My personal experience with before and after Power Commander work now extends to several Moto Guzzi's. This week we ran my Daytona RS on the dyno on several configurations. When I first bought the bike it ran so poorly as to be usable only by an experienced rider with a very measured hand. The application of Will Creedon's chip was the most impressive $95 performance enhancement I have ever experienced in my motorcycle or automotive monkeying. While the RS' performance was certainly still not what anyone would call smooth or tractable, it was MUCH improved and pleased me greatly. The Power Commander and dyno have taken it from "pleased me greatly" and quantified it it with a specific number on a spread sheet at every rpm and throttle setting from 0 to 100%. The dyno measures the Fuel/air ratio at every rpm and throttle position, measures the deviation from optimum (@13:1) and builds a program to add OR subtract the proper amount of fuel at each of these points, to come to 13:1. The simplicity is overwhelming. When it's done (20 minutes) you have a perfectly flat fuel/air mixture line yeilding smooth linear production of power without any rich or lean spots that yeild the rough running and poor throttle response we almost all experience. The spread sheet produced shows clearly where your current program needs help and then supplies it!
We discovered that high flowing Mistrals on the four valves produced a nice sound and only one hp. We discovered no significant power output change between airbox and K&N pods. We installed a PC on Mike Haven's RS with the same before and after results. Nick, Tim C, Mike Haven and I now have absolutely tractable four valve motors with roll on and decel that is real world smooth. Power and torque curves no longer have holes in them. I am able to roll (snap) the throttle on and lift the front wheel on them (no bog). The "light the torch" effect at 5600 rpm that I have always talked about on the RS is gone. It goes agressively and smoothly up through and beyond. It pulls to redline where it used to quit at ~8500. I can also now snap the throttle closed and it idles rather than quits as they all did before. The results were the same cross the board on all the bikes. The bikes, like all bikes, were not identical so the programs that the dyno built were also not identical. They were close enough that one bike's program would produce good results on another similar bike, but not to the standard of a custom map. The dyno demonstrated it's ability to recognize that Mike Haven's Daytona RS has only 1700 miles on it and mine has 21000. Mine produces 90 hp at the rear wheel under identical conditions to Mike's which produces 86. This gap existed uniformly between the two identical bikes through all configuration changes. There were consequently differences in the Power Commander's adjustments to the programs in the two bikes. We ran an 1100 Sport and then added a PC. HP went from 68 to 74 and the bike was all around more smooth and tractable. Huge improvement in 20 minutes! All these bikes had Creedon chips which the owners were happy with when they installed them. There is no doubt that Will's chips correct significant problems with the factory mapping. The dyno demonstrates EXACTLY where more opportunity exists and the PC makes the changes. The dyno demonstrated on spread sheets and graphically what changes remained to made. In most cases the maps were way too rich in the middle and required the removal of from 15% to 30% of the metered fuel on the installed chip. Most required the addition of 2-3% fuel in the idle range. Even at 100% throttle most were significantly rich between 2500 and 5000. Seeing the clarity of this information demonstrated real time on the computer screen as you stand on the dyno next to bike being repeatedly run to redline is indisputable.
Now here's another thought for those of you considering a project like the one S.W. local Pierre is now doing on his 1100 Sport-i. This PC makes it possible for modifiers like Pierre and myself to use Fuel injection and easily as well as cheaply get optimum results. When the 99 Bassa based "Bassa SS" comes back together in the next few weeks with Raceco heads, a 620X9 cam and a lightened flywheel, how am I gonna easily find something to make this bitch run with Fuel Injection? No problem. I'll put it on the Tuning Link Dynojet dyno with a Power Commander installed and start it up. As long as it runs, the dyno will measure the fuel delivered by the stock E.C.U., compare it to the targeted range, make an adjusted program and install it in the PC. Optimum engine performance in a flash that forever adjusts for temp. and pressure altitude. The carb guys can't even do this. The next guy that tells me he's gonna shitcan his FI and put carbs on to make it run right simply doesn't know what I (and now you) know about fuel injection. I'll be Tuning Link'n all mine.
Mike C. - Grapevine, TX
