Hi,

I am relatively new to motorcycles and have little knowledge/experience fixing and troubleshooting. Let me try to explain what the issue I am ahving.

I bought a brand new 2014 Iron 883 three years ago. Rode the bike for 1 year, installed Vance and Hines air filter and exhaust. I changed the map using SE super tuner (I purchased an 883 to 1200 conversion kit that included SE super tuner on black Friday form a local HD dealer. Let's call them Dealer#1.) The bike ran fine, but I had deceleration popping and I wanted more power…

In 2016, once the factory warranty expired I had the same local dealer where I bought the 883-1200 conversion kit install it. The kit also included the heavy-duty clutch spring and cams.

I picked up the bike with the 1200 kit installed, and rode it home. The bike did not run well: it sneezed, surged and had low power and felt too hot. I thought it was due to the fact that it needed the 500 miles break in period after engine work, so I took it easy and rode it with low rpm. Meanwhile, I played around with maps and got it to run a little better (June 2016.) After 500 miles, things did not improve much, so I took it back to the dealer#1. They changed the map and recommended a dynotune. After the map was changed, the bike ran better: the surging stopped, there was occasional sneezing, deceleration popping and it seemed like it was overheating.

I decided to dynotune the bike, but I did not want to take it to the same HD dealer#1 as the seemed not very competent. I researched this site, and found that a few people recommended *** that worked at another Harley Davidson dealership (Let's call them Dealer#2). The famous dynotune expert was all booked up until mid August (it was the end of June at the moment), so I rode the bike as it was (no surging, but overheating, minor sneezing and popping.)

The minor surging started 1 day before the dyno tune. I hopped that the tuning would fix all my problems.

After the dynotune, sneezing and deceleration popping disappeared, but the bike was still overheating and the surging was getting progressively worse with time. The bike jerked only when it was hot outside and the engine was hot. I had no issues on the colder days early in the morning (it gets a lot colder at night in the mountains)

I went to the original HD dealer#1, who did the engine built and said that I kept having problems with overheating and surging. They said that 1200 sportsters run a lot hotter than 883 and the bike has to be tuned properly, which should solve all my problems.

I went back to ***, who worked for Dealer#2, he tuned the bike again and enriched the air-fuel ratio. The overheating problem seemed to go away, but the surging continued only on hot days once the bike warms up.

I went back to ***, who worked for Dealer#2, and asked him to diagnose and solve the problem. He used a camera tool and found that the cylinder walls were scratched up and hypothesized that once the engine was hot, it expanded and thus the friction increased leading to surging.

The engine was taken apart, machined and the new cylinders were installed. By that time, it was late September and the temperatures went down quite a bit. The surging disappeared and the bike ran great with no issues whatsoever.

It was fine until June 2017. As the temperatures increased, the surging came back. It was mild in June, but it got so much worse that it is painful to ride it now, especially if you are leaning while taking a turn. Once I give it a full throttle, it runs well, but if I hold the RPM steady, it jerks like crazy on any speed in any gear (July 2017.) It is quite hot now, and the surging begins as soon as I start the bike. It suspect there is misfire in one of the cylinders. Seems like it shuts down for a cycle (the bike slows down), then it fires up again (the bike jerks forward.)


Any ideas what is causing the problem?

 

At this point I am considering trading the motorcycle in for a new Iron and not messing around with factory settings whatsoever.

 

Help...