The Dealer I bought my bike from is actually a Thundermax distributor also.
Not trying to sell it over anything else but the fact that they are willing to sell and recommend something over a Harley part means something to me.

 

I'll have to agree with "Oct"...for me at least I use the SE ProTuner and love it. No piggy-back system here. Did the cams, intake, pipes and tuner at the same time with dyno tune. Tuner stays with the bike, and can be changed to adapt to any future mods.

I think Power Commander makes a good product, along with several others. Go back to your dealer and see if you can spend some time talking to the Service Manager instead of the parts guy...

 

That's an awfully wide brush your using there. The first thing to consider is that he was talking to someone in the parts department (or a floor salesman?), not a service tech. If the guy really knew his ****, then he'd be a tech in the service dept, not a glorified clerk behind the parts counter (or floor salesman).

I am fortunate to have a dealership close by that has a service dept that is also a tech training facility. The have some people there that really know their ****. Even though I have only spent money there once (for some machine work), I can walk in the door or call them on the phone with a question, and they will let me talk to a tech, not some guy behind the parts counter. Not only can I talk to a tech, I can talk to the one who is most knowledgeable in the area of my question.

 

I agree, heck I had a question just the other day and a salesman walked me around back to talk to a mechanic while he was working on another bike.
It's the little things sometimes that keep you coming back. Him taking a few minutes to answer my question meant a lot. The salesman not trying to answer me in a BS way was also very cool!

 

You guys are so lucky to be able to ride together! I really miss those days with my grandpa.

Back to the thread though.

At the time of my repair I was 99% sure the dealer was trying to take advantage of me. Here's more of the scenario:

They inspected the bike, and gave me 2 options..

Option 1. Sell me a brand new wiring harness to repair one damaged connector that plugs into the ECM. The labor and cost of the harness.....1200 dollars.

Option 2. Sell me a power commander, gut the powwer commander and fix the connector. ... 800 bucks

They didn't offer anything else.... because of this forum,

I then asked them about the SERT. He told me I didn't want the SERT because you have to pay for it again if you ever do engine work. the SERT was only 400 bucks. So... me happy with my bike stock, I went with SERT.

So.... long story short, that was the last time I too my bike up there. I've take small things up, like a wheel to get a tire off, but thats it.

 

I can't tell you if the 07's are narrow band or wide band because that was a transitional period in HD's use of O2 sensors. If they are wideband then using a PCIII and eliminating the O2 sensors is stupid, IMHO.

I also can't imagine that you could program a piggy back type system to work properly when using a closed loop (wideband) system since the feedback is coming to the stock ECM unless it is also split and being fed to the piggy back module. The purpose of the piggy back module is to bypass the EPA requirements for your bike. HD dealers are not supposed to do this, even when they reprogram your stock ECM with a SERT. Your bike will be lean no matter what if the dealer is following HD's 'contract' with the government.

If you have O2 sensors then replace the ECM in it's entirety and get one that can be programmed to your liking and the configuration of your bike. It will get worse gas mileage but run much better. You can avoid a dyno tune with these type of ECM's if you don't care about perfection (and even then, with some tuners, that's an iffy proposition).

If you want your bike to run right, spend the money to get it done right. Otherwise, leave it stock. That has been my experience. Of course, like many, I learned all of that through trial and error.

 

That has been my experience. Like I said, some dealerships are better than others. I have talked to parts guys at some dealerships that can't answer simple questions about parts that they have on their shelves. I question if some of these guys even ride. I have also talked to service guys (not actual mechanics) that don't know WTF they are talking about either. If I need something from the dealer I ride 35 miles to the one with competent employees rather than deal with the one that is about 10 miles from me.