How smart is an ECU?

I ask this as Tuesday whilst climbing and descending Mount Buffalo (on the bike of course) my bike strated runnig like it was on 2 cylinders speed limited to about 60kmh, just wondering if it was because there was bugger all left in the tank to drink or if it's an intelligent thing that says hey, fuck all juice left best try conserve till I get a drink?

Maybe altitude + ambient temp ?

I think you will find it was carb iceing

at the others suggestions, what time of the day was this, and how chilly was it?

info here,also look at info on the Dew point as that helps explain it a bit.

There's no fuel level sensor on a ZX9R. It's got carbs, anyway, so even if ignition was cut it'd still be pulling fuel through.

Carb icing it is.

hehehehe Mick if you had actually done over 8000rpm it wouldnt matter (from personal experience) they seem to go OK over that.

Humm well fair to say it was fairly cold... and I regularly do over the 8k frog, perhaps not up Mount Buffalo though.

Attachments

bike in snow.JPG (111.84 KiB) Viewed 1492 times

Current car ECUs are quite intelligent, but at the moment bike ones are a bit behind.

Current car ECUs are quite intelligent, but at the moment bike ones are a bit behind.

zx9 ones are so far behind the forgot to hook them up to the carbies...

Sounds like it is time to clean out the carb heating circuit, coolant filter, My bike started really suffering from carb icing this winter so I finally pulled the coolant filter out for a look. Choked up solid, cleaned element refitted, yay no more icing. It's the litttle green bottle looking thing about 3/4" in diameter and about 1 1/2" long, hanging off a couple of hoses just behind the carbs on the right side of the engine.

Sounds like it is time to clean out the carb heating circuit, coolant filter, My bike started really suffering from carb icing this winter so I finally pulled the coolant filter out for a look. Choked up solid, cleaned element refitted, yay no more icing. It's the litttle green bottle looking thing about 3/4" in diameter and about 1 1/2" long, hanging off a couple of hoses just behind the carbs on the right side of the engine.

Assuming you've actually got one...If I remember correctly they weren't standard fitment on the C series 9's

I'm Pretty sure they are a standard part on C1 zx9s ('98). All the parts diagrams I have show the filter with part number and no notes about it being dealer fit or anything like that.

NFi but not like I do Buffalo in the snow every week so not too worried about it really

I'm Pretty sure they are a standard part on C1 zx9s ('98). All the parts diagrams I have show the filter with part number and no notes about it being dealer fit or anything like that.

I should've said not standard fitment in Australia....they were in the UK, Europe etc just not here, although I think they did fit them if owners were having problems