Which Tuner is best and why?
Ok, guys here is a great opportunity to share your experiences. I have a '12 FXDF and one of the next upgrades I am looking at is a Tuner.
Since having a Stage one air cleaner and a set of V&H Staggereds I have the well-known decel popping which to say the least is annoying and it also demonstrates that the tune is not dead on despite the dealer up loading the pre-canned "tune" which did improve things a small amount it is obvious it is not perfect.

Now one thing I have read (not sure it is true or not) is that many of the tuners are build specific or limited in allowing you to make certain mods, meaning, for example if you do head work and or cams the tuner is no longer useful and you will need to replace it because they don't write tunes for those mods.
So having said this one thing to consider is the ability to retain the tuner as engine mods are added and to be able to acquire tunes for these mods.
Let's here the stories and opinions...
Bob

 

Call FuelMoto and talk with them. They are a dyno shop so they have a lot of custom maps. I got the FuelMoto PCIII and am very happy. When you get a tuner from them and make a change just call them and get a new map. They are the best to work with.

 

I vote for the SERTPRO. Have about the same mods done to my '12 FXDC when new. Bought SERTPRO & had it dyno tuned @ 1,000 miles & bike runs 100 times better....no decel popping, more power/torque & feels and sounds much better than before the tune. AFR & timing are spot on, and you can have them tune it on the dyno for how you want it to run...I had mine tuned to get the most out of it with no regard to fuel mileage.
A good tuner is worthless without a dyno tune if you want it perfect & to run like a Harley should.

If you go the HD route...get SERTPRO(race tuner pro) not SESPT(street performance tuner).
SESPT is married to the bike and is limited on what you can do(EPA). SERTPRO lets them do whatever you wish to the bike...AFR, timing, rev limit, etc. and is not limited + it is not married to the bike. When you trade you bike, you keep the SERTPRO tuner, which will run about $459.

I decided to go the HD route because I have a great dealer & a good dyno guy there + I know if there are any issues with my tuning in the future they will cover it under warranty since I bought the tuner when bike was new. Also with the SERTPRO if you decide to change or mod your bike in the future(like adding cams or doing head work) you already have the tuner and all they have to do is set it up on the dyno again and tune it for your specific application.

Highly recommend SERTPRO with a dyno tune.

 

 

Opinions and results will vary as to which tuner is best. After trying XIEDs and a FuelPak (which really aren't tuners), I settled on the ThunderMax with AutoTune. It's been great.
Before you decided on the actual device, make sure you have someone you can use who is proficient with that tuner. Putting a tuner and your bike in the hands of a moron is a waste of time and money.

 

On this post opinions r like a holes everyone's got one and most people's stink Its like asking what's the best color for your bike

 

I'll try and keep this short as I have posted it on here before. You need to know what options are out there as to know what's "best" for you.

There are three kind of solutions out there when it comes to tuning your bike. Note I said solutions, not tuners as some of the solutions aren't adjustable or "tunable".

Solution 1 - Dumb Spoofers. Dumb Spoofers trick the Engine Control Module (ECM) on your bike into believing one thing so it will do another. Two examples of these kind of solutions are IEDs and the V&H FuelPak. IEDs are nothing more than a resister with a certain resistance that go between your O2 sensors and your main wiring harness. They change the voltage of the signal that the O2s are sending back to the ECM to get the ECM to believe the bike is running leaner than it really is and thus causes the ECM to add more fuel to compensate. The FuelPak is similar but a bit more complex. What makes these solutions "dumb" is that they cannot be adjusted. You plug them in and go hoping their "spoofs" are close enough. These devices must stay on the bike in order for them to work. If removed or they fail, the stock settings in the ECM are no longer being fooled and your bike goes back to running on the stock tune in stock fashion.

Solution 2 - Smart Spoofers. The PowerCommander (III and V) fall into this catagory. Basically they are like the FuelPak and will spoof inputs coming into the ECM and modify the signals that are going out of the ECM to the different engine controls like fuel injectors and timing. The difference is that with these, you can make adjustments to them and truely "tune" the bike. However, they are still just fooling the stock ECM programming to get it to do what you want. Like the "Dumb Spoofers", these devices must stay on the bike in order for them to work. If removed or they fail, the stock settings in the ECM are no longer being fooled and your bike goes back to running on the stock tune in stock fashion.

Solution 3 - ECM Flasher. The SERTPRO and PowerVision both fall into this catagory. These solutions allow you to read the tune programmed into the ECM, modify it, then reprogram, or "flash" the new tune back into the stock ECM. Unlike the other solutions, these devices do not have to stay on the bike because your stock ECM has been reprogrammed and is doing all the work...just with different parameters to calculate fuel and spark needs. I like the fact that with the SERTPRO it is not "married" to one specific bike. I did not know this. I personally have the PowerVision. What I like about the PowerVision is that it is not just a reprogrammer, but a data logger too. You can ride your bike around and "scan" the computer as your ride to find out exactly how your current tune is performing. You can then take this information and use it to make adjustments to your current tune to get it spot on.

Now, I'm not a great tuner so one feature about the PowerVision I like, called Autotune (basic and pro are available...basic comes with the system and pro requires a purchase of an additional piece of hardware), is that you can do a bunch of scans, upload those scans to another program that you can download (for free) from FuelMoto, and allow that program to adjust the tune for you and write a new tune to reflash to the ECM. There is another solution out there (drawing a blank) that is similar to the PowerVision and has an Autotune feature like this as well.

Rating the Solutions.

As you move from Solution 1 to Solution 3, the effectivness of each solution gets better while the price of each solution gets greater. Thus, it comes down to a decision, by you, of how much do you value that "perfect tune"? The more value you put in getting that perfect tune, the higher on the Solution scale you go and the more money you'll spend. Thowing a set of IEDs on your bike may work okay but they will be a long way off from perfect...but they're cheap! Getting a SERTPRO and putting it on a dyno with someone who really knows how to tune bikes is going to get you a near perfect tune (I always believe doing scans while riding real world and using that info rather than data off a dyno will result in a better tune) but it's going to cost you the most money.

So, what's best? Well, it depends on what you want to spend and what result you're looking for.

 

I have a great running bike with a Cobra powerpro autotune.
It runs great. Some don't care, I don't care. I am very happy with it.
I just have a stage 1 upgrade and if I am going to spend more for an engine upgrade I'll just get a bigger bike, but for what it is I love it.
Happy camper, it rips.

 

I've had my fuel moto pc-V for a few years and it really works well, unles someone sprays it while washing the bike. The pcV connector will take on water and the bike will run like **** and actually stall on idle. Easy fix, just stop unplug the connector from you stock connector blow out the water , plug it bck together and off you go!
But condensation and corrosion will likely cause me another problem in the future, so I am upgrading to the PowerVision--- no more piggy backs!

 

haha.