1st gear surging between 20 and 25 mph

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TheAxeman

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I have an '06 that is about 3 weeks old and has about 800 miles on it. Since I drove it off the lot the bike will surge in first gear when trying to keep a steady 20 to 25 miles per hour. Its next to impossible to maintain that speed comfortably because of it. I just got it back from the dealer from its 600 mile service and there is absolutely no change even though they supposedly checked this. I had also told them at the time that the bike stalls when applying throttle just off of idle when it is in neutral. Of course this didn't change either. Does anyone want to venture a guess as to whats causing this. Never having had an FJR before, I can't imagine that this in normal.

 
Axeman: Have you checked the freeplay on your throttle cable, You don't want very much at all, mabe 1/16 if that. Have you checked your throttle body sync. FJRTech.com has good articles on how to do it.

Good Luck.... Don

 
Don,

The dealer supposedly checked for throttle freeplay and supposedly did a TBS....I say supposedly because it is such a lame ass dealership in every other way I can only imagine that their service department is the same. Unfortunately, there is no other Yamaha dealer within a reasonable distance from me so I am relegated to bringing it to these guys for warranty work. Being mechanically challenged myself its something I wouldn't attempt myself while the bike is still new. To me, the bike runs fine at speeds in excess of 40 mph but runs and sounds like crap up to that point. They had the bike for 4 days for a 600 mile service, 3 days because the "technician" refused to test ride it in the drizzling rain. If any guy who rides any type of bike test drove it they would immediately know what I was talking about. Is a TBS the most suspect thing? I think that next time I will dab a little nail polish on the tank bolts to see if these dumb asses even lift the tank. I'm suspecting that they did nothing to the bike except change the oil for $308.00.

 
Don't know but the 06 could have the surge of all the other years. some do and some don't. Bothers some but not others. PC cures this and makes it rum smoother and not so lean. I have a PCIII and no surge whatsoever at any speed. Can keep it at 20, 30, 40 mph or wherever and runs great on a custom map.

 
Axeman: The throttle freeplay is easy to adjust. When you slowly twist the throttle is there any slop when it first comes off the stops. If there is, look at the cables coming from behind the throttle grip, one will have a rubber boot on it, slide the rubber back to expose the adjuster. It will have a locknut in the middle, loosen it slightly and slowly adjust it (probably lengthen it) until there is very little free play when you twist the throttle.

If there is a reliable Dealer or Service tech in your area, or if one of your friends are mechanically inclined. The TBS is fairly straight foreward, print off Dales procedure from FJRTech.com and follow it.

As fjrvtx1300s mentioned , it could also be caused by the lean settings in the fuel injection computer, a PCIII allows you to reprogram the fuel injection mapping, or read up on Warchilds Barvarian Jumper Mod(Not sure if the wiring on the 06 is the same as previous years) which allows you to adjust the CO settings from the Bikes LCD panel, which will richen up the mixture. CAUTION with this one as you are playing around with the bikes brain, if the wiring is different or you short something out, Once you let the magic smoke out, it can get pretty expsensive.

 
Lemme guess.

At that speed you're running about 2500 rpms and with no load. Right?

If so, classic for all models. You can adjust the CO, the throttle slack, and your wrist will adapt to the EFI responsiveness.

Alternately, you can install a Power Commander III/USB.

 
Thanks for the advise fellas. I'm going to print out a couple of these threads and take them over to the dealer and let him deal with it. After reading some of the links that The Henchman provided, I'm convinced that the bike isn't adjusted properly. To top it all off, I'm also beginning to wonder what the valve tap noise is coming from the engine (please note that I refuse to use the term ticking). This whole thing is slowly beginning to put a damper on my first time FJR experience.

 
I can nearly guarantee you that the engine noise you hear at under 1k miles is not "The Tick". This engine has a lot a things going on inside it that you can hear. "The Tick" can be heard by another rider on another bike FROM MORE THAN SIX FEET AWAY. If you ever hear "The Tick" you will never mistake it for injectors, timing chains, lifters or another other motor noises.

