New 1190RX died 3x on the way home

Hello everyone,

Issue: bike died 3 times on the ride home. clutch / gears engaging seems a bit rough and jerky at times.

I just bought an 1190RX black ([already own an 09 XB12R] seems to be the slow color from what I am reading around here), and to give some history on what I've been told about the bike. It was the demo from the dealer that they used for test rides, it had 539mi on it when I got to it. I spoke the a gentlemen that turned out the be the dealers son and he was the main rider of this bike and told me that after they uncrated the bike he personally put the first 300 miles on it and followed the breaking in limitations during that time, from speaking to this guy for a few hours off and on, I got a very good impression that he was honest in all, that as he seems like the type to follow those restrictions. However there were 7-8 people that test drove the bike and 4-5 of them were escorted by staff on their test rides. Of course the others they cannot account for what did to the bike but I'd like to believe that the bike wasn't mistreated too badly for its break in. The ride home was about 160mi ride through downtown Houston during traffic times so there was plenty of clutch working but while in the city, on the highway and at around 20-30 mph the bike just died on me while I had the clutch pulled in so of course I simply restarted the bike and carried on. The third time it died was in my driveway as I pulled to the garage door I went to kill it but the bike beat me to it, mostly I am worried that there may be an underlying issue going on that I am not aware of. Also while the dealer was preparing the bike for me to take they had an issue where the bike would get 4 errors once the bike stopped running, the errors were (i might be a little off) Aux power, rear 02, and its getting late so i forgot the other 2. But it was determined that the issue was the 5v signals were dropping slightly causing the alarms and that it would all return to normal once the bike was run and able to recharge itself. Which once I got home I did not get all 4 errors. However I receive a rear 02 sensor alarm while riding it home, hoping its a left over glitch. Also the other worry I have is that while I am driving at about 23-33 mph in 2nd gear the bike seems to engage and disengage the clutch kinda on its own causing the bike to randomly "jerk" back and forth while riding but I only get this while trying to maintain 23-33mph in second gear and it seems rather violent to me. The gear indicator seems to have a little bit of an issue telling me what gear I am in while driving too but not sure if its normal for it to do so or not. Hopefully I can get some insight from everyone here on what my issues may be, I am mostly worried cause I will be installing the race ECM and exhaust kit on monday once it arrives and I would hate to cause any possible additional damage. I hope to have some great with this beauty and even better track days. Perhaps I will see you Classax at MSRH since that is probably my favorite track (not that I go often lately). And another big thanks to AF1 Austin for answering my questions about EBR and the 1190RX, bigger thanks to Joe and everyone at Goe Kawasaki in Angleton for setting me up and getting me rolling.

I'll post some pics on the owners thread once all the modifications are done.

I've had mine for about 3 weeks now, and while I can't help you with the dying with the clutch in, other than to say make sure it's all the way in, I have had some similar experiences that I've been able to pinpoint the cause of (I think) and eliminate.

You've probably noticed that this bike does not like living below 4000 rpm... so cruising around downtown blows if it's a speed limit below 35. It is what it is...the 1125 was the same way. If you have to do a lot of driving in areas with low speed limits, just get used to never reaching 3rd gear. BUT....turning traction control completely off really helps the drivability at low rpms. I don't know why, but it does. My bike is a completely different bike around town with it off.

Your other issue, the jerking back and forth at highway speeds is the engine braking. You don't have to come all the way off the throttle for engine braking to kick in. A difference of 1 mph will do it. And this bike scrubs off a lot of speed really quick with engine braking. The 1125r was the same way. The race ecm from ebr (which I dont think you can get right now) is programmed with reduced engine braking, which should help the problem. I dont know that it helps for sure because I don't have one, but I did with my 1125 and the problem was eliminated. So I dont doubt it at all.

Finally, I think that the unexplained O2 codes are related to the engine braking. Again, this isn't gospel, but something I've noticed, is that if you come off the throttle just a little bit, even if it's just a minor bump in the road that causes it....and you're near the lower limit of the rpm range for that gear and speed....engine braking will kick in. When this happens, if you don't come off of the throttle all of the way, the engine will start bogging down fairly aggressively. And traction control being to high seems to make it worse. So... turn your traction control OFF. You don't need it. Try to keep the bike above 4 grand...close to 5 is even better. Thats where it's happy. And if you come off the throttle a little bit and engine braking kicks in, come all the way off the throttle and then back on. It's not much of a twist to do so. I was throwing O2 codes multiple times on the same trip home everyday. Made this small change to my riding habits and haven't thrown a code since. I think the bogging down does something to the mixture that causes the thrown code.

Just like the 1125, the 1190 hates life at low rpm. High reving V twins are just that way. I had a Ducati that did a lot of the same things. You can improve it, but if you're looking for smooth low rpm driveability like a Japanese inline...you're going to be disappointed. To a certain extent, it's just the nature of the beast.

