to dyno or not

[borto1990]

after installing the power commander, chucksters plate mod. the bike runs good, but just how good? getting about 31 mpgs.. I came across a bike shop I didn't even know about here in town and they are metric friendly.. all they do is motors and dyno. no sales, no service. the guy said he see's a lot of cruisers come in, same scenerio, plug in power commander or other processor, milage drops ect. he said most downloadable maps in his opinion are set up to be more rich, since bike damage would be more at a minimum. he said for 40 bucks he would throw it up there and check the maps. for 250 he would do a full dyno and make a complete custom map. If it runs better great, if I get better mpg's it will pay for itself in time. if it runs worse, well I guess that's a lesson and I can put the download map back on. what do you guys think.. bike is a new 08.. 1000 miles on her

[macmac]

Some range is off IMO as you should have improved MPG's.

I can't remember what each guy has as his set up though.. I went from a for crap 34/36 mpgs to a better 44 / 46 with the car tire, and was hitting 48 mpg's with the bricks ft and rr.

One or more maps is too rich...

[Cajunrider]

That's great mileage mac. The best I've ever done on mine before any mods was 42 mpg riding alone. Looks like I'm averaging 38 now riding 2 up.

[strobe]

I think that M220 map is way too rich that you are running. I ran that on my bike a two tanks and got 26 - 31 mpg, it is not on the bike anymore that is for sure. I have the one from Thunder for the Thunder Air, Vance & Hines Bagger Exhaust (T220-001) and the fuel mapping is significantly better I think. Unfortunately it snowed and got cold again with the first tank I have with that map so not sure how much better is is, but last summer I was getting almost 40 two up fully loaded with gear.

[macmac]

What lots of folks don't seem to understand is the ECU creates fuel, and in much of the range the fuel is about right. The idle circuit is off and then where if there were carbs the idle mix runs and crosses over with the main jet, and on some carbs a intermeidate jet.

Not much is going to make a Nomad a race machine in this life time.

I could argue about what I thibnk on the TFI settings isn't right, but no one is going to listen to me.

The book says and some guy at Dobeck says and I am dead in the water, but my pot 3 and pot 4 are nothing like everyone else.

The PC III might be fussissycated, the Nomad ain't. Kinda like handing roses to a hog...

So the deal is if you must insist on the "Best" and drop the jiggle for the PC III, it is probably not hard on a wallet to drop the jingle on a dyno run.

When that gets right, all in all you should have better than tourqe than I can guess, and better mpgs than me..

My dyno is stored inside my levis...

Since there IS a rev limiter, unless you fool with it, no one can make more rpm that it is set for.

I have no intent to mess with it. I don't like the idea of these big pistons and me meeting up face to face one bit..

As I see it All VULCANS ARE TOO LEAN. With a few mods, or just one a Cobra or TFI you can have a better bike for low dough.

IMO the PC III shows it's best on a in line 4 sport bike in the R 600cc class OR the R 1,000cc class..

[redjay]

Hi Mac. What are your TFI settings and how is your bike set up, gutted mufflers, Caddman etc ?

[rickyboy]

I have hesitated to say what my mpg's are ....because they are so darn good. I posted in the Canadian grp. under "Ricks TFI" thread "
Keep in mind these are Imp. gals so they are a little bigger than the US gal.

http://kawanow.proboards.com/index.c...y&thread=10606

I got 36 in a mixed city/hwy. mileage reading.
and 50 mpg on the "cruise controlled" 110 kms. per hr. {68.5 mph} on the hwy. I'm thrilled.

[dogdoc]

I vote NOT to dyno.

[Kawhead]

Originally Posted by Doc (Lonewolf)

I vote NOT to dyno.

I say no dyno to. This comes from a guy who's dynoed. Just listening to the bike and reading here on the board I had my settings VERY close to what the dyno concluded. This after I listened to the tech try to brow beat me about how people purchase TFI's and Power Commanders and didn't know what they were doing. ::)After the test he went on and on 'bout how the TFI is a poor man's PC III ::) and he did have a trash bin of them. I wish I would have thought to ask him for them.


In the end I believe he wanted to sell me a PCIII, because he was explaining how he could tune it in more of the spectrum blah blah blah........... ::)


Bottom line I agree with mac, we get a lot of performance bang for low bucks. Trust me, unless you just want to toss a hundred bucks, read what people have on the board and listen to your bike.

No to Dyno.............Bin there, did that

[Cajunrider]

Motorcycle Specialties here in Houma, LA quoted me $40 to make 3 pulls on their dyno while setting the pots on my TFI. That doesn't sound like a bad price to me. The shop foreman said they like to make 3 pulls for increases in engine temperature. I may let them do it just to see how far off I am on my settings.