 
I'm going to print out a couple of these threads and take them over to the dealer and let him deal with it.
I wouldn't do that if I were you :no:

The minute you say "I saw it on the internet" the dealer's going to shut you down. Just go in and do your best impression of a subject matter expert. Talk about all the lean surging and TPS problems you've seen in the past and how your FJR is showing all the classic symptoms. Mention something along the lines of "if I could put it in dealer mode I'd fatten it up myself but since it's under warranty I think you guys should be the ones to do it". Try to focus on the fact that the bikes current performance in unacceptable to you no matter what they think and if they won't budge then get shitty and start demanding your money back.

 
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Interesting post, I have an 06. I doesnt stall by any means, however, When riding slow, or navigating around a parking lot, I do notice the bike will lurch, or jerk a bit when comming on throttle. At first I thought it was me, but beginning to think it may be something else. Will power commander fix??

 
When riding slow, or navigating around a parking lot, I do notice the bike will lurch, or jerk a bit when comming on throttle. At first I thought it was me, but beginning to think it may be something else. Will power commander fix??
Yes, it will. And Axeman's surging, too.

The low-speed surging under light/no load in the 20-30mph range is a common symptom; it's been reported every NA model year FJR since 2002. This is, however, the first time I've heard about it on the 2006 models. My first FJR ('04) had it.... and it was noticably bad, too, A PC-IIIusb completely eliminated it alotogether.

I was kinda hoping that Yamaha would have found/eliminated why some bikes surge, while the majority do not.

But then some FJRs tick, while the majority do not, so...
shrug.gif


A PC-IIIusb will fix you guys right up... once DynoJet makes one for the 2006 FJR. :p :lol:

 
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I had a similar issue with my 2003 on warm days. I adjusted the CO and it ran much smoother. Then I bought a PC-III and reset the CO back to the original setting. Since I installed the PC-III and found a good map I have resisted all urges to mess with it. It runs perfect.

 
Is the PC-III fairly plug and play or does it take other modifications to the bike to install? I have read a number of the other threads about mapping, etc... but am wondering whether it is a DIY farkle or a $200.00 dealer installation. It seems that once they come out with the '06 version it would be the way to go because it drives me nuts to ride it the way it is.

 
PCIIIusb is EXTREMELY plug and play. Use the guide on FJRTech, and my 9 year old could probably do it.

 
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When riding slow, or navigating around a parking lot, I do notice the bike will lurch, or jerk a bit when comming on throttle. At first I thought it was me, but beginning to think it may be something else. Will power commander fix??
Yes, it will. And Axeman's surging, too.

The low-speed surging under light/no load in the 20-30mph range is a common symptom; it's been reported every NA model year FJR since 2002. This is, however, the first time I've heard about it on the 2006 models. My first FJR ('04) had it.... and it was noticably bad, too, A PC-IIIusb completely eliminated it alotogether.

I was kinda hoping that Yamaha would have found/eliminated why some bikes surge, while the majority do not.

But then some FJRs tick, while the majority do not, so...
shrug.gif


A PC-IIIusb will fix you guys right up... once DynoJet makes one for the 2006 FJR. :p :lol:
I was getting ready to start a thread on this and figures I'd use the "search feature".... Anyway, I was hoping this would go away, but it's not. I live in the mountains of east TN (rubbing it in) and on a short ride this week-end, I nearly had to change my undies after a couple of low speed hairpins. Very abrupt throttle at low speed, say about 2,500 - 3,300 rpms, in the first couple of gears. It's not as noticeable at higher speeds. I guess I'll start bugging Dynojet.

Isn't interesting that a company with the resources that Yamaha has can't get this right and a small little outfit like Dynojet can? I'm fully aware that OEMs with use "good quality" components to meet their goals while keeping cost low and therefore this leaves a niche for aftermarket companies to engineer an "excellent quality" component, where cost isn't necessarly the main goal. But ECM programming......does it cost more to get that right? I wouldn't think so.

 
My understanding is that the bikes come from the factory running fairly lean for emission testing reasons... and the Dynojet compensates for that condition, w/o regard for what it does to the exhaust output... something MammyYammy can't do.

 
I've am experiancing the same lean surge at light throttle that you guys are on my 06.

I talked to the Power Commander people today and found out that they don't have one for the 06 yet and don't have an eta. The guy said because it is special order, they had not gotten ahold of one to play with yet.

If anyone out there is in the Vegas area with an 06 FRJ, give them a call an offer to let them look at your bike. They may give you a unit for free.

Just an idea

Weekender

 
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