Back firing

[deanmachine]

I have a Honda Shadow Spirit 750, which I've been riding about a year now as my first bike and am starting to think about a more powerful cruiser. I test rode a Victory Hammer and Victory Vegas and liked the power, but both of these bikes back fired routinely, which I did not like. I read some stuff on the internet that said that all big V-twins back fire. I also read that Honda's do not - even the big VTX's.

Can anyone offer any information about this? Do all big V-twins backfire or is it really only a problem with certain bikes like the Victory models?

[Leland1]

My father in law just traded in his VTX 1300 and VTX 1800. Rode them for about 7 months and they didnt backfire. Made a trip from Mississippi to Oklahoma with both at the same time (his daughters boyfriend ride the 1300)

He just got a wild hair last week and traded both and $$ for a Yamaha Venture.

[Buffalo Rider]

I have a Honda Shadow Spirit 750, which I've been riding about a year now as my first bike and am starting to think about a more powerful cruiser. I test rode a Victory Hammer and Victory Vegas and liked the power, but both of these bikes back fired routinely, which I did not like. I read some stuff on the internet that said that all big V-twins back fire. I also read that Honda's do not - even the big VTX's.

Can anyone offer any information about this? Do all big V-twins backfire or is it really only a problem with certain bikes like the Victory models?

It all depends on how they are tuned. With the high emissions standards in Europe most bike manufacturers are tuning the bikes to run very lean which will cause a backfire. Depending on the bike this means a simple re-program of the ECU, on others you may wind up having to get a power-commander and program the backfire out of it. Your dealer won't help you with this (it would not be in their best interest to reprogram your bike to be out of standards) but any local mechanic or dyno tuner can do this for you.

And yes, VTX does backfire too.

[Cigar]

I have a Boulevard C-90 and if I run high octane I get backfires.. If I run 87 I am fine, no backfires.. Right now I am running out the Sea Foam that I use to stabilize the gas.. I got a few backfires today....