late 2016 1290 SAT electronics recall

botus

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bike was in for fuel tank leak recall and an electronics recall

tank was OK, electronics update has wrecked it
1) its turned the bike into to a moped, I'd guess its lost at least 25 BPH off the top end and 30 lb ft off midrange
2) appears to have stopped you turning off the MTC (never tried before, but now you need it off) as seems to have increased sensitivity of traction control which is really irritating. I went in the menus to try and turn it off, it says hold, then tells when to release, did nothing, turned off the engine and on 3rd attempt it went to MTC/MSR off, then a second later ABS went to off on its own??? Went up the road, TC light flashing, anti wheelie kicking in, its pathetic.

When I first got it, it would rev out like it was in neutral in all gears and you never had time to look at the dials (as the road in front was vanishing too quick to look down), now its like it struggles to rev out. Has anyone else noticed this? what come back do I have, this isn't the bike I bought!!!

And does anyone know the rear spring rate? In their second hand bikes they had one and the rear was soft and plush and you can get 6" of movement without trying, yet mines always been rock hard where you struggle to get 2" of movement if you try like hell and has no discernible difference between the first three damping modes at the back. Big changes at the front, none at the rear.

Yesterday I put 20 ltr of 99 Octane super unleaded on a low tank …. its made no impact on the moped power output. And also tried the bike in Off road damping mode. Clearly the front changes to soft, plush predictable long travel movement (works well on our terrible roads) and if you try hard, you can, while stationary just detect the rear is fractionally softer (from way to stiff to still far too stiff). I'd say the rear in Off road is where street / sport should be. I'm 110kg rider with gear on top of that and on the spring I saw 160 which I guess means 160nm but dealer said there were no different springs out there. I can also see the shock easily wobbles on its rose joints so they aren't seized up, stopping it moving.

ideas / fixes please
 
For the shock you can get the baseline preload set at the dealer which should make it a bit softer for you. There is a long post on adventure rider with spring rates and how to change things if you need to.

For the engine, if they updated it and broke it then tell them to fix it. Never heard of an electronic recall, my 2015 hasn't had it. I suspect its coincidence though and more something to do with the tank recall since they need to remove the tank to ID it. Either they haven't connected some thing properly or the filters have blocked due to the tank swilling when being lifted. Sounds very like classic blocked filters but check the quick connect is fully home.
 
bike was in for fuel tank leak recall and an electronics recall

tank was OK, electronics update has wrecked it
1) its turned the bike into to a moped, I'd guess its lost at least 25 BPH off the top end and 30 lb ft off midrange
2) appears to have stopped you turning off the MTC (never tried before, but now you need it off) as seems to have increased sensitivity of traction control which is really irritating. I went in the menus to try and turn it off, it says hold, then tells when to release, did nothing, turned off the engine and on 3rd attempt it went to MTC/MSR off, then a second later ABS went to off on its own??? Went up the road, TC light flashing, anti wheelie kicking in, its pathetic.

When I first got it, it would rev out like it was in neutral in all gears and you never had time to look at the dials (as the road in front was vanishing too quick to look down), now its like it struggles to rev out. Has anyone else noticed this? what come back do I have, this isn't the bike I bought!!!

And does anyone know the rear spring rate? In their second hand bikes they had one and the rear was soft and plush and you can get 6" of movement without trying, yet mines always been rock hard where you struggle to get 2" of movement if you try like hell and has no discernible difference between the first three damping modes at the back. Big changes at the front, none at the rear.

Yesterday I put 20 ltr of 99 Octane super unleaded on a low tank …. its made no impact on the moped power output. And also tried the bike in Off road damping mode. Clearly the front changes to soft, plush predictable long travel movement (works well on our terrible roads) and if you try hard, you can, while stationary just detect the rear is fractionally softer (from way to stiff to still far too stiff). I'd say the rear in Off road is where street / sport should be. I'm 110kg rider with gear on top of that and on the spring I saw 160 which I guess means 160nm but dealer said there were no different springs out there. I can also see the shock easily wobbles on its rose joints so they aren't seized up, stopping it moving.

ideas / fixes please
Take it back to dealer ASAP and tell them they've f'd it.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
Might be as simple as the software update they done, did not fully complete and was slightly corrupted, take it back and get them to do the software update again, and then you will know.
 
I'm sure there are any number of suspension places who'd be happy to sort your suspension, including a different rated spring.
 
thanks for the replies...

yes both official recalls you can check your own bike on the KTM site yourself https://www.ktm.com/service/safety-check/

I can image 9 out of 10 owners wouldn't spot the missing go, but its significant, my GS got an update and was missing loads of go too (and they can't go backwards with the dealer tools !!!), they pretend its necessary updates based on user data, warranty work from other vehicles that had warranty work, continuous improvement etc. as in they are helping your bike last longer

I think the reality is a slower engine map is actually just part of a new sick ploy to make the later bikes seem better, in the hope you buy the new one, only for them to get an update as the next model is launched

as for the rear, I know there's some adjustment that could be done with dealer diagnostics, but having been all up for helping when it comes to the crunch, its go away. when you try to have a sensible conversation you're just talking to people who know less than you do, who like talking total rubbish to owners who can't pick up the BS
 
I think if this was common the forums would be lit up about it like it was when ktm put the speed limiter in the R. Don't be too sure about nobody else noticing and then you describing it as "significant". People by a ktm for the power and dynamics, not to be part of the in crowed like some other brands.
 
