corrosion.try cleaning them or even replace them.