New FTR owner from North TX

[Max Kool]

If your ecu has the newer software, it can even be flashed back to the older version, after which tuning with a PV-3 works again (Ryan's V5 secret sauce!).

you have to send it in for them to flash it back. after that you can use the PV-3 if for instance if you changed your exhaust system, delete the cat, etc

 

[Deleted member 706]

G'day and welcome to FTR world. Have you walked into the number/licence plate much? A tail tidy would be my suggestion even before you get into the serious stuff.
There's some interesting reading there thanks to all who shared. I bought my PV-3 from Fuel Moto with a low level Bassani slip on, but haven't fitted it yet.

 

[JacobJakeJacoby]

Today bugged me so bad I alsomt just took the truck and kep the bike at home. It was about 40 F in North TX; pretty cold sure. Well the bike started; in about 10 seconds it died. No biggie, I started it again, within 15 seconds it did again. So this time I started it, waited about 5 seconds then held the throttle @ 1800 RPM for about 1-2 minutes, let go and it was perfectly fine from that point forward.

So i'm going to guess I have the first revision of the ECU. The thing that worries me is this; if I buy the PV3, send it off to Ryan to have it tuned; and then take it to my Dealer for some kind of update or service, do I need to tell them I have the FIRST VERSION and Ryan has modified it? I'm worried if they dont' konw it's the 1st version and Ryasn's done his thing? They'll brick my bike and blame it on me.

Ideas? I will say once it got up to temp? The bike road in the cold just fine. Dear GOD I need a Windshield and Bark Busters. And I never thought Id' say this; guess at 29 years old I'm getting old but man I wish I had heated grips.

 

[JacobJakeJacoby]

G'day and welcome to FTR world. Have you walked into the number/licence plate much? A tail tidy would be my suggestion even before you get into the serious stuff.
There's some interesting reading there thanks to all who shared. I bought my PV-3 from Fuel Moto with a low level Bassani slip on, but haven't fitted it yet.

Oh bro I am going to get a Tail Tidy for sure. Prolly once I get back from Daytona Bike week, cuz right now it's not as big of a deal as other things like the cold start issue, horrible throttle response, and the sound. I need to delete the cat; fix the muffler with something more "shouty", THEN I'll address the crazy rear0license place holder.

Did you do the license plate tail tidy intall yourself? How hard was it relocating the wiring? I see the wiring for the lights like blinkers and license plate light on the stock License Plate bracket. That sucker seems pretty damn heavy duty.

 

[Charliemurphay]

Today bugged me so bad I alsomt just took the truck and kep the bike at home. It was about 40 F in North TX; pretty cold sure. Well the bike started; in about 10 seconds it died. No biggie, I started it again, within 15 seconds it did again. So this time I started it, waited about 5 seconds then held the throttle @ 1800 RPM for about 1-2 minutes, let go and it was perfectly fine from that point forward.

So i'm going to guess I have the first revision of the ECU. The thing that worries me is this; if I buy the PV3, send it off to Ryan to have it tuned; and then take it to my Dealer for some kind of update or service, do I need to tell them I have the FIRST VERSION and Ryan has modified it? I'm worried if they dont' konw it's the 1st version and Ryasn's done his thing? They'll brick my bike and blame it on me.

Ideas? I will say once it got up to temp? The bike road in the cold just fine. Dear GOD I need a Windshield and Bark Busters. And I never thought Id' say this; guess at 29 years old I'm getting old but man I wish I had heated grips.