I think if this was common the forums would be lit up about it like it was when ktm put the speed limiter in the R. Don't be too sure about nobody else noticing and then you describing it as "significant". People by a ktm for the power and dynamics, not to be part of the in crowed like some other brands.

good point about KTM buyers,

by the way the rear spring rate is in the owners manual found it last night - so my spring is stock 160nm "Medium"

I have a 175nm on my aftermarket WP shock on the GS and its soft and plush.... so it must be the silly electronic damping making it too stiff on the KTM, I wonder if you can take off the actuator and manually reset, it needs at least 3 clicks off the compression setting its got, no idea about rebound as I can't get it to move to see how it behaves.
 
@ my 18k mile service in May, I had a software update completed (LCD console & suspension only)....still had 'all my go' thereafter.

It sounds as though (as has been mentioned) that the software update hasn't been successfully completed, so I'd be inclined to speak to your dealer to address in full. The bikes are full of electrickery these days, so a slight 'hiccup' in the ecu map can result in noticeable differences.

Hope you get it sorted :thumb2
 
good point about KTM buyers,

by the way the rear spring rate is in the owners manual found it last night - so my spring is stock 160nm "Medium"

I have a 175nm on my aftermarket WP shock on the GS and its soft and plush.... so it must be the silly electronic damping making it too stiff on the KTM, I wonder if you can take off the actuator and manually reset, it needs at least 3 clicks off the compression setting its got, no idea about rebound as I can't get it to move to see how it behaves.

You need a stronger spring and to run it in “Offroad” to get the benefit of the spring. There is a tweak you can do to the high speed compression damping to make it slightly better in that configuration.

The software uses changes to damping to overcome lack of spring capacity which makes it harsh.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
good point about KTM buyers,

by the way the rear spring rate is in the owners manual found it last night - so my spring is stock 160nm "Medium"

I have a 175nm on my aftermarket WP shock on the GS and its soft and plush.... so it must be the silly electronic damping making it too stiff on the KTM, I wonder if you can take off the actuator and manually reset, it needs at least 3 clicks off the compression setting its got, no idea about rebound as I can't get it to move to see how it behaves.

If it's any help, the virtually identically chassis'd 1190 has a 160Nm spring IIRC, and the 1190R has a 170 or 180 fitted depending on year. All are reasonably "plush", so probably a damping issue on your bike.
 
If it's any help, the virtually identically chassis'd 1190 has a 160Nm spring IIRC, and the 1190R has a 170 or 180 fitted depending on year. All are reasonably "plush", so probably a damping issue on your bike.


thanks for the info,

can anyone comment if the rear goes noticeably softer in comfort or off road? I'd say my off road should be the street setting thus I'm missing comfort and off road on the rear.
front changes a lot between modes

and lastly any tutorial on turning off traction control.... the manual just says you can, not a how to do it. With the bike stationary you can find the menu, with the engine off it accepts you trying to interact, but of the 5 times I've tried only once did it indicate it was off and wasn't then actually off at all. When next stationary (never having stalled or turned off the key) and looked it was back to on.

I do have the dongle to play with the ABS off totally mode but not fitted it to the bike yet
 
I mostly use comfort but there is definately a difference to off road. Lot less compression damping so bumps are barely felt. It's a lot firmer than my GSA was but then that's ktm, they set the bikes up a bit more on the sport side.
 
its going back in to the dealer....

on the other end, I'm now noticing Sport seems quite soft and there's a lot of dive, before the front in this mode was too stiff, now its too soft.

I didn't know apple with their ramdomware ideas played on KTMs :blast
 
just got it back, I think its quicker but torrential rain for 30 miles home makes it a little hard to judge
rear shock still too much damping and they've now wound back the sag too much, they say to rebuild it but at 2 year like new and 6k miles seems silly...

the spring on the second hand bike they have that's soft, is a WP 160nm 200mm long, whereas mine's a WP 200nm 198.5mm long, which is odd its a similar age bike... there is a recall on bikes made before may 2016 for a shock issue but mines later
 
forgot something since they had the bike I now have this terrific front end vibration.... (when you are "on an airfield at 95 plus mph"), last week I saw the balance weights were still on the wheel and its the wrong speed 60 and 85 is wheel balance. They had a look yesterday and couldn't find anything wrong. Then said it might be the top box they had another rider say it and had tried everything until they removed his top box and symptoms stopped straight away.

up to 85 its normal, then add 5 mph and its suddenly like you have 5kg of mass knocking seven bells out of the wheel spindle at 100hz frequency, if you look through the faring you can see the forks trying to fall off!!! As the top box was always there, I'm guessing they increased rear suspension sag to try and fix a non responsive damper and somehow its altered the airflow over the front end... I was thinking it needed jacking up before this, but wasn't that keen to get the original tank slapper full throttle wagging more then silly already is
 
so thanks to those that said to take it back, I didn't think they'd care or help. but I was wrong.... normal power has been resumed - which is nice. less good, I'm not keen on traction interference, I think its slightly more than it was, as in 25% more intervention than it ought to have in sport, I suspect it was only 10% too much interference before the update

today I worked out how to turn things off and enable full power.... this procedure is not in the manual and disables two things when I really want to reduce the impact of one by an amount I choose and see how much the next one irritates me

to disable anti wheelie or "restricted performance mode" as it should be called, you turn off traction control at the same time which is ridiculous, you might want TC but with a bit less anti wheelie. only good news is unlike a BM, cruise control carries on functioning

engine running, vehicle stationary, go in menu press and hold MTC as soon as it says release let go and it changes.... hold for anything longer and it reverts to ON having lied its off and another glitch then says ABS off, when they are actually both full on.


off road livelier acceleration to around 6k unless you get 2 foot of air and its power off (before that irritation, its almost normal bottom end response but with restricted engine output)
rain, only when the misses is on the back
street, nastier version of sport so ignore
sport almost normal throttle response, fueling a bit glitchy down the bottom, but less bad than it was, with irritation of continual anti wheelie performance restriction

all off you get to learn what the throttle response is really like … as in mildly lively
 


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