1290 SA "S" - low speed running

All picked up and very nice, but am finding it a bit jerky at low speed (as was my old 990 - I think it's in the nature of light fly-wheeled fast revving v twins) and I seem to be "between gears" a bit

I know Nutty has Hilltopped his, and reckons this improves it, and I will probably get mine done too. Any other experiences / dyno charts?

also wondered if a bigger sprocket may help?

cheers

Thank Euro4 for this, a remap is likely the best fix, might also help reduce the heat issues from the rear pot / exhaust.

Big twins suffer the most from having to run piss weak low down to keep the Eurocrats happy, Euro3 killed of some bikes and Euro4 a load more, the Mrs 2008 TDM is horrendous at low revs, my Super Tenere was not great (Remap solved the issues) and my old GS was worse than anything else, impossible to hold a steady 30mph it would just lurch around.

My Gt suffered with the same and even after being hill-topped it was still there very slightly, going up 2 on the rear has helped massively and now you can just sit in one gear thro towns and it will pull easily, however when i had the gear4 1290 SAS demo bike it was super smooth and no low speed jerky whatsoever.

How about a throttle tamer, with the 400 cam? Slows down the early throttle actuation & provides more finesse. Worked OK for me on a 990 ADV, which seemed to get a fresh map every service.

I have to say that my 1290s from new was amazingly smooth at low revs... to the extent that I pondered over whether to hilltop it or not. (Although I did in the end ..).


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Ding Dong - do you know if the gearing is the same on GT as SA?

cheers

charlie

xantamisch said:

Ding Dong - do you know if the gearing is the same on GT as SA?

cheers

charlie

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No It's completely different both in terms of sprockets and indeed internal gearing. Having owned both, the GT felt geared way too high and I followed Ding Dongs advice and put a 40 tooth rear sprocket on to replace the standard 38, which made it miles better. Even with this change it feels higher geared than the 1290SAS. In comparison the SAS feels like its geared low, whereas in actual fact I reckon it's bang on.

On earlier KTM's 950 Adv, 990 SMT i'd always go down a tooth on the gearbox sprocket, no need on the SAS.

Does this happen in all throttle modes?

Cooperman said:

Does this happen in all throttle modes?

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No KTM decided some customers would love a rough running engines so programmed it into all modes...

... the only reason any bikes fuels anything other than really nicely these days is the emissions regulations and they are not allowed to give you a cheat mode.

I would say the 1290S was by far the best behaved large capacity twin I can remember, I always check if a bike will actually hold a steady 30mph without having to scream it in 1st gear, my 1190 is just about OK, the 1290 was super smooth by comparison.

Cannot comment on Hilltop as I have not had any KTMs done by them, but I understand they leave the O2 Sensors in place which means they will at best have limited control over the closed loop area which is where these problems live (low revs / low throttle openings) as they are designed to keep the bike within the limits defined by the Euro-Tosspots....

...which don't really help the planet, but do keep someone employed to make sure our vehicles run really badly - well done KTM for doing such a good job of working within the ridiculous and pointless constraints with the 1290S! - with the exception of putting a brick under the seat.