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Loud backfire, bike stalled and I almost fell off bike

8K views 36 replies 16 participants last post by  MTVic 
#1 ·
Hi,
Was riding around 40mph, shifting from either 2nd to 3rd or 3rd to 4th. Bike backfired real loud and stalled out. Bike fishtailed (I really don't remember braking at all considering I was at 40mph and stalled) but kept the bike upright (Thank you GOD!) Brought to the shop and left it there to check out why it stalled after backfire at 40mph.

Any ideas anyone?

Could I possibly fishtail or my brakes lock up on their own if I don't apply any brakes?

Thanks all!
Good to be alive...
 
#2 ·
Well, if the bike stalled and you were doing 40mph, I'm guessing the rear wheel locked up because you were in gear with the clutch out. I can stall my cross country if I blip my throttle, like I used to on my old softail. Hard habit to break for me. Doubt they find anything wrong with your bike. Good luck though!
 
#3 ·
When your bike is running idle what RPM is she running ? Yes maybe you have to try to shift / ride at higher RPM ?

Let the mechanic ride your bike and sure there is nothing wrong.

When your bike stalls you must engage your clutch .
 
#24 ·
... believe you meant to say disengage the clutch:wink
 
#4 · (Edited)
Welcome to the near miss Victory club.
Wife and I are both members. :smile


Some Victories do this. Though I have not heard it associated with a backfire. So yours could be something different. They may find a loose battery connection for instance.

There is a problem with some Victories that Ma Vic isn't talking about .
Some Victories are very sensitive to having the clutch pulled in too long during a shift. Mine stock seemed to fall in that category. Almost killed me last winter. It was real close. It's not stock anymore. That event prompted me to get off my wallet and start looking for a solution.

Some are sensitive to blipping the throttle to speed match the trans during a down shift. My wife's XR falls in that category stock so we added a pcv and a timing wheel to her's too in the hopes of solving that problem.

Avoid both of those behaviors if you have one of the bikes that have this defect, you'll probably live longer.

Both of our bikes seem to run much better and feel much more unlikely to stall after installing the PCV and the timing wheel. However since no one except Victory really has a grip on the problem it's a guess as to if we have really fixed it by adding these items.

My wife isn't about to start blipping the throttle on down shifts to test if the problem is fixed. As you found out these bikes tend to lock the rear wheel when they stall and she has no desire to go down to prove that the bike isn't really fixed. The several stalls she experienced were enough to convince her she didn't want to take a chance on it happening again. Now she just down shifts her Vic without speed matching and the bike no longer stalls and locks the rear wheel. That makes her happy:smile
When she is on her HD's she switches to HD mode and shifts like a normal person without any fear of them stalling. That too makes her happy :smile When she's happy my life is better :grin

Myself I'm not near as smart as my wife so I may try this winter to see if I have actually solved the stalling problem on mine. If not I have a Lloyd's Idle air valve I will add to see if that in addition to the other parts will actually solve the stalling during slow shifts problem with mine.

Anyway don't be surprised when the dealer says they can't duplicate the problem if your bike has these issues. They never can.
If they can't find anything concrete to point to, try not speed matching (blipping the throttle) and not holding the clutch for an extended period of time during a shift ( make sure if you start a shift you complete it in a timely manner) and see if the problem disappears.

If it does help, drop Victory a letter about it, tell them what you honestly think.

There is also a federal vehicle complaint form that can be found on line and filled out, don't neglect that. This is really a defect even if Victory would like it to be considered a feature. It's dangerous and needs to be addressed :wink
 
#8 ·
Blipping is when you crack the throttle when at a stop sign to sound kool . Some blip when downshifting to make the shifts smoother , I tend to rev match which is a controlled throttle and not just blasting it open .... Which often results in a lean stall ...
 
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#9 ·
I have a Gunner, And the trans will do funny things, Like when in neutral at a light hit first start to accelerate and it will slap back into neutral , Also this has happen to me, Up shifting from second to third, It didn't didn't engage third, and then i when let go of the clutch it stayed in second and locked the rear wheel. Could that what be what happened to you.?? 45+ years of riding bikes, I never had a trans do any thing like that... :eek:eek
 
#14 ·
Sounds like you're being lazy with your shifting. Be firm with your foot going into another gear and push the shifter all the way till it stops.
There are a lot of riders that are scared to push it into gear.
 
#10 ·
These transmissions like to be shifted with some authority , if you shift lazily you will often get the results of a miss shift ....
 
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#11 ·
Then it's definitely a design flaw, If i didn't type hunt and peck style i could give you a list of 30 + bikes i've had over the year that i've owned and never exhibit the same problems...... Theres a difference between a Missed shift and a gear Not engaging, Or as after engaging first then slapping into neutral all by its self...
 
