The owner of this bike phoned us up and said, “I’ve had it years, love it to death, but I just can’t get to grips with it every now and again. I don’t want to sell it, really and I’m not a web surfer but I stumbled on your site, read all the reports and here I am… sort it out!”
He’d down-geared it to take the revs out of the snatchy spot. Via the ECU we set about switching off the lambda, SAI valve and then re-mapped the secondary butterflies. Next were the ignition maps (crucial for throttle response) and finally fuelling. It felt completely different on the Dyno, so the road test was next and even in the nasty conditions it felt sweet.
One point to note – he’d also fitted heated grips. Now we not sure why but something happens here; a combination of bulkier circumference grip and cable-play (in this instance) messes up throttle control. On the KTM this is important because it has an idle control – not enough, or too much slack will cause problems at the pickup point. We adjusted it and sorted that problem. Correct chain and sprocket adjustment are also vital, if the chain’s just a little bit slack you’ll get snatch.
The owner of this 990SM loved it, didn’t wanted to sell and just wanted the snatch taken away…
