New to a ST1300, can't get used to the throttle!

The ST1300 will polish your skills on the way to "getting used to it". Throttle, brake, and clutch are not meant to be used in isolation to each other but rather in concert when needed.

ddemair, cyberwolf, and ATA all made excellent points. Keep 'tension' on the drivetrain with a tiny amount of throttle against trail braking into the corner. This keeps the throttle off the stop and the resultant dry injectors. Low speed 1st and 2nd gear corner exits and low speed maneuvers are smoothed by varying amounts of clutch slip.

Before you know it you'll forget all about the snatchy off-throttle behavior. The ST was designed twenty years ago in the first generation of fuel injection bikes coming to market. The ST was designed to meet the Euro emission standards of 2002 and those coming in 2005-2007. Those were more stringent that USA's EPA standards that didn't even address motorcycles in 2002.
 
Where have I been? This never really bothered me - guess i got used to it and adapted. There was more talk in another thread about modulating the throttle - easing it on then advancing it more quickly as needed compared to this thread's "live with it".

At least a few guys have reported a Throttle Tamer as being a very useful accessory to knock off some of the harshness of this on/off response.
 
When I first got my ST1300 Chuck H. said to snug up the throttle cables. So here is what I did on my ST and on my VFR1200X. Bring the bike up to operating temp. get your wrenches and snug the throttle pull cable until the idle rises. Then back it off until the idle drops. This should give you no slack in the throttle. This helped my bikes a lot. But others are correct the throttle is a bit snatchy and does require patients and time.
 
Larry Fine said:
A thicker grip does impart greater leverage, making small motions against a spring easier.
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I'd guess imparting granularity as much as or more than leverage – if either.

Raymond83 said:
But that initial jump is really throwing me off. Any advice would be greatly appreciated (except 'get used to it'
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When I first complained about the snatchy throttle several people tried to tell me it wasn't but I knew better.

I was also told I'd get used to it. While I could work at it and eventually get there as many preceding members did I elected not to work on fine tuning throttle metering.

I bought a G2 Throttle Tamer and one member made his own from the factory throttle tube. The G2 is a nicely made aluminum throttle tube replacement with a modified ramp for the 'Pull' throttle cable. The radius of part of the tube is reduced giving greater granularity to the first 1/8 rotation of the throttle making it easier to smoothly control throttle response at small openings.

Remove the play in the cables helps – some. I keep 0 play in the cables. Not the 1/8"-1/4" the manual recommends. 0. Everybody tells me that's wrong but they can't give me a good reason why. And I don't care as it works for me.

But the G2 is not cheap at around $80. That may convince you to work on your manual dexterity. While not perfect the G2 made life easier for me.
 
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ST Gui said:
I'd guess imparting granularity as much as or more than leverage – if either.
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I used the term "leverage" because the greater diameter means a greater radius, which equates to a longer lever.

I keep 0 play in the cables. Not the 1/8"-1/4" the manual recommends. 0. Everybody tells me that's wrong but they can't give me a good reason why. And I don't care as it works for me.
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Same here. I can just feel a little play, but not measurable.
 
Larry Fine said:
I used the term "leverage" because the greater diameter means a greater radius, which equates to a longer lever.
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Right. I don't disagree with that - just on the influence of that longer lever on required energy. I suppose we could put a spring scale on it to measure and evaluate the difference. :D
 
ST Gui said:
Right. I don't disagree with that - just on the influence of that longer lever on required energy. I suppose we could put a spring scale on it to measure and evaluate the difference. :D
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I gotcha. I was thinking more of the ability to modulate finer adjustments of the throttle, and not so much to ease the overall amount of effort required to rotate the grip.
 
You haven’t gotten used to it yet.

The G2 Tamer would help you get comfortable sooner.
I like the G2 just for the lighter effort of hold the throttle open.
 
Try keeping your rpms a little higher (lower gear). I generally shift down a gear before entering a sharp turn or twisty section of road. Only time I use 5th gear is when I'm on the highway. I road Harleys years ago before I bought a r1100rt. My mechanic friend used to always tell me "quit lugging that thing it aint a Harley"
 
There are a couple of factors in addition to how the fuel injectors work.

One is the 'play' in the drive train - particularly the final drive, and maybe the cush rubbers. Keeping the engine driving the wheels (rather than the wheels catching up with the engine) gets rid of much of that behaviour - as mentioned a few times above. But there is also the slack in the throttle cable. It is supposed to have some, but too much and the slack in the cable and the slack in the final drive can result in the combination amplifying the effect.

