Folks,

After spending a lot of time on a couple of HD forums and googling all kinds of info about dyno tuning, I've begun to wonder if there's much ado about nothing...

Once you get past the tech specs, isn't it about getting the bike tuned to your riding habits, and not to the dyno?

I rode crotch rockets back in the 80s, and used to love wrenching on them. Changing jets was nothing, cams almost nothing, and headers/muffs were prolly the most time consuming swap to deal with. I could go through 2-3 setups in a day and have enough butt-dyno information to know what worked for me. I used to love dropping my GPZ550 into the corners, scraping the pegs a bit, and then goosing her to straighten up as I got ready to drop her into another twisty. I'm 50 now, and back and neck problems have changed my preference in bikes and my riding style.

I ride a bagger now - a 08 FLHX that is still quite stock. Yeah, I'll change the muffs and maybe go true duals for the look. I might go with a Big Sucker too, but the jury is still out on that one. And I've got the Nightrider IEDs installed to make the AFR at 14.2. My riding style now is mostly commuting across town to work, some solo country hikes, and a few jaunts with mama and extra gear. Squeezing a few extra HP that is only felt about 4500 rpms makes no sense to me and my style. I'd rather have extra low-end torque than extratop-endHP. And I can tell you that its very unlikely that I'll be scraping floorboards because I want to.

I've always considered dyno tuning to be the way to tune the motor properly. But is it always the best tune for the rider?

Is there such a thing as a real-world dyno tune that can match the bike's performance to the rider's style?

Appreciate the feedback...
Resto

 

I think you will find a lot of us in that same catagory. I still think that tuning my bike for ultimate performance is my preference even though I won't be found dragging my floorboards around the twisties. I just like the feel of performance. You can do your own seat of the pants dyno tuning with something like the Twin ScanII and put the torque curve where you want it to be. Everyone has their own preference for what their riding style is.

 

I know I have said this several times over in the past years but Dyno tuning isn't all about top end tuning, we (tuners) tune to optimize the performance at 2% throttle all the way through to 100% throttle. Matter of fact I will spend much more time at 2%,5%,7%,10%,15%,and 20% throttle positions than I do at 30%,40%,60%,80% and 100% throttle positions for the simple reason your bike lives at 7%~15% as you ride all day long. A good tune up to me is being able to go through a parking lot at 2% throttle with out all the surging or bucking going on...it should be a smooth as a sewing machine no mater where your at on the throttle.I'm not saying I don't tune the upper rpm as well also because I do, but lets face it when I go to pass a truck and wack the throttle wide open I'm only passing through the 30,40,60,80% throttle position to 100% very quickly.
I understand there are manyso called tuners that spend all their time at the higher rpm area so they can show you the 10hp they gained for you....hey I get that gain too but it needs to be optimized through out the rpm and Throttle position areas, ....... Dyno's properly used are about a complete tune and when this is donecorrectly the bike will run smoother, better, cooler, and without all the decel popping. The Dyno tune will finger print your map to your engines needs, real world or not, it can't be made to run any better when done by a knowledgeable operator/tuner.
Doc

 

Doc,

My post wasn't meant to be an indictment of you or other tuners, just my interpretation of what seems to be a hangup with horsepower. From what I've seen, most of the HP gains are generally above the line where I prefer to ride. And when I hear that someone gained 7-10hp, it seems to be at 4500 and higher.

I appreciate that you spend most of your time in the real-world throttle positions, and I hope other tuners do as well. And I'm sure that a good dyno tune will benefit my riding style. I'm generally happy with my bike, but I'm sure I'm like most people where you want things running perfectly. I dropped a nice chunk of change to buy the bike, and I'm not real happy about spending another $1500-2000 to make the bike run properly.

Pre-EPA, you could tweak your scoot easily and for reasonable cost. Today, I can't do much myself unless I invest a boatload in equipment and electronics first. And even then, I still need to invest a bunch of time tolearn and gain experience. Just me longing for the old(er) days, I guess.

Appreciate the feedback, both in this post and in all of your others.

Resto

 

I understand your discouragement, I also remember the old days but those days are gone and we do need all the fancy equipment and knowledge to make these bikes run right. Granted when people say they got a 7 to 10 hp gain that gain is at 5500 to 6000 rpm because hp is at the top end, however when I dial the bike in to run correctly at the lower throttle positions I can show you hp and tq gains there too....they will just be smaller numbers but that as it may be there are still gains in every throttle position.

Some day we will be looking back at today and saying to ourselves..."I remember when it was possible to adjust the AFR and timing to make our bikes run better and cooler'......because it's coming to where nothing will be changeable. Enjoy it now and shot the lock of your wallet get-r-done.....

 

I'll vouch for dyno tuning based on a small V8 I built several years ago. I know, not a Vtwin, but same principles, cam, heads, yada yada. I played with it for a year on my own and never was completely happy with it. I finally put it on a dynojet, 12 pulls, gained 15 hp on a 400 hp motor. Not hardly worth the money right? Wrong. When I drove it home, it was a totally different car. The midrange was awesome, felt so much better.Just looking at the graph you would never guess it would run any different.

I did learn a leason, fortunately not the hard way. If your tuner tells you he doesn't want a rev limiter for the tune, tell him to go F--K himself.

 

back about 15 years ago me and a riding bud bought new evos,we both enhanced the power a bit with cams pipes and air filter ,he had an andrews ev 3 cam and I went with the ev 27 everything else the same,we were at a party one night and there was a dyno there so for bragging rights we put them on the dyno mine showed 69 hp and his showed 63 hp ,I forget what the tq was but mine was a little more and the the graph was quite similar so I had bragging rights , on the street he smoked me every time,you tell me.

 

Thats simple, you weigh much more that your friend,[sm=itsok.gif] or your scared to get it on and your friend isn't,[sm=youreright.gif] or hedrinksmore than you[sm=alcoholic.gif]but the bike won without you on it ....next time trade bikes and yours will win.....[sm=goodidea.gif]

only funnin with you....take care....lol
Doc

 

HP is a worthless number on a harley. what you want is torque. thats what you feel, and thats the off the line seat of your pants thrill......

My old '76 honda cb750 only had 56hp, but 87ft lbs of torque............ and it was a bat outa hell.

 

thimgs have changed alot since them days. the bikes come the factory so lean . i dont know about anybody else i'am not that comfy with the bike that lean.and getten dialed in just makes me feel a whole lot better. to me it has nothing to do with max h.p. it's to make the bike run at it's best.