#15 ·
Guess you don't have stock pipes on your bike. Victory has a cheap ass ECM thats why you get a backfire when you let off the gas to shift.
When you pull in the clutch and give it a quick twist or shot of gas thats blipping and it can kill the motor. You have to learn to just shift.

Blipping came from old carbureted bikes. They were not tuned right and would load up on gas so blipping would unload them.
EFI does not load up with gas. PCV's and timing wheel will really not prevent the blipping stalling.
 
#23 ·
Blipping came from old carbureted bikes. They were not tuned right and would load up on gas so blipping would unload them.
I've also heard that the blipping came about because HDs had bad oil pumps and the low, loping idle people set their bikes to didn't pump enough oil to the upper portion of the engine.
 
#16 ·
I'll make this short and concise.....1. Shift at least at 3,000 RPM. 2. Preload the shifter. Raise your foot gently against the shifter prior to shifting so when you pull in the clutch, the shifter slides into the next gear. 3. Keep throttle movements to a bare minimum when shifting. Don't jerk it around.
A lot of cruiser riders are guilty of not using sufficient revs. Just cuz your engine will run there doesn't mean it should. Vic engines love to rev and I am often shifting over 4K RPM when accelerating onto a freeway or the like. So rev 'er up boy!
 
#17 ·
Hi MSQueen!

I think you should have tried to recreate this scenario. Mine will occasionally backfire but only when I'm slowing from high speed and sounds kinda cool. A backfire while shifting up is strange... :|

Could you have actually been going a little too slow and instead of slowly releasing clutch while changing gear, accidentally let it slip quickly out? This could cause the pop and choke the engine.

Just sayin...

:angel
 
#18 ·
I think you guys are trying to put lipstick on a pig in the hopes it will turn into a beautiful woman.

Truth is that a unacceptable percentage of stock Vic's have drive-ability issues that can kill an unsuspecting rider. These bikes require driver work arounds, special driving techniques to be driven safely on public roads.

To say that more plainly, many Victories come broken right from the factory and the factory refuses to acknowledge the problem.

Trying to blame the operator does not get the defect fixed. It only removes all incentive there may have been for the manufacturer to spend the funds required to engineer a real solution to the problem.

This problem is precisely why other manufactures have moved away from direct cable control of their throttle bodies and moved on to servo motor control of them, either fly by wire throttles or hybrids where the cable turns and encoder at the throttle body and the servo motor controlled by the ecm controls the throttle plate.
In this way the ECM is able to work around situations which would cause the motor to stall.

It's past time that Victory stepped up and spent the money necessary to correct this issue. Expect law suits to get this issues addressed in the future.
 
#19 ·
Joe, I'm not saying you're wrong, as I had stalling problems when the bike was new and still tight. The first thing I did to alleviate that problem was install a Lloydz IAV and it did help. But I have seen way too many cruiser riders lugging around in revs that are way too low. They don't like the noise the engine makes at higher RPMs and they also think they'll destroy their engine. Trying to convince to use higher revs is like pulling teeth.
 
#21 ·
Is the rpms listed on the speedo? So what is the recommended shifting from gear to gear and at what rpms? I ususally push it out and then shift. Is this good or bad, I don't want to stall again. I don't blip at all and never have or will so this is not why I stalled. The backfiring was unusaul during this upshift. BUT, I do backfire while just driving around from 1-2nd gear, more so when the engine is cold. It's being checked in the shop right now for the backfiring. They told me up front they think it's the aftermarket pipes and air filter is why I backfire but I am telling everyone that this one episode of the loud backfiring the stall, locking of rear wheel has never happened before. I am afraid to ride this bike again after reading all the above posts.
 
#28 ·
Didn't mean to scare you out of riding the bike.
I completely understand your concern felt the same after I personally had it happen to me.

Now that you are aware of the problem it won't be that big a deal.
If you start to let the clutch out and the bike is stalled when you feel the rear end slip slightly just pull the clutch back in the slide will stop. The bike will coast quite well with the clutch in.

With the clutch in push the start button and the motor should restart immediately, ours do. You'll see the tach register that it is running or you can rev it some to be sure. Then when all is good let the clutch out as you try to match your forward speed which has been diminishing . Off you go.

When people are driving right on your butt pay attention to how you shift. Make it clean. No issues .

Hopefully they will find something actually wrong with your bike and fix it and all will be good.

This is all good advice you are getting on modifying your driving to make you least likely to experience this again in the future. BTW it works.. These guys have pretty much figured out how to work around it.

Having bought two bikes recently with each one exhibiting a different side of the lean stall problem, it p*sses me off that Victory still hasn't addressed the root cause or provided education for new owners regarding it.

At the price you pay for one of these it should not be prone to stalling ever.. Unless you forget to pull the clutch in when stopping.
 
