Seat Slope Mod

[dazzler24]

5 minutes ago, betoney said:

Yes, very first thing I did was put a 2mm washer under the tank bolts.  I tried it with the seat tray in the low position and then the high position and with different thickness spacers under the front of the tray. 

I will try it again with lower spacers under the front of the tray. 👍  I want to keep using the low seat tray position.

FWIW I did this on my 2015 with the seat in the low position and it seems to have worked out OK.

I used a couple of scrap tube cutoffs (instead of washers)~4mm to raise the rear of the tank as described.  Then, with the seat tray in the low position, I added washers on top of the spots where the rubber bumpers ride until the seat sat squarely and was snug again.

I think it has opened up the gap between the tank and the front of the seat a little more but not enough to be of concern - to me at least.  YMMV.

I'm riding a little taller in the saddle - somewhere between the original low and high seat postion I'm thinking - but the seat itself feels 'more level'.

[Wintersdark]

3 hours ago, 2WHLOZK said:

Just got back from 3.5 hour ride, with only a quick stop for gas.  No complaints, I could probably do 5-6 hours without an actual break.  

Before any seat mods, within 15 minutes I was already uncomfortable.  After ~ 40 minutes all I wanted to do was get off the bike.  The longest I would ride was 1.5 hours, and for the last half of that I couldn't wait to get home.  No joy in that.

Today's ride was the first time I felt like the bike was an extension of my body, not focusing on being uncomfortable the whole time.  

Now I just need to install my Booster Plug that came today!  Cheers.

I just got mine as well, but haven't had time to install it yet.  Definitely interested in how it works for you!

[2WHLOZK]

4 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

I just got mine as well, but haven't had time to install it yet.  Definitely interested in how it works for you!

I'm pretty excited about it, if it works half as well as claimed I'll be thrilled!  

 

[betoney]

8 hours ago, 2WHLOZK said:

I'm pretty excited about it, if it works half as well as claimed I'll be thrilled!  

 

On some other bike forums the booster plug gets a lot of praise. Let us know your impressions on how it works on the CP3 motor.

[2WHLOZK]

4 hours ago, betoney said:

On some other bike forums the booster plug gets a lot of praise. Let us know your impressions on how it works on the CP3 motor.

I will. 

Probably will install the Plug Monday.  

[KillEmAll4u]

So I am now a believer of the seat mod. I added about 4.5 mm of washers under the tank and under the plastic seat brace. Like everyone says, you don't think it would make a big difference but it really does. I like my seat in the low position and it feels so much more level. Two small issues: #1 it does leave a small gap between the seat and the tank. #2 It does take a little bit of effort to slide the seat into position but nothing too drastic. You guys are clever little buggers! Also bought the power vision 3 and flashed the ECU with the tune provided by Dynojet. Smoothed out mode A considerably among other things. I am going to capture some logs with the unit attached and look at it with the tuning software on my PC. Where do you suppose I can get a course or detailed info about how to properly adjust the settings to get the most out of the bike? Seems to be snippets here and there but nothing comprehensive. Thank you.

Edited August 1, 2020 by KillEmAll4u

[betoney]

10 hours ago, KillEmAll4u said:

Also bought the power vision 3 and flashed the ECU with the tune provided by Dynojet.

Where do you suppose I can get a course or detailed info about how to properly adjust the settings to get the most out of the bike?

I would start with Dynojet to see if they have any resources, 2nd choice would be YouTube.

[betoney]

On 7/30/2020 at 3:05 PM, 2WHLOZK said:

Now I just need to install my Booster Plug that came today!  Cheers.

Just wanted to share some info, previously I had mentioned that riders on other forums had great experiences with the booster plug.  Here is a response from a bike tuner -

"Since these inline fuel controllers go in between the ecu and injectors, they can only rectify the injector pulse, but they don't know which map it's originating from. I have no experience with the Dobeck unit, but power commanders are impossible to map at low throttle settings because they are working on correcting the TPS responses, and that's why folks complain about flat spots and hesitations in low throttle settings.
Also, Fuel mappers are limited to that... mapping fuel. There are other controls that impact how the engine runs and responds. Timing is a big one. It can be changed with ecu flashing, and not with a piggyback unit. Likewise for secondary throttle mapping changes. My flash has a full complete rebuild of all these maps and they aren't even similar to stock. That's why the throttle pickup from closed is as smooth as it is. Good secondary mapping coupled with fuel cut delete, which is another thing piggybacks can't do. They also can't shut off the 02 sensors or pair valves / CEL lights, change the rev limiter, etc.

