MARCH 2018|PERFORMANCEBIKES.CO.UK 95
THE GARAGE / OUR BIKES
Carl’s 5VY gets its lungs
seen to by BSD’s Andy
‘Comparing
before-and-after
numbers isn’t my
aim;aclean,
optimised curve
is the priority’
applied the meatiest curve to all gears, then fettled it to
optimum. An extra four degrees in the middle rises to
seven degrees at the top.
Additionally, the secondary butterflies can be
programmed to open slightly earlier in the rev range to
get around the restriction they pose to a bike with
mods like mine. In the old days, some tuners would rip
such things out, but now they can be matched to the
rest of the changes.
The fuelling has been leaned off at full throttle,
especially in the middle, but on part-throttle it’s now
much richer for cleaner but stronger response. You
can’t see it on the chart (left), but you can feel it.
With that mapped, the last step was to try the MWR
filter. The result is negligible – half a horsepower less.
You can’t really say it’s worse; dyno runs vary naturally
anyway. It’s a neutral result: the unusual design is no
better, no worse than a normal filter, at least on this
model of R1.
“A filter is worthwhile on a bike this age – any
aftermarket filter will help over standard, but this one
isn’t doing anything special,” says Andy.
The final 158bhp/78lbft maximum outputs are
within the normal range for an R1 in this sort of trim,
so the Black Widow system is also doing a respectable
job. Again, not exceptional, but it’s a good value de-cat
half-system that does exactly what you expect without
introducing negatives. For the £505 asking price, I’d
count that as a success.