I am not the best when it comes to the mechanics of bikes, so I figured this would be a great place to ask....

I have a '12 Street Bob and have already changed out the AC for a Ness Big Sucker and now I am looking to changing out the stock pipes for some V&H Big Shots as a bday present for myself. When I stopped by the dealer the other day I decided to ask how much it would cost for them to put the new pipes on. So he breaks out the calculator and starts rattling off... $$$ to install them + $$$ to tune the bike + $$$ for the dyno time + $$$ for who knows what else and that comes to a grand total of... A LOT OF $$$!!!

So my question is... since I already changed out the AC and if I put the new pipes on myself (or hopefully with the help of someone that has a clue about it), do I have to do the tune right away? Can this wait til I get more cash together down the road? He also mumbled something about a fuel pak, but didn't really talk about it.

 

No, you cannot. If you install those pipes, or any pipes you must tune it right now.

That can be anything from some cheap *** XIEDs to a full blown tune.

 

+1

More air going into the engine, an exhaust that flows better means that you need more fuel. You will also get the benefit of the bike running cooler.
Ken

 

OK, good to know. Can I at least change the pipes at home to save $170 and still be able to ride it 20 miles to the dealer to get it tuned? Also, how much should I be paying to get it a full tune?

 

So I was reading a little more and was wondering... can I buy and install a fuel pak to do the remap? If so, which should I look at. I saw V&H makes one.

Also, what is the big difference between adding a fuel management system and bring the bike to the dealer and having them do the dyno tune?

 

If you are going to do Fuel Management yourself, get with Jamie at Fuelmoto and get a Power Vision. Very flexible and can be used for more than one bike for less money than buying multiple tuners. Plus, it is much better technology than piggy back tuners, and you can still run your bike in closed loop mode.

I am starting to learn how to use the Power Vision for my own tweaks, and you can use it to do some Basic Autotuning while riding. My mpg's are up and power is there. You will not regret it.

If you take the bike to the dealer and they dyno, then if you change anything you have to take it back again. With Power Vision you can add the wide band tuning kit and do that yourself just by riding around. So if you change anything in the future you can tune it yourself and save $$$. Fuelmoto supplies maps for free and keeps you in control of tuning your bike vs. handing it off.

 

For some background reading on this subject, go to the Electrical part of this Tech forum, where you will find a sticky telling you why you need to tune your bike.

There are several tuners on the market, so chose carefully, as many dealers and indys will not have the info or skills to tune every one of them. No point taking a shiny new Whizzbang tuner to your dealer, if they can't or won't touch it! If you want to learn how to tune yourself, by all means take advice from here. If you want your dealer to tune your bike, take advice from them.

Why pay a dealer or indy to dyno-tune your bike? Because that is the only way of knowing if your bike is spot on. If say your bike needs a little more fuel at a certain engine speed, to smooth out the torque curve, a dyno will identify that and also show when it is sorted. It provides feedback to changes made to the tune. Using a tuner yourself doesn't achieve that degree of sophistication.

By all means do as much as you can yourself, to reduce costs. In my experience you will probably be amazed just how much better your bike runs after it has been dyno tuned!

 

I gave fuelmoto a call to ask them about the Power Vision 2 and told them what I planned on running. They suggested since I don't plan on making more changes than the pipes and AC that should just go with the Fuel Moto Micro EFI Tuner.

Any thoughts for or against that from you guys? The PV2 definitely looks like it would be fun to play with, but if I am not making any performance changes other than the Ness Big Sucker and the V&H Big Shots, I am not really sure if the extra $300 can be justified. But as I said, I am a novice at this stuff so always looking for advice from you guys.

 

An alternative that is only around $100, that thousands are happy with is the FL-XiED-10's. You can read more about them HERE.

They are better than a dealer download, and far less expensive than a full tuner. Your bike will run better, you can do the air and exhaust swaps.

They take 15 minutes to install.

For a full tuner, a Power Vision is the way I would recommend.

The micro tuner will not get you much (if any) better than the FL-XiED-10's and costs 3x as much.

 

I highly recommend the micro. I had an 06 deuce thathad a se tuner along with dyno time by the dealer. end the day, my sb with micro (fuel moto map) runs better than my deuce ever did. Cliff notes: if u don't have a good dyno guy, a tune doesn't mean ****. Btw, I'm a dk fan, but not sure where u see a 3 time difference in price. The micro is under 200 and comes with software to fine tune the fuel tables a bit. Perfect for dialing in a stage 1 bike. All I would say is, maybe wait a few months to decide what u really want. I thought for sure all I would ever do is stage 1. Now I spend time on these forums and I'm planning a 107 build over the winter. That means new tuner too!