Finally - fuel economy. With flashing, you can target individual cells all across the map, from idle to redline. When building a flash, I not only use a dyno, but also I ride and datalog extensively. the bike is hooked up with a wideband 02 sensor, and it's recording the relative afr's for each cell. because of this, I can change afr's depending on the use. light throttle is leaner than full throttle. I generally DO NOT autotune. In this manner, excellent fuel economy can be maintained. Piggypack units, at least the pc's, can be autotuned, but you need to know what you're doing, and it's more of a "batch" change than a cell specific adjustment. If you're just adding 8% fuel all over the place, well, you're not going to get the best fuel economy. Booster plugs are really bad for this, but if it's all you've experienced you think it's the best.

Technology has marched on, and the booster plug and piggyback fuel controllers that are "tricking" the ECU data have fallen by the wayside as ECU access has improved. Now we can go to the source of the data, and change it accordingly. We can't get stuck in a time warp. What was good a few years ago has been passed by with this new access. If you want to be good at tuning, you have to keep up. it's not easy, and I for one am constantly learning.
I hope this helps."

[Shizzle]

Ivan's Performance is a great resource for ECU Flash. 

[2WHLOZK]

8 hours ago, betoney said:

Just wanted to share some info, previously I had mentioned that riders on other forums had great experiences with the booster plug.  Here is a response from a bike tuner -

"Since these inline fuel controllers go in between the ecu and injectors, they can only rectify the injector pulse, but they don't know which map it's originating from. I have no experience with the Dobeck unit, but power commanders are impossible to map at low throttle settings because they are working on correcting the TPS responses, and that's why folks complain about flat spots and hesitations in low throttle settings.
Also, Fuel mappers are limited to that... mapping fuel. There are other controls that impact how the engine runs and responds. Timing is a big one. It can be changed with ecu flashing, and not with a piggyback unit. Likewise for secondary throttle mapping changes. My flash has a full complete rebuild of all these maps and they aren't even similar to stock. That's why the throttle pickup from closed is as smooth as it is. Good secondary mapping coupled with fuel cut delete, which is another thing piggybacks can't do. They also can't shut off the 02 sensors or pair valves / CEL lights, change the rev limiter, etc.

Finally - fuel economy. With flashing, you can target individual cells all across the map, from idle to redline. When building a flash, I not only use a dyno, but also I ride and datalog extensively. the bike is hooked up with a wideband 02 sensor, and it's recording the relative afr's for each cell. because of this, I can change afr's depending on the use. light throttle is leaner than full throttle. I generally DO NOT autotune. In this manner, excellent fuel economy can be maintained. Piggypack units, at least the pc's, can be autotuned, but you need to know what you're doing, and it's more of a "batch" change than a cell specific adjustment. If you're just adding 8% fuel all over the place, well, you're not going to get the best fuel economy. Booster plugs are really bad for this, but if it's all you've experienced you think it's the best.

Technology has marched on, and the booster plug and piggyback fuel controllers that are "tricking" the ECU data have fallen by the wayside as ECU access has improved. Now we can go to the source of the data, and change it accordingly. We can't get stuck in a time warp. What was good a few years ago has been passed by with this new access. If you want to be good at tuning, you have to keep up. it's not easy, and I for one am constantly learning.
I hope this helps."

If the Plug fails to perform as claimed, or I don't like some aspect of it, or if it's only a slight improvement but not worth the cost I can return it for a refund and consider an ECU flash.  

That said, I have no complaints about fueling other than poor off-idle performance.  I won't be tracking the bike, so the intricacies of deep tuning the ECU probably won't interest me (never say never, though) provided the Plug doesn't negatively impact performance in some unforeseen way.

Re fuel economy, the Plug people claim a decrease of ~1-1.5%.  If accurate I'll be happy to pay that difference.  

Bottom line for me is trust, but verify.  Cheers.