March 2021 heated grips are coming out for our bikes (50% off FTR accessories online with coupon code FTR50 til June 30 on Indian factory accessories). The cold starting sounds typical to me. Frustrating but keep restarting it and it does do fine once it hits about 100° in my experience.
As far as the dealer is concerned, it depends on your relationship with them and what you’re having done. I have read a couple stories of Indian/Polaris voiding a warranty due to the bike having been tuned (even though they are required by US Law to prove the tune broke whatever the issue is) and read other stories where the rider has a good relationship with the dealer and the dealer honors the warranty claim anyways and even a couple of bikes coming from dealers already tuned.
YMMV and it depends on how important your warranty is to you as to whether it’s worth the risk of potentially voiding it. If you actually read the warranty they say that even adding a slip-on muffler will void the warranty as it’s a modification of the exhaust in a way not intended by the factory. And yet my own dealer has had bikes on their showroom with slip-on non factory exhausts. So who knows? I do know that if they want to poke around with the Polaris Digital Wrench, they can tell if the ECU has been modified even if it has been flashed back to the stock tune file. It leaves a footprint. Supposedly this is not the case when you send the ECU to Ryan vs tuning with a PV3.

 

[Max Kool]

Has anyone actually had a warranty claim that could have been denied because the bike is tuned? Like a broken valve, burnt piston, stuff like that.

I mean even when a bike is tuned, there still needs to be proof the defect was caused by the tune...

 

[Charliemurphay]

There’s this with a quick Google:

Polaris Will Void Your Warranty If Fitted with an Aftermarket Pipes or Modified the Catalytic Converter

Disturbing news regarding the Indian Motorcycle Engine Warranty was published in the Polaris Internal Bulletin. I followed it up with the Indian Motorcycle Melbourne Dealership (owned and managed by Polaris Australia) which has a direct channel to the Polaris HQ. The Melbourne Dealership has...

www.indianmotorcycleforum.com.au

I do distinctly remember a thread where somebody had an internal failure of their motor that Polaris was denying the warranty because they found the ECU had been tuned. I tried looking for it but can’t find it.

 

[ferraiolo1]

they are few and far between. most dealers work with you.

 

[Massimo]

There’s this with a quick Google:

Polaris Will Void Your Warranty If Fitted with an Aftermarket Pipes or Modified the Catalytic Converter

Disturbing news regarding the Indian Motorcycle Engine Warranty was published in the Polaris Internal Bulletin. I followed it up with the Indian Motorcycle Melbourne Dealership (owned and managed by Polaris Australia) which has a direct channel to the Polaris HQ. The Melbourne Dealership has...

www.indianmotorcycleforum.com.au

I do distinctly remember a thread where somebody had an internal failure of their motor that Polaris was denying the warranty because they found the ECU had been tuned. I tried looking for it but can’t find it.

Cupcake_mike ?

 

[Max Kool]

Interestingly, many dealers sell and fit aftermarket exhausts, cat delete linkpipes. Sometimes even without updating the tune which will actually be worse for the engine.

I still recall when I just got my FTR and it wasn't tuned yet. Every time I started it, it idled so unbelievably rough, "square" as if it would throw a conrod or spin backwards any moment. Or crack mechanically when you open the throttle coming out of a turn a gear too high. Now tell me that's good for an engine....

I seriously believe a well tuned engine is a healthier engine (and won't hardly be any more polluting than a stock one, if any, as long as you keep the cat installed.)

 

[Deleted member 706]

If you have the older ECU software and it hasn't been updated, Ryan can tune your bike using a PV3, you don't need to send him your ECU.
But you need to confirm what ECU software you have first

Oh bro I am going to get a Tail Tidy for sure. Prolly once I get back from Daytona Bike week, cuz right now it's not as big of a deal as other things like the cold start issue, horrible throttle response, and the sound. I need to delete the cat; fix the muffler with something more "shouty", THEN I'll address the crazy rear0license place holder.

Did you do the license plate tail tidy intall yourself? How hard was it relocating the wiring? I see the wiring for the lights like blinkers and license plate light on the stock License Plate bracket. That sucker seems pretty damn heavy duty.

Mate it's piss easy to fit the tail tidy. I chose to remove the side panel for ease of fitting, some people said to just push the pig tail through but my arthritic hands said take the longer easier path. I had to redo the job because i didn't thin out the routing of the pigtail properly (photo to follow from phone later) someone else here made the same mistake and didn't realise until it was too late. I took the side panels off again when I was tracking down the cause of a loss of power, it was precautionary inspection because I thought the bike had to go back to the shop. I first walked into the nimber/licence plate during the hand over at the shop so that was when I decided to get a tail tidy.