Try reducing the play in the throttle cable to just a bit more than none at all. Make sure that there is a little bit though. Do it on a cold day when the cable is at its shortest. Make sure that the revs don't increase when turning the bars lock to lock when the engine is ticking over on the centre stand. With one source of play almost eliminated it is easier to get familiar to the other when riding. Remember to readjust it to a more appropriate amount of slack a few weeks down the line.

nb - you are not supposed to do this. There is a specified amount of free play, which caters for the flex in the cable and for the expansion and contraction of the cable with heat. You never want the cable to be too tight - it will pull on the pulley wheel on the throttle bodies and on the throttle grip, preventing it from snapping shut as it should when released. But it does give a much closer feel of the engine and the final drive slack.
 
Raymond83 said:
Hi everyone,
I was hoping that maybe what's going on with my bike is an anomaly, but the throttle is very jumpy from the off position, the very first, maybe 1/16th of an inch of twist makes the bike jump. Hard to explain, but sort of a jerky movement. The throttle does not roll on smooth. After the initial jump, it seems fine throughout the range. But that initial jump is really throwing me off. Any advice would be greatly appreciated (except 'get used to it'... lol).

Ray
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Regardless of how you make out with your throttle response issue, Welcome to the forum!!
 
Try a cramp buster on the throttle grip, $10-15, and as mentioned trail brake your corners.
The combination of these two things will help keep your rpm up a little.
 

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I bought my 2007 ST1300 used, and the PO had installed some kind of electronic device that eliminate the fuel cutoff during engine braking. It was a small "thing" under the seat as far as I recall. I don't recall the details, but I never had issues with the throttle response - and I compared to my previous ST1100
 
Larry Fine said:
I'd like to suggest an experiment: Try taking your corners in a higher gear than you usually do
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dduelin said:
Low speed 1st and 2nd gear corner exits and low speed maneuvers are smoothed by varying amounts of clutch slip.
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+1 to both.

90 degree bends, moving fast enough that you wouldn't want to put a foot on the floor, use 2nd gear, not first, and slip the clutch as needed.

Can't say I've noticed it moving from a stop to on the go, but on tight bends, the throttle "bites" a fair amount. But she has the power to ignore 1st gear completely, should you wish to.
 
Larry Fine said:
It was awhile before I realized that trail-braking doesn't always mean the rear brake. The front brake can be used to steepen the steering geometry in curves by lowering the front end.
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Trail braking has little to nothing to do with what brake is used or using brake in the corner to induce or change fork compression. It's simply when and long we are braking into the corner. Braking before the corner is when most brake pressure is applied and yes, the fork compresses under braking and helps the bike turn. After lean begins to increase the rider is decreasing brake pressure proportionally to manage available traction.

Basic training is only brake when upright and going straight. Brake when approaching the corner only when vertical.

Trail braking is braking up to the apex so the rider is continuing to brake while lean is increasing. He's braking deep into the corner. Since more lean means less traction is available for braking, the rider 'trails off' braking pressure as lean increases. Trail braking is an advanced skill. Nick Ienatasch's book Sport Riding Techniques helped me a lot. There are plenty of other resources but this book was particularly helpful to me.


Trail Braking: On the track to win, on the street to survive | N2 Track Days

www.n2td.org www.n2td.org
 
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ad.hom said:
+1 to both.

90 degree bends, moving fast enough that you wouldn't want to put a foot on the floor, use 2nd gear, not first, and slip the clutch as needed.

Can't say I've noticed it moving from a stop to on the go, but on tight bends, the throttle "bites" a fair amount. But she has the power to ignore 1st gear completely, should you wish to.
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I changed my original post to suggest using a lower gear, not a higher gear, to keep the RPMs high enough to not need to close the throttle completely to get some engine braking, as well as easier transition to accelerating out of the curve.

If you're slipping the clutch, you're "artificially" keeping the RPMs up anyway. My suggestion is geared (pardon the pun) toward not needing to close the throttle completely when entering a curve, so it's not being opened from fully closed.
 
Larry Fine said:
It was awhile before I realized that trail-braking doesn't always mean the rear brake. The front brake can be used to steepen the steering geometry in curves by lowering the front end.
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Trail braking means continuing to apply braking power while entering and during the early portion of a turn. It's properly done with the front brake. It's a technique for gaining an advantage in a turn by managing a high entry speed by decreasing the turn radius late by decreasing speed, distributing weight forward to offset rise from applying the throttle in the turn, sharpening the steering geometry by compressing the forks, and placing more weight on the front end (which is generally good as long as you don't overload the tire's adhesion). It's not really recommended for street riding because sharing your traction with deceleration and change of direction forces at the same time injects unnecessary risk into the equation. If you ham fist it or happen upon an undetected hazard, you are more likely to go down because the traction forces are split. On a track, you are less likely to come across those hazards and more likely to be able to practice without oncoming traffic, telephone poles, etc.

Trail braking with the rear wheel is more about rear wheel steering by inducing a slide. Rear braking tends to stand the bike up whereas front braking tends to make it want to lean in.

Typical cornering involves having all the braking done before entry and being on the gas when you initiate the turn and accelerating throughout the turn.
 
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