Power Commander or not?

[OBXboost]

So I have a friend riding a GSX-R 1000 that's telling me he has a power commander installed that he ended up zeroing out because it was hurting his performance. To my knowledge, he only downloaded a map instead of getting dyno tuned. But his information to me is that I shouldn't waste my money on a PCIII USB.

To my knowledge unless you get your ECU maps tuned on a dyno, generic maps are garbage and don't work the same on every bike with the exact same mods.

Someone care to correct me if I'm wrong?

 

[dadofthree]

He might have the wrong map. Free maps should be good, if they're right. The dyno is the way to go for absolute performance.

 

[OBXboost]

I've always come up under the belief that the tuning is only as good as the programmer. After wear and tear on the bike, usually maps need some adjusting. Maybe it's just me.

 

[sidebusa]

Maps supplied by Dynojet are usually fairly close but not perfect, they are a starting point. Dyno tuning will give you map specific for your bike and location. For the casual rider their maps are usually good enough. Maps from euipment suppliers, like Brock's, fall into the same group, good but not perfect for your set up.

 

[Professor]

Even the dynojet maps should be better than stock or the zero map. If he can't get it to a tuner, he needs to look at a few maps that have similar mods and see what is common in them. Maybe try a few, then try to figure out what parts of the map works. I've done it to a couple of bikes with success. I'm getting ready to make more changes to mine, but I'll cheating and using a logger to evaluate the results.

 

[sidebusa]

You are correct Professor. I have tuned several STREET bikes by the seat of the pants method with good results. Started with maps for the components they had installed. Re checked a couple on Dyno and found them in the ball park, not perfect but good enough for the street. Perhaps he can find someone to help him out that has experience wuth this type of witchcraft.