 

[Deleted member 706]

Here is one way to turn off the rear indicators and tail light.

 

[cupcake_mike]

Cupcake_mike ?

I've had no issues with mine, I'm just risk averse in this situation. I have a racefit and a pv3 with a tune from Ryan sitting on the shelf just waiting...

 

[cupcake_mike]

Your options are a little depending in the injection software your bike came with. There are two versions in the US. The initial one, called "9L0" and an updated one called "AH2". Pretty sure Ryan will explain it to you.

Is your cold idle around 1200rpm, or more like 1400-1500rpm?

Max, I've heard this explanation before but my bike seems to be different, I guess it depends on what you consider "cold". If I haven't ridden my bike at all and its 40-50 degrees out when I go out to the shop, its initial idle is around 1700, settles down to 1200 once engine temp is about 130 deg. If I haven't ridden it and its 80-90 degrees out, its initial idle is 1400, then settle down to 1200 once its about 130 deg. My version is 9LO.

I have no idea.

 

[Deleted member 706]

L

I've had no issues with mine, I'm just risk averse in this situation. I have a racefit and a pv3 with a tune from Ryan sitting on th

LOL I too am averting the risk, I have a Bassani low level slip on and a PV3 from Fuel Moto, sitting on a shelf.

e shelf just waiting...

 

[J0988]

This can happen if you’re not careful re-routing the rear-lighting pigtail.
For that reason, I’ll always recommend taking the whole side panel off when re-routing this. Doesn’t look that bad, but I had about a weeks worth blowing fuses and almost got stranded once before finding this.

I got lucky and only 1 wire was slightly damaged. Just had to cut, butt-splice and used marine, adhesive heat shrink tubing. Was still a pain working in such a small area.

 

[JacobJakeJacoby]

Ahh okay thanks for all the info guys... I've decided I'm going to wait until AFTER the Florida trip before tuning anything. Now I"ve read that just slapping on a slip-on Muffler shouldn't require ANY retuning if that is the ONLY thing you're doing. So if I have time and cash before March 3rd I'm going to pickup the TOCE low mount; and fit that only.

Then when we get back, and it gets it's next service I'm going to install the cat delete link, hit up Ryan @ Lloyds and get this baby running how I expect it to! But I mean shoot i drove around for 4-5 hours all in today and I've never had more fun on a bike lol. It just needs to be louder, and I need some wind protection for sure. Also everytime I get off the bike, I hit the freaking left mirror... gotta fix that.

 

[K9F]

Has anyone actually had a warranty claim that could have been denied because the bike is tuned? Like a broken valve, burnt piston, stuff like that.

I mean even when a bike is tuned, there still needs to be proof the defect was caused by the tune...

Interesting point. Maybe not on an FTR but there are always dealerships that play hardball. Your relationship with your dealership is paramount. Post 11 on the thread below where a VIN was flagged and warranty on power train affected and Indian related nonetheless.

limited speed | Indian FTR1200 Modifications

hi, does anybody know if there is a way to unlock the speed limit?

ftr1200forums.com

 

[Charliemurphay]

Interesting point. Maybe not on an FTR but there are always dealerships that play hardball. Your relationship with your dealership is paramount. Post 11 on the thread below where a VIN was flagged and warranty on power train affected and Indian related nonetheless.

limited speed | Indian FTR1200 Modifications

hi, does anybody know if there is a way to unlock the speed limit?

ftr1200forums.com

^^^This was the post I was referencing that I couldn’t find

 

[K9F]

The point referring to Max’s post is, it’s immaterial whether you have a burnt piston or broken valve if your power train warranty has already been voided and your VIN number flagged due to a tune having been detected. It IS very rare but it most definitely happens. Also who has pockets deep enough, or indeed the will to make case and point against the Mothership that the tune or modifications didn’t cause the issues? Especially as the fact remains the rules are there (but possibly open to misinterpretation) in everyone’s owners manual and yes, fuelling, exhaust, intake and computers do get a mention too.