Your talking about plain old mechanical slop in the tbw itself. No there shouldn't be any.
That spring in that module is a bitch. Mine snaps back quick n tight with zero play in the grip.

Remember the grip has interior teeth that mate to the tbw module. When the grip is installed properly that **** is firm, snaps back and has no play.

Maybe you broke a tooth? Don't know. You're have to remove the grip and see for yourself if the tbw itself has slop in it. Mine don't. As a matter of fact after a few hours in the saddle I have to toss on cruise to give my throttle hand a break from that bitchy spring. Good luck with that.

 

You say the throttle is fine when operating the bike but feels slack when the bike is off. Why would you even be concerned about what it feels like when the bike is off? Why would you even need to turn the throttle when the bike is off? I'm confused.
I just checked my bike's throttle and there is about 1/8 to 1/4 play before the gear starts turning. If this is what you are experiencing that's normal. There is no mechanical adjustment on these throttles. As stated before, you can adjust the throttle response via software if you have a tuner. The factory settings give a slight lag in response when you turn the throttle. You can eliminate this lag with a tuner but the throttle will still feel the same when the bike is off.

 

I think I know what he's talking about and it's annoying. Just go to your bike and wiggle the throttle around. My '15 goes every direction without moving anything but the grip. I remember my '10 doing the same thing. I don't care for it but not sure there is a fix or anything "wrong" with it.

 

Shore and Hog, you guys nailed it. It's just that 1/8 or so slop. Like in stop and go traffic, it's nuts. Same here in, out, up , down. Just doesn't inspire confidence not knowing where my wrist is vs where the throttle engages. Like I have to put too much wrist in it. I can't stand it. I grabbed my buddy's '14, wow. Now that is tight. Zero slop in any direction and as soon as you twist, there's resistance. Not like my 12. I guess you can compare it to the stick shift of a brand new car vs one with 75k miles. That little bit of slop is what's driving me nuts. Maybe I can just rebuild it? Or do I need a whole new control assembly? I really don't feel like rewiring my bars again lol.

 

I mean the throttle/control housing and tube.

 

my bike has 200 miles on it and I can jiggle the grip enough to make noise. My buddy is a service manager at HD and we where at the bar yesterday talking about this. His '13 SG is the exact same way.

If someone has one that's completely tight, I wouldn't let anyone play with it..lol

 

both my wife's 2012 and my 2013 have the littlest bit of play in the handgrip. certainly nothing that would affect knowing where your throttle is in stop and go traffic. and you can tell when you mess with it, that it is in the grip itself, and not the tbw unit.

 

I think it's highly annoying and can absolutely tell it is there when riding. Cable bikes didn't do this nearly as bad.

 

oh, i dunno. the cables that i've looked at have more 'slack' than my tbw does.

 

The cables can be adjusted to proper slack and they will only have it for and aft, the fricken TBW has it left to right fore and aft. That left and right movement is what I'd like gone.

I got some new grips coming so I'll get some play time with it.