WRITTEN BYCLIVE WARD (AKA THE PROFESSOR) OF MOTORCYCLEBIZ
TECH
TIPS
WRITTEN BYCLIVE WARD (AKA THE PROFESSOR) OF MOTORCYCLEBIZ
I
love modern technology. In days gone
by, setting up the tuning of a motorcycle
was a very tedious task. To change
jetting you constantly had to remove
the carby or at least loosen and twist it
enough to get either the bowl cover off
or the needle out the top. This resulted in fuel
spilling all over your hands, and then you had
to put it all back together and test it again. To
change the ignition map you needed to buy
and fi t a Vortex CDI or similar, which then had
10 fi xed maps you could switch between until
you found the best one.
Today we have fabulous tuning tools
and software; simply plug in and change
fuelling or ignition mapping to your desired
requirements. Once you have a great working
map you can share it with your friends. Most
of the tools require a laptop and the software
and interface can also be quite expensive
($1000 is quite common), but today we are
going to look at the most user-friendly of
them all — the Yamaha GYTR Power Tuner.
This tool is available from any Yamaha dealer
with a RRP cost of $398 including GST.Yamaha describe the tool as follows: “This
easy plug-in fuel-injection and ignition-
tuning tool allows riders to quickly adjust
the fuel and ignition maps to suit riding
conditions and rider preference. Allows for
nine easy-to-program adjustment points
for both the fuel and ignition maps. Monitor
function allows the user to monitor the data
from various sensors on the bike as well as
adjust idle timing, see engine running time,
and self-diagnosis function. Powered by
two AA batteries, thus no laptop or time-
consuming downloads necessary. Unit does
not have to be plugged into bike to create
maps. Compact design can fi t in the palm of
your hand, pocket etc. Memory function can
save up to nine custom maps.”
Did you notice in the blurb above it says
it allows riders to tune? Yes, that’s YOU!
No need to have a degree in engineering
and IT to operate or understand it, and you
don’t need to pay $120 per hour for the local
mechanic to come to your track or next race
meeting and operate it. You also don’t need
to drag your mum’s expensive laptop anda generator to the track with you. In fact,
on the recent WR450F launch, Thomo from
Yamaha popped the device into his backpack
and was whipping it out at every opportunity
and changing maps in under a minute in the
middle of the forest.
Yamaha also provides many different
map suggestions on its website. You can
download and print these, load them into the
tuner and give them a try. If you don’t like the
response, then revert back or change it again
in under a minute.
This is exactly what we tried with the
long-term WR250F and I again enlisted
the help of the Butterwick stig and his test
track. I set the map to all zeros, so original
base mapping, and sent him out. Every two
laps he would come back in and I’d load
another map and around he’d go again.
Each time I wouldn’t tell what changes I
made — I’d just wait for feedback.
In all we tried six maps, fi nally settling on
the “Cross Country” map. Now, this doesn’t
mean it’s the perfect map for you; we were
looking for a good torquey map with strongMODERN TUNING
TECHNIQUES