The bike starts fine when cold or has been sitting for about 15 minutes after riding long enough to fully warm up the engine (10 miles). If I stop for gas and try to restart, the starter will engage and turn over the engine but then I hear some sort of grinding noise coming from the primary as if the starter is not fully engaged. Even though this happens the bike continues to start.

This issue was occurring before I replaced the previous battery in March of this year. The battery is new and has a terminal voltage of 13.0 VDC. When not riding I keep it hooked to a battery tender. While the bike is running the battery terminal voltage is 14.5 VDC. I don't believe I have an issue with the battery

The compression is about 10.25:1 and the heads are equipped with compression releases which I use every time I start the bike.

The bike has been dyno tuned using a SERT and I looked at my existing map to check the cranking fuel tables to see if I could see anything that might need to be tweaked but I'm not sure if this is my problem. I called my tuner to get his thoughts on the cranking fuel at the higher engine temperatures but he said he didn't think that would be the problem. Does anyone see where I may need to make changes?

I've also checked for loose connections at the battery, starter & voltage regulator as well as grounds. I've also reseated the starter relay under the seat with a little dielectric grease. I know this could be an issue with the starter as well but I'm puzzled because it only occurs when trying to restart with the engine hot.

Any suggestions?

 

Problem solved!

I adjusted the cranking fuel tables by setting the injector pulse width for each of the cells 96 C and above to the minimum allowed by the SERT (4.9 mS) and then gradually increased the fuel until the bike started normally at each given engine temperature which I monitored in data mode. This was a time consuming process but no more issues starting the bike when hot. The engine temperature maxed out at 156 C / 313 F.