I installed a new battery last week. Now it no longer backfires and hardly pops at all on decel. . What does one have to do with the other? maybe Im crazy.

 

Connectivity of the battery cables to the battery?

 

Tried that before I bought the new one. Thought that was the problem at first. For the last 6 or 8 months I noticed it didnt have the same zip. but it started on the first try. The backfire with a old battery 12.6v is something I just cant put to gather.

 

I'm gonna take a guess here, but maybe disconnecting the battery and installing a new one reset the computer. If... and thats just a guess here... the computer learns in the same way a modern car does, once the memory is erased it has to relearn everything over again. I suspect it will be back to its old backfiring and popping in no time. But hey, I'm just shooting' from the hip here. My bikes got a carb.

 

Yep, a low battery will make your motorcycle run crappy.

Our "road bike" batteries are kept on a tender over the winter months and I replace them every THREE YEARS, regardless of how well it cranks the engine.

I usually put the used batteries in bikes that we don't take on long trips and rotate the older batteries for core.

I have an '03 RK (less than 300 miles) that has the original battery and it starts the bike like a new battery but I wouldn't trust that battery much farther than it is into town (2 miles).

Trying to get that last start or last season out of a battery can end up getting you stranded in BFE!

 

If you have fuel injection then the battery is an important component in how the bike runs. The same with an auto or truck. One of my jeeps would start right up but would not idle until I had run the engine at high rpms for a few minutes. A mechanic told me to check my battery. I had it checked at WalMart and it supposedly checked out ok. I finally decided to put in a new battery and it has idled and run fine ever since. Seems the FI requires more power than the starter.

 

I'm going to be a smartass and blame it on the flux capacitor.

 

Removing the battery resets the learned fuel/trim values on any EFI vehicle be it a car, truck or bike.
I can't tell you why it seems to run better but I can tell you that is the reason it runs differently.