#22 ·
MsQueen, try disconnecting the O2 sensors. From the sensor, follow the wire a few inches to the connectors. That will have the engine running richer. Exhaust popping (its not backfiring) usually occurs upon deceleration. Slowing throttle action and minimizing it when shifting will help too.
 
#25 ·
Joe, blame the bike all you like, but if you dont change your riding style to suit the machine then you may as well sell it.
Victorys demand to be ridden like a Victory.
I have no problem.
My Vegas also has breathing mods and PCV and dyno but that was to up the performance and sound, not to address the stall or shifting issues.
Ride it like a Vic and it will perform faultlessly.
Over 40,000 miles in under 2 years and I know my bike inside out.
Im off for a ride.
 
#26 ·
Hoo Boy, that's it in a nutshell. I tell my Vision owner friend, who tends to lug the engine; Ride it more like a Kawasaki Ninja than a Harley.
 
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#27 ·
MsQueen, you have pipes and a freer filter, I'd also suggest timing wheel, PCV, and dynotune to optimise your motorcycle.
Like others have said rev it out more dont lug and short shift.
When you do shift ram it in cos if its half hearted shift it may jump back out!.....had problems with mine coming back outta second when I first started riding it, now with revised shifting technique she is sweet.......except for yesterday when I put on a brand new pair of boots.....see just changing boot style affects shift accuracy somewhat...will readjust shifter to fix.
 
#29 ·
MsQween, Sounds like you have done nothing wrong to contribute to the backfire issue. The rear tire locking when the bike stalls is caused by the engine compression. The rear tire cannot turn over the stalled motor so therefore skids. You MUST pull in the clutch lever disengaging the clutch allowing the rear wheel to turn. Popping and backfire is generally caused by a lean condition. The addition of aftermarket exhaust and air filter will cause this especially if the bike was not remapped or a fuel controller installed to maintain a proper fuel mixture. I believe this is where your issue may lie. I suggest talking with the shop about this.
Just to verify, My xc will occasioally pop and even backfire during upshifts, and I certainly don't blip the throttle Annoying as hell!
 
#30 ·
If nothing else, install Lloydz adjustable timing wheel. For less than $200 you'll pretty much solve the problem and get better performance.
This helpful hint did wonders for my shifting....lower the shift lever low enough so that when you slip your boot under it, it takes up ALL THE SLACK. That way, you don't have as far to move your foot to upshift. Helps to avoid missed shifts too.
 
#33 ·
Dealer found problem...

Hi all,
Thanks for everyone's input. They found a split hose going to my IAC which can attribute to a very loud backfire and stall. They checked my fuel pump also and it was fine. They couldn't answer my question about the locking up of the rear wheel (fishtailing) once I stalled but I think a few of you said if the bike is in gear (which it was going into 3rd gear) you would have to engage the clutch. I probably did this without thinking and that is how I got it out of the locked position.

I also felt the bike running a little hot then usual while driving it over to the shop after the stall episode and they said this split hose would also allow the bike to run slightly hotter.

What do you guys think? Thanks all and safe riding.
 
#36 · (Edited)
Hi all,
Thanks for everyone's input. They found a split hose going to my IAC which can attribute to a very loud backfire and stall. They checked my fuel pump also and it was fine. They couldn't answer my question about the locking up of the rear wheel (fishtailing) once I stalled but I think a few of you said if the bike is in gear (which it was going into 3rd gear) you would have to engage the clutch. I probably did this without thinking and that is how I got it out of the locked position.

I also felt the bike running a little hot then usual while driving it over to the shop after the stall episode and they said this split hose would also allow the bike to run slightly hotter.

What do you guys think? Thanks all and safe riding.
Hello! I'm new to this forum and have been reading many of the Kingpin posts as I also own a 2007 kingpin. Recently I went to start my bike after parking it for a little over a week and it wouldn't start. Did a bunch of searching and found that the fuel pump was the issue.
To relate to the issue that you had MsQueen, I also had the issue of back fire and twice had the bike stall and I just thought it to be an issue I needed to work around in my driving habits. Now that I have fixed the fuel pump issue, I no longer have the "Blurp" and backfire issue that I had before. Turned out that two little O-rings on the fuel pressure regulator were allowing gas to slip through and would cause the engine to stall at times when riding. After having fixed the regulator issue I took the bike out today and "ALL" of these issues have seemed to disappear. Hope you have not seen any issues with your bike after fixing your issue. just wanted to let folks know that a fuel pump issue could also cause the bike to stall.
 
#34 ·
Sounds like they got it. hopefully you may ride without the fear of this occurring again. And yes, the leak would cause the bike to run lean which also causes a hotter condition. Good luck and enjoy!!
 
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