What are the last 3 digits of your VIN? My RX had lots of DTC error codes and some loss of power when new. No stalling issues though. The fix was to replace the throttle bodies and linkage. Early bikes apparently had throttle body linkages that were not calibrated correctly and the unbalanced air and fuel flow caused DTC's. Mine has been perfect ever since.

@dmhines
mine is number 113 made in Jan of 2014, and has Cluster version 1.00 and firmware version 3.03. Ive been working with my dealer all day to get the issues taken care of and I think we have made some good progress. As far as the throttle body linkage everything looks ok to the naked eye but didn't take it any further than that at this time. Basically hoping that continued use will further break everything in eliminating the stalling issue, although there are times where the engine seems to "choose" to idle very low ~1.1k but usually jumps back up to ~1.5k but that's just an observation at this point.

@budgolf:
I have adjusted my driving habits to keep the RPMs higher and have adjusted the traction control to level 1 not off just yet mostly for investigation. At this point I am hoping that the Race ECM that's coming will have a new firmware version on it, I checked with the people I bought it from (Tropic powersports of FL) to see when they received the exhaust and Race ECM kit into their inventory and it was Mar-15 so that's a good sign to me that it will hopefully have a new version.


I have 1030mi on the bike now so I guess I will just keep running it til about 1750mi and if I am having the same issue we will just have to start diving in deeper, starting with the throttle body and linkage since that's pretty much all we have to go on. We will just have to see what happens once I get everything else installed.

Question to the Forums!! Does anyone know or have any idea how to get a hold of and load in version 2.0 or later software into the cluster. this is something I believe will solve some of my issues and I would love to find this software file if anyone has a copy. Thanks in advance to you all.

well I typed up a response yesterday but it seems it didn't go through so I'll just type it up again.

@budgulf
I have put another 300+ miles while making a conscious effort to stay at about 5k while riding to the point where I would rarely see 6th gear. I've set the TC to 1 for now to see if there was any improvement but it doesn't seem so just yet, next time I go out I will have it off and see if that eliminates the jeryness. And I went to the dealer yesterday to try and iron out some of these issues, replaced the rear O2 sensor with a known good one but the fault still came up. Looking closer into it the bike the new O2 sensor came off of did not have any errors or sensor faults but that bike also had a newer cluster software and firmware.

@dmhines
My bike is in the first 133 (what was yours?), mine was made in Jan of 2014 and I looked at the throttle body linkage yesterday and it looks different on my bike that what I see in some other posts, mine is all cable and doesn't have a solid bar linkage. At this point a lot of things are pointing towards the bikes cluster software and firmware needs to be updated, I think this will fix all the fault issues and combining that with the Race ECM I will install Monday night we will just have to see. I would still need to upgrade the cluster software though.

So to that point I am hoping that there is someone out there that can help me with find the Cluster Software version 2.00 and maybe even the Firmware version 3.04 (new ECM might come with this) I have been looking but haven't found anything yet and I have my dealer trying to contact whos left at EBR to try and get this so we can upgrade my bike and the dealers other bike to ensure they have the updated Software. If anyone has this or knows where I might find this please post here or Message me on the forums, Thank you.

My VIN is 136 .. almost neighbors ..

As far as the cluster ... I did not know it was even upgradable. I asked EBR several weeks ago if the 2014 Clusters could be flashed to add the improvements of the 2015 clusters. They said I would need to purchase a new 2015 cluster to get the enhancements.

I have my dealer working with EBR now to make this work. I am not sure what they have come up with so far but the dealer did call me this morning and needed all the info off of my cluster version number and serial numbers. So hopefully they do have a way to do so otherwise... I don't know. The dealer seems to be working pretty hard to make everything right which of course is greatly appreciated. If we do come up with any thing that would be useful to anyone else I will be sure to post it here.

Just Installed a R&G tail light kit to clean up the back end and even though its wired as per the documentation the light stays at one level of illumination and doesn't change when apply the brakes, not sure what going on there.
^^ stock wiring on connector was opposite from documentation that came with the new tail light. FYI

I hope you get get your issues worked out . I bought my rx last July and so far it has thrown 02 codes here and there but they always go away immediately. My fuel light comes on with half a tank of gas but that doesn't seem to affect it at all. Watch your front fairings, they seem to have an issue with cracking at the mounting tabs. I have had my front upper and lowers replaced due to that so just wanted to give you a heads up. I'm curios if your dealer has been able to contact anyone at EBR? My dealer has told me they can not get in contact with anyone. Do you know if they have talked with EBR?

Since EBR is in receivership, the court-appointed receiver, an attorney named Michael S. Polsky, has complete authority over the company and can actually run it. He's supposed to take actions to maintain the company's value while it's in receivership. It's possible he's allowed a few people to come back to work to support the dealers or something similar.

You could contact his office and ask:

Pat Foster, Paralegal to the Receiver
ph. 414-390-5935
e-mail: pfoster@bclaw.net

This info comes from the letter that you should have gotten/will be getting since you're an EBR owner.

I have not gotten a letter but since I purchased my EBR so soon after the announcement I expected that would not get anything in the mail, but we will see.

Thanks for the info though I will be sure to save that number for later.