Triumphrat

sandeepim

I am on my 2nd motorcycle which this is my 1st triumph Bonneville. It's the se. Here's a couple of observations.

1 - the bike rides awesome however everything feels like it's "tight". Eg acceleration and decceleration are Smooth but abrupt quite often.

2 - the throttle seems very sensitive and seems to...... for a lack of better word"snatch" at you at a standstill or even at gear changes.

3 - header pipes are starting to turn yellow and on one side starting to go bluish purple. How far down does this normally go?

Would Like to know if this is just a new bike characteristic and will work itself out as it breaks in or is there an adjustment of some sort to smoothen things out a bit or simply just new rider user error and I need to adapt?

I have a honda shadow rs and don't seem to have these issues with the bike. but of course it is also not a parallel twin and lot less horsepower.

Any feedback is appreciated!

Ripper

The blueing of the exhausts is due to the SAI (secondary air injection) system. Those are the pipes screwed into the cylinder head next to the spark plugs. The SAI lets air from the airbox into the exhaust when you close the throttle on deceleration to burn any unspent fuel. This keeps the emissions lower and Triumph are required to fit it by law. Most people remove it immediately.

The snatchiness of the throttle is caused by the transition from open loop to closed loop running (and vice-versa) when the O2 sensors in the exhaust headers come into play. These sensors operate only in the first 6% of throttle opening, which happens to correspond to cornering speed. The solution for this is to gut the airbox, install a TTP fuel map and remove the sensors. This is only a rough outline, there are many posts about remapping and removing O2 sensors on this forum. You would need an OBD2 cable and a piece of software called TuneECU, and a new fuel map from Pieman, a member of this forum who has given months of his time developing fuel maps on a dyno. You may also need to replace the exhausts since some models have cats both in the headers and silencers.

rodhotter

as stated take some time and read, this is a great forum!! i got my second bonnie a 2012 at hermy's in port clinton a good dealer IMO got a remap for my predator exhaust, very reasonable. all you need to know you can find here, my first bonnie was a 70 T120R bought while in the navy overseas, hermy serviced that one, i do a lot myself now, if thats you buy a service manual, it will save $$$$

sandeepim

Rodhotter,

I am suffering from some sleep depravation from all the reading since I finally bit the bullet and got a new Bonneville. Now its exploring to see what I can do to it!!. Yes, i have been reading some here and there, but there is so much to explore. so trying to start with some basics. One of the main things i wanted was to smoothen out the throttle response and removing the SAI seemed like a good first mod to start with to see if that helps.

Also, anyone know of any good Triumph Techs in the lehigh valley would be helpful. My closest dealer is about 40 minutes. I can go there, but prefer someone local to my area in Easton PA.

Ripper,

Thanks for the informative post!

luckyduck

Removing AI is easy peasy.

Ripper

The Bonneville is not a very high tech machine and that is one of its strengths. It is a tinkerer's paradise and as you read the various threads on here about what you can do you will love the Bonnie more with each passing day. The only limits to what you can do are your imagination and money. The Bonnie is like a blank canvas, waiting for you to paint the big picture. You will love it.

Removing the SAI will help smooth out the throttle a little bit but that is only a 'side effect'. SAI removal makes the exhausts run cooler and prevents so much blueing. Getting rid of the O2 sensors and remapping the fuel is the thing to do if you want to do away with the 'light switch' throttle. That takes quite a bit of learning though, be well prepared and know what you are doing before you start work.

GTO Bruin

Sandeepim - Since your Bonnie is brand new, and may be reluctant to do anything permanent too early, may I recommend simply disabling the AI. It's as easy as 1) pulling the intake hose out of the airbox, 2) sticking something up it to plug it up, then 3) putting it back in the airbox so it looks unaltered. I used a wire nut, others have used marbles. Search the forum for more info.

From what I've read from the experts here, you get the same results, except the plumbing remains. If for some reason you want to reverse it, just take the plug out. If you want, you can remove all the AI bits later.

sandeepim

Thanks GTO!

I found the pictorial instructions on the forum and put in a wire nut like you did and the throttle feels smoother. Took it for a quick ride and that jerkiness / snatch at the throttle is much better.

If anyone is looking for the instructions Here is the link.

http://www.triumphrat.net/showthread.php?t=165741