Sticky Throttle and Rear Brake Pads

[Artyman]

Right, two things. If you do your own tinkering then this is something to bear in mind. I have a 2014 DL1000 and I serviced it a few days ago.

My throttle was a bit sticky sometimes so I was determined to have a look at the linkage system underneath the air box, which is generally the cause. To remove the air box you need a really long Allen key to unscrew the clamp for the front inlet manifold. I bought the Allen key off eBay for about £12.

Anyway I got the air box off and it was horrible mess under there. Years of built up road grime, muck, oil and a family of illegal immigrants….  There’s two parallel linkages connecting both fuel injectors and the joints for the linkages were full of crap, the reason for the sticky throttle. So, after a lot of WD40, lots of cleaning and then greasing with silicone grease, I got her sorted. If you’re into your own tinkering and your bike is a few years old, it really is worth taking off your air box to do a little housework underneath. If you don’t do your own tinkering, then maybe the next time you have a service done, ask them to clean and grease the linkages underneath the air box. Also, there was rust on the back end of the throttle cable - so to give it a longer life, I gave that a good clean with a brass brush and slapped some grease on it. Again, something to think about.

Also, I changed my rear brake pads as the Suzuki ones I fitted last time didn’t impress me much. I opted for a pair of Brembo pads from SP Engineering. They were expensive, £46, but wow - what a difference. It’s like night and day. The rear brake on Suzuki pads was adequate - a device to help slow the bike down - but now I can actually stop the bike quite well just using the rear brake. They’re brilliant. I can’t wait for my front pads to wear now as when they do I’m buying brembo pads from SP - and bugger the expense…!

If you want to stop - go brembo…

[Mr Nick]

It's almost as if Brembo made brakes for a living & know what they're doing... My KTM and Moto Guzzis all have Brembo brakes so that's the pads I fit.

[Mark Shelley]

I hot the sticky throttle on my 650. Once I had worked out that it was the sprung linkages under the tank I managed to sort it without taking the bike apart. I accessed the rear one by removing the seat and one side panel and it gave enough access to use the spray nozzle on the WD40 can. The front one was done the same way by accessing it from low down on the front nearside of the bike. This worked for about two months, then it started sticking again.
I fixed it second time using the same method except instead of WD40 I used good old 3 in 1 oil in a small syringe with a drinking straw pushed onto the end! I never had another problem.