I'm taking the 2011 SG Custom in for the first service. I read about the "Engine Idle Management" feature that somehow allows for more cooling to the rear cylinder during extended idling (traffic jams). I live in the DC area and traffic jams can be trouble.

I assume that the feature temporarily shuts off the fuel to the rear cylinder? I really don't know how it works.

Anybody tried this feature? Does it hurt performance? Is it noticeable in a bad way?

 

I did this last summer with my 2010 Street Bob. It cools off the rear until it gets below the shut off temp and then it fires back up. I feel a little difference on my legs but not a lot. Nice thing is that whenyou are just sitting idle you are only burning one cylinders worth of gas and not two. You will notice that the bike idles a little differently when this goes into effect (15-30 seconds after stopping) and when you try to pull off it is slow because it has to tell the cylinder to start working again. To avoid this i roll on the throttle a second or two before I attemp to pull off, this get everything going prior to take off. The dealer here is Southern MD did it for free when I had the bike's first service done.

 

I have this enabled on my 2009 and have seen no negatives. As was stated, when you are idling and the engine reaches a certain temperature, the rear cylinder shuts off and the engine idles using only the front cylinder. This obviously reduces the heat generated by the rear cylinder because it is only pumping air and is not firing.

As soon as you open the throttle the rear cylinder starts firing, so you should not sit and blip the throttle while waiting. I have not noticed any hesitation starting off from a stop when the system is working.

On my bike, the system can be started and stopped while idling by rolling the throttle backwards and watching the cruise light. If it turns green, the system has been turned on. If it turns orange, it has been turned off.

I have my bike set to default to the on position. I see no negatives to have it active so if the bike does start to get warm while stopped at a light, it will automatically engage without me remembering to turn it on.

Check your owner's manual to see if it tells you how to have it default to the active position. For my bike, the method is shown below.

Turn on ignition and run button but do not start bike.
Roll throttle backwards and watch the cruise button. If it turns green, that means you have set the default to on. If it is orange, it is set to default off. Set it to whatever status you want.
Turn ignition back off without starting the bike.

Now the default is set to whatever you chose.

Hope this helps.

 

Mine was preset from factory it does it if i sit at a stop light or stuck in traffic for a long period of time it protect's the motor from heating up, it's called a thermo - sleeve or something ?

 

Do you have to turn this feature on? I have a power commander on my 2010 WG. Would the PC over ride this feature? Thanks

 

Personally I would rather NOT have this "feature" turned on... seems like just another thing to go wrong or break in my opinion. For what it's worth, that's just my opinion though... anything I say should be taken with quite a large amount of salt since I'm too dumb for a "smart" phone.

 

What he said, except for the smartphone part.

 

i can see how this would be benificial, but i feel like not only would it not spark, but i think, like in cars that are over heating, or need to be cooled down, it would actually enrich the gas mixture as the gas would actually cool the piston and cylinder. but thats only incars. im not sure on bikes *** all mine are carbed.... but its some food for thought. it is a neat system tho, makes all harleys sound like my blast at idle lol

 

I appreciated this thread. I thought this feature was enabled on my bike, but now I'm not so sure, since I didn't enable it. I could have sworn it was kicking in last year during Rolling Thunder, but I could have been mistaken. I don't sit in the stop and go too much. Something to check...

 

My Dyna was made 2 months before it was standard (any bike assembled after Dec 7, 2007) but I do have it on my Ultra Classic. It didn't kick on for the first 20k miles, but I got stuck in traffic in 110 deg last summer. It worked like a dream, both cooled the bike and soothed my nerves. The bike has to get HOT and be idling.