WoodsChick
I Don't Do GPS
Oh snap.
What’s with all the oldys moving away n shit?
Well, they both had growing families, and I imagine it's harder to raise them here in the Bay Area. :dunno
Oh snap.
What’s with all the oldys moving away n shit?
No, but I am turning focus back in this starting next week and will get a progress report to you.
With Berryessa completely gone my test ride potential is also up in the air.
This might seem overly simple, but it can cause engines to run bad, especially after a high speed run.
Is the crankcase vent going into the air box?
On the side of the air box that goes to the throttle body, is it oily at all?
No idea but will add this to the check up list.
Ok FINALLY an update
Rottweiler installed. PC5 still off
Bike still won’t start Now . Turns over but won’t start .
The logic that the shop that did the tune up failed to hook up an electrical and it shimmied off during the test ride is still plausible. I handed them a running bike but now it doesn’t run at all.
But the shop said it’s done with the KTM due to the time it put into it and it won’t pursue any further causes. :rolleyes
So the BIGGEST “ hindsight is 20/20” lesson that I have learned here :
1) only buy a KTM from a KTM expert ( like A Conan or a Stan23) who will have a wealth of info and a meticulous bike.
OR,
2) Go Directly to a KTM specialist and do not waste your time or efforts on anything less. $1500 and a lot of time and energy could have been saved.
Appointment booked for MACH 1.
The logic that the shop that did the tune up failed to hook up an electrical and it shimmied off during the test ride is still plausible. I handed them a running bike but now it doesn’t run at all.
But the shop said it’s done with the KTM due to the time it put into it and it won’t pursue any further causes. :rolleyes
This is so disturbing. I suppose I live in a fantasy land where service professionals who claim to be subject matter experts have integrity and stand behind their work.
/rant
Good luck with chasing down the issue correctly. I'm watching this thread hopefully! :ride
Mechanics have never gotten much respect. It’s just as technically demanding a field these days as anything in the tech fields, but a fraction of the pay and the added bonus of occasionally dropping an engine on your foot.
An old buddy of mine who taught me basically everything I know about engines and motorcycles always said “I got into being a motorcycle mechanic to feed my Jones and I got out of it to feed my family”.
Being a mechanic is useful but not glamorous. And sadly, these days, the folks who would support your useful but not glamorous fields are getting squeezed more and more. Especially in the US, where motorcycles are generally weekend toys, there’s fewer and fewer opportunities to build the basic skills needed to understand how an engine works before you start bolting a bunch of electronics to it and adding complexity that requires a whole additional set of skills to understand how it works, and then more complexity when it integrates with a motor / chassis.
Edit: it’s really a tragedy because the skill of a mechanic is really in deeply understanding how something works in the real world. Design inspires you to ride it again, engineering defines the quality of the experience, but the mechanic makes it work. And the ways that the world will break something are as vast and broad as anything anything a designer might create or an engineer might build.
I don’t necessarily blame the mechanics either.
I spoke to a KTM certified guru mechanic and he indicated that While he thinks it’s a mass sensor issue , the whole industry has become so specialized , as have these bike systems , that keeping up with the joneses I’m skills and tech has become next to impossible.
On a KTM, a simple tune up would require a whole bunch of readjustments as well, from throttle To sensors , to micro screen filters to a tom of recalibrations. Every time.
I would rather wrench less and ride more so I hope they slow down on making bikes smarter than we are and go back to making them more user friendly.
Most of us can’t even begin to tap into a Bike’s full potential and do t need all this extra stuff anyway.
So the BIGGEST “ hindsight is 20/20” lesson that I have learned here :
1) only buy a KTM from a KTM expert ( like A Conan or a Stan23) who will have a wealth of info and a meticulous bike.
OR,
2) Go Directly to a KTM specialist and do not waste your time or efforts on anything less. $1500 and a lot of time and energy could have been saved.
Appointment booked for MACH 1.
One *very* good thing about motorcycles becoming computers on wheels is that automotive computing has -- by government mandate -- been pretty decent about self-diagnosing.
Modern bikes, just like cars, have the equivalent of an ODB port that you plug your laptop into running the $$$$$$$ factory diagnostic software and it pinpoints the trouble zone. (That's one thing I wish were more like cars - the ability to use standard ODB readers.)
It may or may not actually BE the sensor that the software has pinpointed, but it's absolutely going to be in the supporting environment of that sensor - is the sensor dirty? The wiring to it frayed? A bad ground to that sensor? etc.
BTW, back on topic, speaking of self-diagnosis... I don't recall and am far too lazy to re-read the thread -- Did you do the thing where you jumper two pins in the diagnostic port, and read the flashing-light code on the dashboard?
Troubleshoot tips...
Battery...
Start with the battery for it's the weakest link in the whole system... To
determine the condition of an Maintenance Free battery give it a
refreshing charge... wait 30 minutes... measure terminal voltage...
12.8 or higher is a good battery...
12.0 to 12.8 is a insufficient charge... recharge...
12.0 or lower... battery unserviceable...
I'd would not begin troubleshooting unless the battery's starting
voltage is greater than 12.8 volts and the charging system is steady at
the prescribe values specified in the offical shop manual...