[HansenCTX]

Has anyone had any issues with staring their bike? My CTX1300 didn't start today. Temp outside was around 40 and the bike was run yesterday. I noticed the bike is having some difficulty starting on cold mornings. I would not expect this to happen with a brand new 'luxury' bike.

Thoughts? Advice?

 

[sleepngbear]

Very strange for any bike with fuel injection. I've never had one not start, as long as the battery had enough juice to spin it over. That should absolutely not be happening. Only thing I can think of is maybe you got a bad tank of gas. Try a half a can of Seafoam or some similar fuel treatment and some fresh gas. If that doesn't do it, I'd take right to the dealer first chance you get.

 

[csdexter]

How long do you give it to start?

See here: http://www.ctx1300forum.com/forum/engine-technical-discussion/7033-slow-starting.html

 

[HansenCTX]

Thanks for the thread update. I am having similar issues. The bike takes longer to start some days. Today it started then shut down. It took my a couple of minutes to get it started again. After she warmed up all was fine.

It seems this issue is consistent with others. My other two Hondas never did this.

 

[bob]

On these cooler mornings it will take a second or two longer to start. I've noticed that. If you let up on the starter too soon though, it will take even longer on the second try. I did have this issue with my ST1100, but that bike has carbs and can be flooded. FI is not so prone to flooding but it will still be affected by the colder air. A warm day it will start in 2-3 seconds holding the starter button. On a cold morning (say 15*F (-9.4*C) outside, but bike at garage temp of 25*F (-3.9*C)) it will take 3-5 seconds to fire up holding the starter. If the battery is not keeping up, you might notice it will fire just as you let go of the starter button after holding for 3-5 seconds. Batteries are affected by cold and it's a small one in these bikes so may be affected more. I haven't had any issues with that however, even after the bike sits outside parked at work with temps around 12*F to 15*F (-11*C to -9* C) all day. Just hold the starter a bit longer. If you end up needing to attempt over and over the battery can run down more rapidly, say after 4+ attempts maybe(?). But as I said, I haven't had any issue with not starting in very cold temps. It's not unheard of for a battery, even a new one, to go bad. I've read of that happening with any bike. So maybe have the battery load tested to prove it. Batteries Plus or Interstate Battery can do this.

 

[Bigredmachine]

I've had the same situation occur with my ST1300s in the past. Simply cycling the key switch a couple times always solved the problem.

 

[strich]

Strange, my old VTX (carbs) started on second fire.. Hot or cold, if I choked it right. I hoped FI was better.

 

[jeffz]

Does the CTX have any kind of heater element for the FI components? My last bike had electric leads going to each carburetor that would warm them up, and thus to get proper starting behavior you'd want to turn the key, WAIT several minutes, and then fire the bike up. Wondering if there's any element of delay that might help rather than just laying on the starter button.

 

[bob]

Don't know. This morning was the first I started the bike since last Tuesday and the garage was 28°F per the bike readout (14°F outside where I backed the bike out of the garage before starting it). Started within 3 seconds on the first try no problem. :350x700px-LL-66dd6d

 

[csdexter]

The CTX1300 doesn't have heated carbs because, well, it has no carbs Heated carbs are not heated for start-up, but for when engine braking from high rpm in very cold and humid weather. Most bikes that had heated carbs had a switch that only turned the heaters on when the bike was NOT in neutral.
See Carburetor heat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[jeffz]

The CTX1300 doesn't have heated carbs because, well, it has no carbs Heated carbs are not heated for start-up, but for when engine braking from high rpm in very cold and humid weather. Most bikes that had heated carbs had a switch that only turned the heaters on when the bike was NOT in neutral.
See Carburetor heat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It seems I was misinformed as to the purpose of the heaters. Interesting! Thanks for the correction.

 

[flytrap]

After sitting at the dealer for 2 weeks, I started up the bike. For the first time ever, starting was sluggish and it died a couple of times before I got it going. I'm happy to report that the problem has not persisted now that I am riding it regularly again. Apparently it does not like to sit. Perhaps there is an issue with the fuel pump and gas draining from some critical reservoir. Once it is warmed up I just touch the button and it starts right up.

 

[csdexter]

(...)Apparently it does not like to sit.(...)

Which bike does?

(...)Perhaps there is an issue with the fuel pump and gas draining from some critical reservoir.(...)

The fuel pump is a standard turbine type, as on any fuel-injected vehicle. I would be seriously amazed if there were issues with the fuel pump on a new bike, and a Honda at that!
Also, there's no float chamber(s) on this bike and if there wouldn't be the right pressure behind the injectors (i.e. faulty fuel pump), it'd never start.

Are you pressing the starter button right after turning the key to "On"? 'Cause I usually give it the two seconds for the fuel pump to start and stop and for the dashboard to complete its power-on animation.
Also, a thing I've learned from my previous injected bike, you need to keep the button pressed until it starts, and it will, on its own. This is in stark contrast to carbureted bikes on which you can/have to baby it from the throttle.

 

[GermanMike]

I started mine this morning, after 3 weeks of standing in the cold, without any problems. :smileygarden_de_ban
I was not used to that, cause my ST1300 had problems after such a long time.
It's just as csdexter said, wait till the pump did it's job, push the starter and don't play with the throttle.

 

[csdexter]

(...)and don't play with the throttle.

Yes, the CTX1300 appears to be very particular about this. If I forgot it's injected and touched the throttle on the Sportster it would still start, but make funny noises.
In contrast, the CTX1300 will almost always refuse to start if you touch the throttle, possibly because (as opposed to the Sporster) it has an IACV and the ECU appears to take a closed throttle for granted when starting.

On one hand, this is a design bug (failure to take TPS into account even when starting and hardcoding the assumption that the throttle will always be closed and running the math only in terms of IACV position and injector output).
On the other hand, as I've previously said, Keihin runs decade(s)-old designs hiding under tons of NDAs, patents and the status-quo so they're probably at home with releasing at the "just good enough" level as opposed to "really good" -- one more thing that would immediately wither and die if these things would be open.

 

[bob]

I have started mine while leaning on my cramp buster unawares, resulting in the throttle being open just a bit. Bike started anyway but took longer and rev'd higher when it did.

 

[richroiz]

Has anyone had any issues with staring their bike? My CTX1300 didn't start today. Temp outside was around 40 and the bike was run yesterday. I noticed the bike is having some difficulty starting on cold mornings. I would not expect this to happen with a brand new 'luxury' bike.

Thoughts? Advice?

Yep ! Mine absolutely would not start @ 40 degrees. yesterday. finally sputtered and smelled rich for a minute then was fine. took forever. i was surprised. it usually sparks to life immediately, even in the cold!