New 1190RX Owner

Hello,

I just picked up the last RX available in Northern California this weekend. I love the bike, it is the most powerful bike I've owned, and my first brand new bike. I have a few questions.

The bike seems very boggy at low RPMs and sometimes dies when in neutral at a red light. The guy I spoke to at my dealer said the engine will need some breaking in to flatten out the idle, my question is how much breaking in? The bike is at about 90 miles on the odometer now.

The gear indication on the gauge seems very laggy, is this typical for everyone?

Also is anybody aware of the number of these bikes produced, and the number of them distributed in California? Mine is number 37

and last, does anybody have any advice, or tips for maintaing my RX

Thanks

[QUOTE=Dutch;2334]Hello,


Hey Dutch,

I am no expert so take my advice with a grain of salt. Other more mechanical types on here will have better input but for what it's worth, have you ever had a twin before? There are some noticeable differences and characteristics of vtwins if you are used to inline 4s that take some adjustment if you have never had a race bike twin of this size.
If you haven't your description might just be that you have never experienced twins of this sort and you may be expecting the eager hum of a Japanese bike...they don't run all buzzy, steady, and hyper ready to go like an inline.
You will find that Vtwin big bore bikes are like a chain smoker at the end of life-- whilst sitting at idle they will be hot, hacking, coughing, spewing and generally unpleasant.
I had a Ducati 1098S that could barely breathe in town. BUT, once you get moving all that changes. My Duc couldn't even stand to be below 60mph. These bikes aren't really, in truth, built for city riding, they are built to race and aren't comfortable until they reach higher speeds/rpms.


That said, if you have ridden twins and you know it sounds wrong then you must be experiencing some other aforementioned issues on this site where some guys got theirs to run smoother during break in by turning off TC (traction control) while riding in town.

I just bought my RX 4 days ago and it is on a truck coming down from Connecticut so I have only ridden a demo here in Florida for 15 miles and my bike in CT, before they trucked, it for about the same mileage. I had no issues. So I have ridden her enough to know it should run without hiccups beyond a normal twin feel. It had the feel that if you let rpms drop too low from a stand still start that she bogs down and that's just a typical feel with these bikes at idle.

He is right about the break in too. Make sure to follow your break in exactly. I am a firm believer that a proper break in extends the engine life substantially. Usually some slightly extra high revs won't matter if you make a mistake but with no service and no support you DO NOT want to take chances.
Since it's your first new bike you will notice how the engine changes after the break in period, and then again after break in service and you have put significantly higher revs on her as you log miles. She will smooth out all the rough edges. But if you suspect you are still having throttle response issues or lag, (that should not be happening at all) even at higher speeds/rpms you might want to have it looked at as it may be your ECU/mapping issues.

IMO it just sounds like you are new to a new bike and especially a big twin.
A Very exciting time in a man's life! I loved when I got my first new bike that only I had ever ridden. That way I knew just how she'd been ridden and we got to know only each other. I told her what she liked and she told me what she'd do for me. Sweet houghmagandy!

Enjoy the ride! Hope it helps

Most of my bikes have been twins, 5 out of the 7 I've owned. I currently have 2 XB9r's and 2 Ducati 748's, The XB's I guess I just kind of expected them to run rough because of the Harley engine, while my 748's run very smooth, although maybe they wouldn't be considered "big bore twins".

On the gear indicator, they lag a little, but show nothing when the clutch is in. After that, takes a second or so to come up with the gear.

I would expect the engine to loosen up significantly as you approach the 600 mile service. New, they are pretty tight.

Gear indicator is like that because it's running off RPM& indicated speed. You can throw it off coming off the highway. I bought mine in southern California, #30. I know Escondido has #5. If you change sprockets, that will throw everything off from speed to gear indicator to traction control
Never had it die in neutral, but sometimes have issue with first start. Watch the engine for leaks, mine was slowly leaking oil out of the front head on the left, check fairing bolts often, you can lose one from the vibration, I lost one after first service on the cat, after that, I double checked all of them that mechanics touched