ECU flashing now available

[kmack]

Hey Steve, Where are you in Florida? Is the ecu flash something you could do if the bike came to you? i have no idea what im doing when it comes to this. Thanks Kevin

[Steve in Sunny Fla]

I'm just N of Tampa. I do ride in's frequently. we'll spend more time Bs'ing than working. Steve

[smokin]

I took a vote, and all of the people that paid for the bike thought it sucked, so I changed it. And I like it a lot better now.

Believe me, I tried it. I would apply rear brake only and then, midcorner it would put on some front and the forks would dive and upset the bike. It's so much better for ME now.

My 2014 GTR1400 has linked brakes, replaced the original pads all round with metal gear pads and when set on low braking mode and using rear brake only there is very little front braking effect, a lot more from the rear than with original organic pads.
When front brakes applied braking effect has improved to the point where it is better on low braking mode than when on high braking mode with the old oem pads.

[smokin]

I am finally able to comment more, I have had various issues and not ridden a lot. 

It's way faster and smoother. Not sure how much the slip on added and I don't mean power, it just feels more nimble because it lost so much weight from high and to the rear.

I nearly had it get away from me last night.   I was passing 2 cars on a country road (individually). Went around the first guy, no problem. Stayed in the left lane to see farther so as to decide if I could make the 2nd pass.  A car popped up over the hill but it was a ways off, so I could do it but I needed to be aggressive.  I was doing maybe 60 or so, in 3rd gear, so I was right around 5k or so, square in the meat of the power. I pinned it and it accelerated so hard from just behind the truck to in front that I had to really get it over and get on the brakes.  The person I was heading towards was an old lady, it turned out, so she was super cautious and pulled over a bit.  Also, I think that my headlights influenced her a tad as they are 55W HID and are 'surface of the sun' bright.  But it turned out riskier than I had planned because of the level of acceleration, it reduced my closing time more than I expected.  The road was crowned too, so the whole thing went from 'fun pass' to 'sketchy pass' in a hurry.

The true test is Sunday.  My riding buddy/road trip pal has a 2011 Multistrada.  We rode together maybe 5 weeks ago, way warm for that time of the year so we blew off things we should have been doing and rode 200 miles of twisties.  This is all pretty far out in the sticks and it's between cornfields that are not up yet (getting to the twisties), so it's an ideal spot to drag race.  We raced multiple times, all rolling in first gear at moderate rpm so that getting off the line wouldn't come into play.  We must have done it 5x, from 15 mph to 100+, dead even every single time.  Somebody got a bit better jump each time but once we both got to WOT, the gap never changed.  So we ride this Sunday, same roads, we'll see how it does.  This really is the best test imaginable on how much top end difference the flash made.

I am interested  in how your bike performed against the 2011 Multistrada after the ecu flash on your Sunday ride?

[kzz1king]

Me TWO

I am interested  in how your bike performed against the 2011 Multistrada after the ecu flash on your Sunday ride?

[tweeter55]

Me THREE!

[K0rnfl4k35]

I'm interested about this as well

[PlaynInPeoria]

It seemed to dead even AGAIN, but he pulled his plug from his exhaust.   It wasn't an apples to apples comparison, we both changed, me with the flash and him with the exhaust change.  Honestly, I was surprised I hung with him the first time.  I had the Guhl flash but that doesn't matter when you're shifting at redline.  But a Multistrada has nearly as much HP and it weighs less than 500 lbs, so I was amazed I hung with him on drag race #1.  And disappointed at dragrace #2.

We leave today for MOAR (Missouri/Arkansas) and there will be plenty of hooligan riding.   I have a camera now, so plan on video of the drag race!  I will let him get ahead of me a bit then we will start. We have Sena's, so we will both pin it on the count of 3.   Not sure if he has his plug back in.   Details to follow when I get back Sunday.

Here's a little something to whet your appetite. It's me leaving a light and heading down toward the river, going across the Illinois River from east to west from East Peoria into Peoria proper.

https://flic.kr/p/HgXRVD

[maxtog]

It seemed to dead even AGAIN,[...]But a Multistrada has nearly as much HP and it weighs less than 500 lbs[...] We have Sena's, so we will both pin it on the count of 3.   

On bikes that are similar, drag racing is all about the start- how much throttle and how much you dare to dump the clutch

Here's a little something to whet your appetite. It's me leaving a light and heading down toward the river, going across the Illinois River from east to west from East Peoria into Peoria proper.

