Had the fluids changed about two weeks ago, swapped to syn vs regular oil. Everything was fine for about a week. I rode it two to three times. On Friday a friend and I took off work to do some riding. When I went to start it, it did not want to on the first few turns of the starter. Sort of reminded me of a carb when you do not use the choke. It finally started. a little rough, and seemed to run very low rpm's. After a few minutes everything was fine. During the day it happened several times when restarting it. One time it wanted to backfire. My question is could it be the battery? I know that sounds crazy but I actually don't know how old it is. I picked this bike up from a dealer last year, a 1999 Ultra with 13,500 miles when I bought it.

When I am riding it there is no hint of a problem and after it is warmed up the low rpm issue is not present.

Fuel injectors? Weak battery?

When it was being serviced I had the front tire changed, all fluids changed and the cam tensioners checked (recommended from previous post). I hae 15,500 on it and wanted to get back on a regular schedule. They did the actual 15K service when I bought it.

 

Happened to a friend of mine with his 99 a couple of years ago....he had somewhere around 45k miles on it at the time and we trouble shot with the shot gun method..LOL! talked with on old tech and he said to replace the crank position and cam position sensors. We replaced both and he had no problems after that....traded for '09.

Good luck!

 

Was it something that he noticed over time or did it just happen?

 

Yes, it was a gradual problem with the starting.... if i rememeber correctly the first time it happened it was a very hot summer day and he replaced the battery figuring the heat was killing it, next was coil, wire's etc... I think he wound up with pretty much a whole new igniton system....but the sensors were the last to be replaced.