[macmac]

Originally Posted by redjay

Hi Mac. What are your TFI settings and how is your bike set up, gutted mufflers, Caddman etc ?

My bike has V&H Baggers, A caddman right side only, naked on the left. The TFI, ICS's are in a box in the cellar, the vac pod and line with the reed valve garbage in in that same box in the cellar.

The reed valves are capped off, but i made coasters to install soon. I need 4 bolts.

My TFI settting are in economy mode currently.
pot 1, 1:30
pot 2, 3:30
pot 3, 1:00 (nearly off)
pot 4 12:30 (off)

Pots 3 and 4 are for high end high preformance.. I don't do high speed sustained riding which is 75 mph and above.

pots 1 and 2 are subject to change, depending on if I plan to go get a ticket for being a public nusiance.

I maintain you can not set all the pots by the book.

I believe there is two ways to set these pots up, and the bext way is a dyno run(s) the other one pot at a time.


Starting with pot 1 in the door yard, and then pot 2 on the street some place way out there far from the law...

Pot 2 needs a hard fast twist of the wick to wide open throttle in 1st?? 2 nd if you got the no nads, fer it, and 3rd.. Watch out for the blue lights in any place...

My pot 3 isn't tested and I don't know any way to test at 112 to 114 mph on the street..

pot 4 sets the rpm mode for pot 3.. So I give it a smidgen which is probably nothing.

No one needs to tell me Dobeck says something different, but I just don't ride at 90 mph sustained..

[macmac]

The PC III is another animal. If there was some way I could get guys to not buy them I would, but they have the dough and so they will because they want the 'Best".

It just might be the best for a Nomad is the Cobra with the 3 pots since the pot 3 and 4 on the TFI are just about pointless on a Nomad.

The areas we ar enriching is idle, low end preformance since the nomad doesn't come close to making lots of RPM in the first place. The Rev Limter cuts off RPM at 5,200 whether you like it or not....

My car spins faster than that and yours all cars do too! My 1981 Liberty bike spins 9,000 rpm and by todays standards that ain't nuthin!

Now get that Nomad to turn around 14,000 rom and the Cobra would be a dawg, the TFI not much better, and that is where the PC III comes into place.

Telling a guy with more money than understanding, isn't going to be a win win for me any time in this life time..

I'll catch 'It' for saying this probably...

Get a PC III on a nomad and get a dyno run(s) because there could be high mid rang rpm improvement by LEANING out the mix....... maybe....

Just getting 31 MPG's is fact alone to me to say the PC III is running the mix overly rich, but I don't know where in the rpm range that occurs...

[billmac]

Too me, putting a dyno on my Nomad would be like putting the dyno on my tractor. Neither is worth jacking with as long as they do what they are designed to do.

I am continously amazed on how well people can justify spending our money.

New Hampshire and Canada must have better gasoline for our members up there to get such good fuel mileage. The south probably mixes in some gulf water into our fuel. It also could be we in the south eat too many Chicken Fried Steaks and Mexican food. Just thinking out loud here.

[macmac]

Bill Mac I am not about spending other peoples money, and I never ever said getting a PC III was a good idea. Now that some have the PC III it is probably a good idea to run the dyno..

Thats what you get a PC III for to have the most refined fussissykated mapping you can get... Now ain't that right?

If you are bound and determined to have the "Best" then it has costs. I am a old long hair country boy and money and me nearly never cross..

As such I don't worry about what is the best, I worry about how to get done what I want to get done. I find the barest bones cheapest way to get it too..

The Cdn fuel is based on something called Imperial gallons. I guess that is more fluid than a SAE gallon.

But colder air has more O² so if you have the same settings on the TFI as me on pot 1 you should in theory be too rich.

Thats just another problem with any company's book settings.

These book settings are not national in STONE. They are a place to begin.

If you just install the device and set it to some book setting, you may as well select pot numbers at random with you ears and eyes closed.

I wish there were no book settings, because everyone and his grannie take these fool settings as if Moses himself went on the mountian and wrote it down just like it was.

No one is going to do this, but if I had my way everyone would shut off all the pots, fire the bike and trim pot 1....

Then test ride 1/4 miles as hard as you dare to trim pot 2, and with the TFI just forget pot 3 and 4...

Like I said else where, there is as much chance of that happening as there is in water skiing behind a sperm whale..

That blasted book ain't no bible, it is a starting point!

[billmac]

I enjoy your posts, Mac. I usually learn something and crack a smile too. Isnt that why we cruise this site?

I am too cheap to dyno, although $40 tempts even me. My wife and friends call me cheap so it must be true. I usually work on my own stuff to save coordinating the repair and of course to save money. I am pushing 60 years old and I just did my own tire swap and swing arm maintenance. That is cheap. Yeah I would still pass on the dyno. I will rely on my exhaust pipe and spark plugs to tell me if my pots are too rich.