Power Commander really needed?

Andy and Pete, you both make excellent points and thanks for the valuable input! Both methods are valid for different situations/reasons.

My problem is finding a tuner in this area that will do what Pete's tuner can do for him. We don't have anyone close to me that is a "highly recommended" pro-tuner for a bike. Let's face it, the great ones are NOT going to be in New England where work dries up 4 - 5 months out of every year.

So, I will be using maps provided by others who know what they are talking about, that have knowledge and experience and a variety that I can test with my bike/mod level. Thus far, the only choice that I see are the Duken/Whittlebeast maps, most likely a smoothed map from Andy.

Perhaps one day, I can get the bike tuned professionally by a Pro but I'll need to find one close to my elevation. Shouldn't be too hard this close to an ocean! :D
 
You might want to post/check on the WERA board Eric to see who in your part of the country is good.

I'll ask the guy I work with and see if there is someone he recommends.
 
This is all good useful info since i generally ride with my dad who is a Harley guy and some of his buddies that dont know crap about anything other than Harley's, lol. I think it even blows their minds to think of motorcycle having 20 valves like our FZ1, haha. I do know one guy that did track days at Barber Motorsports Park close to where i live and he is pretty knowledgable at tuneing, might have him evaluate my bike to see what he thinks. I just hope Alabama never does emission testing or im screwed!:smoking:
 
Hellgate said:
Great response Whittlebeast.

I look at AFR as a number, and only that, a number that will change over the entire map; it is what it is, a number.

The guy I work with for tuning doesn't use AFR, and doesn't even bother to record it. He aims for complete combustion, or the optimal amount of fuel for a given rpm and throttle position. I'd imagine that if he did record AFR it would be all over the map, no pun intended. :)

Interestingly he has many owners who've given up on trying to make their bikes run right at shops that use a "target" AFR. He simply tunes to complete combustion and the bike runs great. Most often bikes are "drowning in fuel" and don't run correctly because the tuner has targeted the "magic" AFR. Once he tunes the bikes correctly the fuel mileage and the performance of the bike both improve. On 1098s he'll see a 4 to 5 mpg improvement, in addition to a 10 hp+ bump.

...

Remember the old racer's saying, "Lean is mean."
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:bowdown: Sorry to dig up an old thread and for having no knowledge about Power Commanders or FZs, but the thoughtful knowledge in this one thread alone is some of the best I've seen on the Internet.

The one area I might be able to add some input on, in Eric's case, is with his adjustable SuperTrapp exhaust. I have two similar model bikes, both 900s, with external diffuser disc mufflers. After many months of tuning them both individually, I noticed something that caught my eye. Both bikes are jetted nearly identically, but were running different numbers of diffusers. When I looked closer and measured, the diffuser gap, the distance from the end of the exhaust chamber to the beginning of the end-cap on both was exactly 9/16." Adding diffusers didn't seem to have any affect on increasing HP and decreasing did result in better MPG, but HP suffered.

Anyway, coloring on both is a dark golden brown, not gray like on Eric's. And they must be close to their sweet spot, because if I remove or add even one diffuser disc MPG will vary about 4%.

Thought I'd pass that along, in case Eric is interested.
 
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