profp - Wrong my friend. Out of the 010 owners manual.

"When engine temperature reaches a predetermined point, the EITMS will turn off the REAR cylinder fuel injector. "

" EITMS will activate when all of the following conditions are met: engine temperature is greater than 287 degrees F: Twist grip is at idle: vehicle speed is under 1 mph: Engine speed is under 1200 rpm"

So only the rear fuel injector is shut down not both as you misreported. The bike does not need to be in Neutral but the clutch must be held closed.

When I first got the bike I was at a train crossing and after setting some time, I manually activated the system. The icon was orange after a few minutes it turned to green.

When the bike meets the criteria of idle, stopped or under 1 mph and clutch pulled the system will be activated by rotating the throttle clockwise. When I have done this there has been a difference in the cadence of the engine.

So, on its own the bike never reached the required 287 degree rear head temp needed to activate the system. End of story.

 

There is the same BTU's in all octanes of gasoline. The higher the octane the more resistant to ignition it is. That is the one and only difference.

If there was more heat in lower octanes then they would have more power.

 

There seems to be an awful lot of people who own late model Harleys (07-08-09-2010-2011) who hang out here who are of the opinion that it is the Harley Davidson Motor Company that is responsible for the engines running hotter and hotter. Some even think that they could make them run cooler if they wanted to. Occassionally we will hear some disgruntled new owner who wears cut offs and tennis shoes suggest that they are going to sue somebody over the heat issue. For the sake of clarification, the branch of government known as the EPA sets the standards for all combustion engines in this country. If any manufacturer, including motorcycle makers wants to sell their product in this country they must do whatever it takes to engineer their engines to pass the EPA requirements. Every year the requirements get stricter and stricter in the governments attemp to reduce the amount of pollutants being discharged into the air we breath. Many of the motorcycle manufacturers have chosen to abandon their air cooled engines in favor of engines with water cooling. Harley Davidson has been reluctant to do this up to this point. They have a water jacketed engine that has been in use since 2002, but it is not widely popular and is not available in any of the touring bikes. It is a high reving, high horsepower engine which is not suitable for touring, but it is an excellent water jacketed engine. Many people including myself feel that the end of the Harley air cooled engine has just about arrived, since there is hardly anything more that can be engineered into an air cooled engine to keep it compliant. In other words, they have run out of things to do, yet the standards will keep getting more strict each year. Harley has been reluctant to drop the 96" twin cam air cooled engine because of it's historic 45 degree crankshaft. It is this particular crankshaft configuration that has always given Harley engines their trademarked "potato-potato-potato" exhaust signature. Since water cooled engines have more options to make them EPA compliant, nearly every manufacturer has adopted them widely, except Harley. So, just to be clear on this. Harley's are hotter than most because of the EPA requirements, not because of some whim of a Harley engineer. Granted, they could have adopted water cooling, but they choose to stick to air cooling. That has got to change...and it will. I keep wondering why they can't add water jackets to the twin cam 96" engine. Maybe they can. Maybe they will. I think they would do just about anything to keep that old fashioned 45 degree crankshaft.

 

You're confusing different physical properties of gasoline. My wife's a Chemical Engineer and consults on blending and formulations of gasoline. BTUs are unrelated to the issue of higher heat caused by lower octane. The issue is specific gravity if you want top get into details. The lower octane gasoline burns in the combustion chamber in a less controlled manner with the flame/explosion not being as evenly distributed as would be the flame/explosion with a higher octane fuel. Higher octane fuels burn more evenly and controlled within the chamber resulting in more power and less heat. More heat does not necessarily equal more power. In fact, more heat can be a sign of lost power due to poor combustion caused by low octane fuel.

Greater heat is created by low octane fuel because of the less even burning of the fuel in the cylinder creating hot spots and ultimately more heat and less power due to the uneven burn. It's real easy to test.

