Before I take the bike to the dealer, thought I’d run it by the forum members first. I have a 2020 FLTRXS with about 40k and nothing extra. I was on a cross country run and about halfway it started acting up when starting it. It might take a couple tries before it started. It might take one but it was like it wasn’t getting enough fuel. It was like the old carbureted bikes where you had to “pump” the throttle to get it started and to keep it running. Usually after the throttle pumping, the idle would stabilize and it would run fine afterwards.

Something else I noticed (especially on my right leg), the engine seemed to run a little hotter than it used to. I don’t have a temp gauge or a reference temperature to compare, but after an hour or so, even if I had my foot on the road peg, I got slight burn marks on my right leg. This doesn’t happen all the time, except the heat issue. I thought it was only when the bike had been running for a few hours but it’s happened at the first start of the day. It also happened when I hadn’t ridden the bike for a few days. I thought maybe something, like water, was in the fuel but I’ve run a few tanks and it still does it. And sometimes it’ll go a week and not do it, but then…it’s just pissing me off.

I took it to the dealer when it first started doing it. There were no codes and they couldn’t get it to duplicate so they said it could be the spark plugs and changed them. They told me Harley recommended changing plug’s every 40k miles anyway, but…it still does it.

I changed the fuel filter, just for grins and wiggles, but that didn’t help. I’m thinking it might be the fuel pump? I have the extended warranty but it doesn’t cover diagnostics and Harley wants minimum two hours, whether they find the problem or not. This doesn’t include the previous hour of diagnostics they charged me for when they changed the plugs.

Now I’m wondering if this is part of Harley’s trade-in program…

 

Try resetting throttle spindle position.

 

Any chance you got some bad gas?

 

Did anyone actually check the fuel pressure?

 

If it were bad gas, it’s long gone as I’ve run over 8 tanks since this first started. When I took it in the first time, I think they checked the fuel pressure, though not sure now. This problem is totally random and unpredictable but I’d like to know if something is getting ready to fail, especially when I’m a thousand miles from home. Like I said before, I have the ESP but they don’t cover diagnostics.

 

You said it happens when bike sits for a week. Battery getting bad? Put jump pack on it see if helps. Doubt it, just throwing easy stuff out.

Are you giving gas before starting? Which I never do with FI. That could maybe imply bad fuel pressure.

Heat is hard one to quantity. Have you looked at plugs? Granted stock runs fairly lean. And have you looked at them in past, to compare.

 

You need to check fuel pressure when it is acting up. Buying a fuel pressure gauge to have around will quickly pay for itself.

 

Does it have the original battery? If so, it could be getting close to its last legs and it is warning you.

 

Actually what I said was it could go for a week without acting up. It’s so unpredictable I can’t seem to figure out what’s causing it. I installed Harley’s lithium battery last May and found I had some parasitic draw, which I fixed. That’s discussion better left to another day. But I was thinking it might be the lithium battery so last week I installed a new AGM battery. Yea no…it still did it.

When the dealer changed the plugs a couple weeks ago, I looked at them and you could tell the bike runs on the lean side but they looked practically new.

The only time I give it gas when starting is when it acts up. In other words, it starts, but barely and acts like it wants to die so i throttle a little until it stabilizes and idles normally. I do have a fuel pressure gauge but it would need to be installed between the tank and EFI and then find a place on the bike to mount it. Like I said, it’s so random and unpredictable it won’t act up twice in a row. It’s making me look stupid when I take it to the dealer. The mechanic starts it a dozen times without issues but as soon as I ride it home, stopping off somewhere, it does it. I even tried taking a video with my phone when it happened…damn!, it won’t do it. A new Honda Goldwing is looking better everyday….😳

 

With lithium batteries I read they can go into sleep mode. Turn head light on for 15 seconds first, if it hasn't ran for little bit. Might explain why it is fine after you run it.

But if turns over,not sure is the issue. But try it .