You are like I am- slow and cautious start, THEN I open it    Just call me chicken.

[Cuda]

https://flic.kr/p/HgXRVD

Acid Trip

[Steve in Sunny Fla]

It seemed to dead even AGAIN, but he pulled his plug from his exhaust.   It wasn't an apples to apples comparison, we both changed, me with the flash and him with the exhaust change.  Honestly, I was surprised I hung with him the first time.  I had the Guhl flash but that doesn't matter when you're shifting at redline. 

So now I'm confused... do you have the Shoodaben flash or Guhl's flash? Steve

[smokin]

I would be really interested to see how much actual increase there is in performance with the ECU flash against a standard bike in terms of acceleration.

[maxtog]

I would be really interested to see how much actual increase there is in performance with the ECU flash against a standard bike in terms of acceleration.

Kinda depends on the situation and if it is full throttle, starting at stop or roll-ons, etc.  The secondary butterflies quell the throttle, but differently at different RPMs and throttle positions.  There is certainly a noticeable improvement in performance, overall, with an ECU reflash.  It is least noticeable at "OMG full-throttle redline in every gear."  The biggest improvement is in response time and "normal riding" power (like cruising along at lower RPMs and banging the throttle half open).  It makes the bike feel like the large displacement engine it has, instead of like a smaller/peaky/get performance only at high RPM engine.  In that regard, it is a huge improvement and makes the bike tremendously more enjoyable.

[PlaynInPeoria]

So now I'm confused... do you have the Shoodaben flash or Guhl's flash? Steve

Had Guhl before on first drag race, dead even.  Now have yours, still dead even.  The Multi pulled his exhaust plug on the 2nd run when I had the SISF flash. Was gonna capture a drag race on video today but was too busy having fun and forgot about it.

Starts were rolling around 10 mph in first gear, redline in every gear until 120.  Really no clutch involved other than shifting at redline.

We left Wednesday after work and slabbed down to Potosi MO.  Then Thursday morning, we left there and ended up in Clarksville AR, 380 mile route, no straight roads.  Friday was from Clarksville to Eureka Springs AR, about 400 miles (we take the long, fun way). Did the Pig Trail and rode to Oark, a lot of 7 and 74, 215, 21, 23, you name it, big fun.   Has a lot of roads with big yellow signs that say "WARNING, Crooked and Steep!", we love those.  Today was from Eureka Springs AR to Seymour MO, then we jumped on 60 to 63, then 44 and 55 slab home, about 540 miles today, 1500 or so for the trip.  125 from Rueter MO to Bradleyville MO is crazy.  I have some video, am gonna watch it to see if it's any good.

[PlaynInPeoria]

You are like I am- slow and cautious start, THEN I open it    Just call me chicken.

I can do a pretty decent start when I want to, but I wanted to get away from traffic a bit before I really laid into it.  I wanted to already be a speck, then be a smaller speck.

[PlaynInPeoria]

Acid Trip

It's a $50 used GoPro knockoff, you were expecting Pixar?  It gets the point across and my coworkers enjoyed it.

[PlaynInPeoria]

Apparently Flickr has a limitation of some sort.  It only shows a 3 minute video, the actual video is 10 minutes.  Hmm.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cpsmith58/26554572564/in/datetaken-public/

[smokin]

Question for Steve, regarding ECU flash. I was wanting to know how and if you do calculate the ARF ratio in regards to the "Ram air effect" at higher speeds.

[DaddyFlip]

 Uh-oh...

[Steve in Sunny Fla]

Question for Steve, regarding ECU flash. I was wanting to know how and if you do calculate the ARF ratio in regards to the "Ram air effect" at higher speeds.

  I don't think it can be "calculated" because the engine is ingesting what comes into the intake and the ratio changes depending on road speed and rpm. in other words if you're in 4th gear / 140 mph / 10k rpm you would use more of the air coming into the intake than if you were in 5th / 140 / 8000 rpm. So I did it the old fashioned way, I rode up to some very high speed (under controlled circumstances) and recorded the events.  Here's some info on that ... 5th gear / 9k / on the dyno - 1.2" HG vacuum. Same conditions but on the road .25"HG vacuum. so you can see that the ram air is having an effect, though I never saw it go into positive pressure.

  Nice video Chris. BTW, I think most bikes will be about even on top if you compare my flash with Guhls. There's not more to get from the engine, it's been gotten. Steve