Bike stuttering, or is it studdering?

[fenster]

I'd just like to start off by saying this forum is the best! I'm pretty much a noob, been riding for 7 months. I'm riding a '03 XB9r. So, I'm experiencing some stuttering as i shift through the lower gears, mainly 1st through 3rd. In the mornings, when it's cold, it hardly does it. It happens more often when I get off of work in the afternoon. I'll allow my bike to warm up for about 3-5 minutes, then take off. I notice it mostly in 2nd gear, a sort of stuttering, and the bike lurches a bit, not too terribly much, but enough to go 'huh'? When I rev the engine in neutral, I don't experience any engine hesitation or misfiring. I seem to see it around 2500-3000 rpm, maybe a bit higher (when riding, not it neutral). After 4000 rpm, the problem disappears. I initially thought it was a sign that my plugs were bad, so I changed them. It definitely helped in terms of better overall performance, but I experienced the problem on some city streets going about 25 mph. Can anyone give any insight? Thanks.

 

[03Firebolt9R]

If you haven't done this yet, you could try the breather hose reroute. It also probably needs a TPS reset. If you don't have ECMSpy and would need a stealer to perform the reset, then I would wait until after the hose reroute. Just my thoughts.

Keep in mind though that Xb's in general do this to some degree. The aforementioned suggestions will hopefully help smooth things out. Good luck.

Breather hose reroute

 

[Stevenc150]

Welcome to the Forum fenster. [up]

Back when I first got mine, it did EXACTLY the same thing. Then I started warming the bike up as some suggested on here. I start it, gear up, and take off; takes about a minute. I don't "get on it" till I've rode a little ways, and it's golden from there on. Also switched to NGK Iridium plugs at the same time and feel they helped a lot also.

Between those & breather re-route, stuttering is almost completely gone. I'm betting you may have some fouled plugs too from long idle times. I'd pull and check them just for good measure.

 

[fenster]

Thanks guys. Just finished the breather hose reroute, about to ride home! Update coming soon.

 

[fenster]

Breather re-route went well. It definitely smoothed things out in the idle to 3000 rpm range. However, it didn't fully solve the problem of stuttering, which occurs more in the 3700-4000 range. Anyhow, I've downloaded ECMSpy and am debating buying the associated usb-to-ecm cable to perform the TPS reset on my own. Any comments on that would be helpful.

 

[edipis]

I have a cable if you want it. Brand new. $50-free shipping.

[email protected]

Let me know if you want it, or if you have any questions.

 

[Stevenc150]

Just read through the manual and follow it and you should be good, the TPS reset isn't too bad. You've always got this forum to fall back on. Did you replace the plugs?

 

[fenster]

So, ended up resetting the TPS about a week and a half ago. Definitely helped until today, started experiencing the stuttering again. If anyone has any helpful advice I'd certainly appreciate it. When it's running good, the bike is amazing! It takes the twisties up at Alice's (San Francisco Bay / Hwy 84 and 35) with no problems! It sucks to experiencing this but I'm determined to find out the real problem. I'll probably be taking it in to the shop this week sometime.

 

[Stevenc150]

Take your battery in to an auto parts store to have it checked, it may be on the downhill slide to dead.

 

[fenster]

Finally got the bike back from the shop about three weeks ago. They ended up replacing the ECM. A weak battery might have contributed to the problem. The annoying part was that it took the shop a really long time to diagnose the problem. They suspected the ECM to begin with but went back and forth with support engineers at Buell as to how to solve the issue. Why they don't have a known good ECM to use as a shop tool was kind of confusing. Those are standard troubleshooting techniques. I work in a test lab and if we suspect a bad component, we replace it with a known good one and go from there. Long story short, I have the bike back and it runs better than ever! All in all, if you're experiencing ECM problems, check to ensure that your battery is putting out the required voltage, and go from there.