Next time you're empty fill up with 89 octane fuel. Your bike won't be hurt because all the stock engines have their knock sensors turned on. Should there be any knocking due to the lower octane, the knock sensor will dial back the timing to prevent the knock (essentially the uneven burn of fuel in the chamber causing the piston to knock).

I guarantee if its a hot day the bike will feel like an oven on your right leg due to the lower octane.

 

Let's be clear about one thing. Air cooled engines do NOT necessarily have to run hot. They actually can be designed to run very cool, even on relatively hot days. The problem is one of emissions. In order to have an air cooled bike run at cooler temperatues, you need to use more fuel. More fuel results in more emissions than a comparable water-cooled bike that can reduce engine temps by designing greater cooling capacity of the water jacket. Therefore the water cooled bike can emit less hydrocarbons then a comparable air cooled bike of similar power when operating at the same temps.

In order to meet the same emission standards of a water-cooled bike, HD has one of 2 choices: Design less powerful air cooled bikes that use the same amount of fuel. Or design larger engines that run leaner therefore produce less emmisions but more heat for the rider.

Eventually the emission standards will be too difficult for an air cooled bike to meet (and still have reasonable power) and will eventually be converted to a water-jacketed engine. More weight, loss of traditional HD sound but a more comfortable riding temp overall. Just reality of physics.

 

The internal combustion engine produces power by turning a liquid into a gas. The expansion of the gas is caused by the amount of heat generated. The more heat the more expansion.

All gas in the US is identical in BTU's and expands at the same rate.

There is no more power or heat in a gallon of gas. Gas with alcohol has less heat.

If 87 burned hotter the gas would expand faster and provide more power.

The gasoline in the US has the same BTU's (energy) irrespective of the octane which has nothing to do with power.

 

If you think that's the "End of story", then so be it, but it's wrong, unless your bike is different than all the rest.

You said "The icon was orange after a few minutes it turned to green". Was it a "few minutes" or three seconds? What happened is the EITMS system was not enabled (cruise light orange) and you rolled the throttle forward and held it for three seconds and the light turned green indicating that you had enabled the EITMS system. The bike met all the conditions required for the system to disable the rear cylinder and since you enabled EITMS, it did so. The rider cannot shut down the cyclinder, only enable the EITMS. If, when you rolled the throttle forward and the EITMS had already be armed, you would have seen a green light whether the cylinder had been shut down or not. If you had held the throttle for three seconds the light would have turned orange when it disabled the EITMS.

 

I'm afraid you're incorrect as octane has everything to do with power. Why do you think race cars use high octane fuel? The issue of heat caused by too low an octane for your engine design is due to uneven combustion. This situation is due to the specific gravity of different "grades" of gasoline. Grades are defined as octane and each grade of gasoline has a different specific gravity. For any given compression ratio and shape of combustion chamber, there will be an optimum grade of gasoline that will produce the most even flame throughout the chamber. When the flame is uneven you'll create poor combustion and hot spots in the cylinder and ultimately a "knock" event.

Lower grades of gasoline will produce irregular flames with significant areas of overheating and underheating within the chamber. The only methods for producing a more even flame are by lowering the compression, lowering the timing of the spark, cooling the engine (difficult with an air cooled engine) or raising the octane of the fuel.

It's relatively simple chemical engineering. More heat does not necessarily mean more power. If all gasoline has the same BTUs and BTUs determine power then there would be no need for high octane race fuel.

Higher octane allows the engine builder to deliver higher compression, more timing and a cooler engine for the amount of hp generated. Time for folks to go back to their college Organic Chem and Chem Eng books on this topic.

And if you disagree with my wife who's been formulating gasoline for refineries all around the world for 3 decades, then there's not much I can share to help you understand. Best that you go ahead and find some stations serving up 87 octane since according to your theory, your bike will run like a rocket ship and keep your beer cool at the same time on the lowest possible octane fuel available.

 

You rock man!!! Thanks for sharing. Not sire I'd have been able to do all that at 44.

 

I am 70 also I can't remember where I have been but when I go out and look
at the odometer on my 06 ultra it says 89800