Exploding Airbox

[Maratio]

I had a strange thing happen the other day.

I was riding my 17 1190RX for about 70 miles. Stopped for lunch then headed across town to a gas station to put a bit more air into my front tire. After I filled up my tire I went to start up my bike and there was an explosion in the air box. It broke the two front mounts on the airbox cover and singed most of the hair on my foearm. I pulled the cover and airbox cover off right away to make sure that the bike was not on fire but there was just a bunch of smokecoming out.

After a few minutes and looking it over without seeing any damage I attempted to start the bike with the cover off. It started right up and sounded just fine.

Needing a ride home I decided to put the airbox and cover back on and rode home. I have not had any other issue, no weird sounds, or power delivery issues.

I guess my question is what happened? Why did it happen and how can I fix and prevent this issue from happening again?

Thank you guys for any help you provide!
Also does anyone else own one of these bikes in Wyoming? I feel like I have the only one lol.

[EBRRider]

I would be checking the charcoal canister lines in the air box ,especially after you just filled up. There is a mode out you might consider doing. Mine is vented out of the air box.

2145

[Rb70383]

I missed that mod. What exactly is done? Mine popped a few times, but never blew up.

[EBRRider]

I missed that mod. What exactly is done? Mine popped a few times, but never blew up.

By the Stark,
Have a stutter?! Does it hesitate!?! Get weird vibrations while cruising....what about hard starts and stalling?! Well good luck with your issues.
Been touching on this for a while now and had a theory, and did some testing. Seems the solenoid for the evap/fuel vent systems are cheap junk, and I’ve found 4 bad ones so far, in varying degrees of failure. This valve has a fairly large vacuum hose to the front cylinder ONLY, that goes into the charcoal canister, from there to the fuel tank. The valve is designed to pulse on and off to control the air flow/fuel vapor flow, as well as block it. Well these ****ers go BAD, sometimes a little, sometimes completely. The result, a massive vacuum leak... not air though, mostly fuel vapors travel from the tank into the engine. The front cylinder starts to correct and takes away a varying unreliable amount of fuel down to 50%ish, probably even liquid fuel on a full tank. This is slightly concerning. Now to ride.
On the ride, while cruising saw approximately 10 inhg ( -5 psi) on the tank, had stumbles and hesitations, seems to lag when taking off. Under hard Decel I saw the tank go to 15 inhg on the gauge. The Vacuum doesn’t bleed off instantly either. Fuel pressure maintained, not surprising because of how the pressure is regulated but a vacuum on the fuel supply is a strain regardless. Bypassed the valve and blocked the vacuum line, cruised for a bit, much more responsive, takes off aggressive, good idle and no more stumbles.
Theory, among other issues. This valve failure is causing massive fluctuations in fueling, especially during hard accel and decel where the ECM isn’t really doing anything, resulting in cylinders out of sync, doing different crap. Stressing the front weak ass cylinder and giving it that little push out the front.

[Rb70383]

Wow Thank you for the info. I totally missed this issue to check into.

[Cooter]

EBRRider convinced me to plug the vacuum line to mine as well. I left the electrical plug on and have had no issues at all:burnout:No CEL, nothing.

[spurdogg]

I see the post about doing the vacuum line block and whatnot from EBRRider, I’m very new to the EBR bikes, just got my 2014 RX a few weeks back. I notice while riding it today the bottom end feels pretty weak under hard acceleration which I thought was strange for a bike with this much power, my 01 RC51 seemed to pull better on the low/mid range. It really doesn’t pull real hard until 6.5-7k rpm. Iv heard a couple pops coming from the air box as well and sometimes even when I blip the throttle on a down shift it’s sluggish like a carbed bike. I thought what EBRRider described in that post was related to what I’m experiencing and I would like to try that vacuum hose block and solenoid disconnection. Could anyone give me specific instructions to achieve what was done? I tried to contact EBRRider directly but no luck, hoping to hear something back on here

[Cooter]

It should pull very hard and be outlandishly fast from 7k up. It shouldn't be popping from the intake either. I would suggest taking it to a shop. You could guess for years and never find the problem. Sorry for the bad news.

[spurdogg]

Yeah I might have to, I think I want to try that air box mod to see if that’ll help any, other than that weaker bottom end power that feels like turbo lag until you hit 7k, it runs, idles, and starts up just fine, just the weird pop I had twice when blipping the throttle at low rpm as well. So the vacuum line is just blocked off but which electrical plug is to be unplugged?

[spurdogg]

Or maybe I just need to really “clean her out” since the previous owner was a older collector that never really stretched the EBRs legs out lol

[EBRRider]

If you felt a pop I would be checking under ur TB for tight clamps, it may have popped up and off the TB, If you are not a hands on guy take it to a shop as Cooter said.Dont take it out and push it , its not a SB chevy.

[Kid Thunder]

It should pull very hard and be outlandishly fast from 7k up. It shouldn't be popping from the intake either. I would suggest taking it to a shop. You could guess for years and never find the problem. Sorry for the bad news.

Not in my basement!!!!

[Kid Thunder]

It should pull very hard and be outlandishly fast from 7k up. It shouldn't be popping from the intake either. I would suggest taking it to a shop. You could guess for years and never find the problem. Sorry for the bad news.

Not in my basement!!!! You took it all!!

[Cooter]

Can't wait to go through it all:)

[Jbaker229]

I had a strange thing happen the other day.

I was riding my 17 1190RX for about 70 miles. Stopped for lunch then headed across town to a gas station to put a bit more air into my front tire. After I filled up my tire I went to start up my bike and there was an explosion in the air box. It broke the two front mounts on the airbox cover and singed most of the hair on my foearm. I pulled the cover and airbox cover off right away to make sure that the bike was not on fire but there was just a bunch of smokecoming out.

After a few minutes and looking it over without seeing any damage I attempted to start the bike with the cover off. It started right up and sounded just fine.

Needing a ride home I decided to put the airbox and cover back on and rode home. I have not had any other issue, no weird sounds, or power delivery issues.

I guess my question is what happened? Why did it happen and how can I fix and prevent this issue from happening again?

Thank you guys for any help you provide!
Also does anyone else own one of these bikes in Wyoming? I feel like I have the only one lol.


I had the exact same thing happen to me, only, in front of about 25 on-lookers. The airbox cover just about flew into the air. I am going to try the mod listed below, but now I am very gentle when starting my bike.