Edit:  Forgot to mention that I have the better part of 5 years warranty in effect, not sure if/how a flash might affect future claims (?)  Just one more reason for me to try and avoid flashing, I suppose.

Edited August 2, 2020 by 2WHLOZK

[betoney]

51 minutes ago, 2WHLOZK said:

If the Plug fails to perform as claimed, or I don't like some aspect of it, or if it's only a slight improvement but not worth the cost I can return it for a refund and consider an ECU flash.

If it works for you then it is worth every penny, and if they offer a full refund even better.  Let us know what you think after a good test ride.

[Wintersdark]

7 hours ago, betoney said:

If it works for you then it is worth every penny, and if they offer a full refund even better.  Let us know what you think after a good test ride.

I've got mine installed, and been on a few shorter test rides.  It's something for low-throttle and initial acceleration, so it's not really something you can test on longer rides.  

This is because it only has an impact when the bike is in open-loop mode; where it's not utilizing the O2 sensor to maintain AFR.  Once the bike is in closed-loop, it doesn't GAF what the temp sensor says anymore.

Now, I've flashed bikes too, not this one of course but my MT07 got a 2WDW flash.  So, with that said:

It's not as good as a flash - it's much more limited in scope.  It basically only smooths out idle, initial acceleration and partial throttle situations.  This is of course the primary complaint about the bike, however, that it's jerky/lurchy/unhappy running at low speeds, but it doesn't fix anything else.  Thus, if a flash is an option (that is, if budget and warranty allow) then flashing is simply a better choice.   However, it's significantly cheaper than a flash, and is removable in about 10 minutes so there's no warranty implications.  

It does do what it says on the tin.  However... Not a lot.  At least, I think.  I need to do a couple more rides, disconnect it and run a couple more to be sure.  It's (at least IMHO) not a night-and-day difference or shocking improvement.  It may be on an older FJ, though - the Tracer's fuelling (stock) is a lot smoother to start with.

Sadly, it's been grossly hot here.  Rides in the heat (well, heat for us: 30C/86Fish) are fine when you're moving, but it's unbearably sucky puttering about slowly in town.  Makes testing kind of a PITA.  

[2WHLOZK]

Installed my Plug today, then went for 150mi ride.  Temps in the low to mid 80's.  Covered all the types of riding circumstances that I'm likely to encounter on any given day, for this time of year.  Some expressway cruising, some open two-lane country roads, some super-twisties, and some stop-n-go in heavy traffic.  I tested Standard mode and B mode today.  Will sample A mode on the next ride.

I also made sure to include plenty of low speed, low-rev maneuvers like parking lot U turns, etc.  These maneuvers especially (and even just pulling away from a traffic light at times, to be honest) needed some help.

I'm happy to report that the Booster Plug has solved my off-idle issues. I was just hoping for "some acceptable" improvement from the Plug.  To my delight I got Major improvement.  Now I have a smooth, linear throttle response from idle.  The way it should have been from the factory, but wasn't.  

I noticed slightly different results than Wintersdark got with his bike.  I got smoother operation in partial-throttle situs too, like when short shifting or chugging along at walking speed.  Additionally, I noticed less engine drag at full decel in the twisties.  So that's another "plus" (at least for me and my modest riding "skills").

To be fair, I've only put ~ 2K miles on the GT so far.  As I get to know it better I may find other fueling areas to improve.  Who knows?  But for right now I can say Mission Accomplished!

Oh, and the install was easy and I did not have to remove the tank, or even lift it at all.  

Edit:  I might as well mention that the bike no longer insists on keeping its revs a bit on the high side, where it always seemed happiest.  It still seems just as happy up there, but now also content loping along at slower speeds in higher gears.  An indication of improved, across-the board, partial-throttle response?

Edited August 3, 2020 by 2WHLOZK

[betoney]

30 minutes ago, 2WHLOZK said:

It still seems just as happy up there, but now also content loping along at slower speeds in higher gears.

Careful, riding like that has been known to cause premature ageing. 😲

[2WHLOZK]

9 minutes ago, betoney said:

Careful, riding like that has been known to cause premature ageing. 😲

Ha, too late!...just had my 71st this month.  

Still always riding 20 over the limit, though !  Cheers.