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My experience may be 999 model specific as those are the 3 models I have owned and had the issue on. First was a 2004 base 999, second was base 2005 999 and current is 2005 999s.
All three had experienced "starting" problems. The symptoms were normally the bike would crank right over, but it seemed late in the season they would get sensitive to starting. Some times taking 5 or 6 attemps (push of the start button and cycle thru) before finally kicking over. On all 3 bikes they had the orginal battery. I did voltage checks with a crappy multi-purpose charger, and the charger showed 100% battery. I sold both of those base models before I ever figured out the issue. Last week I replaced my 2005 999s battery. I also got a much better battery tester which showed the old battery was not getting better then 97% of full charge. BTW, all bikes were always on battery tenders when parked.
I have 3 rides with the new battery and starting is far more crisp and no need to every push the button twice. It appears to me that the 999 (even more so when hot) are sensitive to the need for a 100% battery.
On to the clutch. Well known cause (for me) of stalling on all 3 bikes. Master cyl was the root issue, they develop an air leak at the lever plunger and there is no seal replacement kit available to correct the issue. After replacing master and slave on the 999s, stalls were very, very, very rare. I did notice the clutch lever was still going soft. So a quick bleed of handlebar res would fix that for a few weeks. Last week I replaced the clutch line with a better after market line. That was a long overdue change. While the orginal line was not visibly leaking, the lines apparently have a flex life and after 9,000 miles ( in my case) I think the line was doing some expanding VS pushing the slave 100%. So with the new line on the new slave and master....no more issue with soft lever.
I am not advocating new clutch components for stalling or new battery for starting issues as a first step. My bikes were well maintained, freshly tuned, TPS setting checked by dealer and it was after all the basics were check that I started down the route of replacement on parts that looked pretty good on the surface but in the end were not at 100%.
All three had experienced "starting" problems. The symptoms were normally the bike would crank right over, but it seemed late in the season they would get sensitive to starting. Some times taking 5 or 6 attemps (push of the start button and cycle thru) before finally kicking over. On all 3 bikes they had the orginal battery. I did voltage checks with a crappy multi-purpose charger, and the charger showed 100% battery. I sold both of those base models before I ever figured out the issue. Last week I replaced my 2005 999s battery. I also got a much better battery tester which showed the old battery was not getting better then 97% of full charge. BTW, all bikes were always on battery tenders when parked.
I have 3 rides with the new battery and starting is far more crisp and no need to every push the button twice. It appears to me that the 999 (even more so when hot) are sensitive to the need for a 100% battery.
On to the clutch. Well known cause (for me) of stalling on all 3 bikes. Master cyl was the root issue, they develop an air leak at the lever plunger and there is no seal replacement kit available to correct the issue. After replacing master and slave on the 999s, stalls were very, very, very rare. I did notice the clutch lever was still going soft. So a quick bleed of handlebar res would fix that for a few weeks. Last week I replaced the clutch line with a better after market line. That was a long overdue change. While the orginal line was not visibly leaking, the lines apparently have a flex life and after 9,000 miles ( in my case) I think the line was doing some expanding VS pushing the slave 100%. So with the new line on the new slave and master....no more issue with soft lever.
I am not advocating new clutch components for stalling or new battery for starting issues as a first step. My bikes were well maintained, freshly tuned, TPS setting checked by dealer and it was after all the basics were check that I started down the route of replacement on parts that looked pretty good on the surface but in the end were not at 100%.