Hello Jim,
Let me tell you, last week I took a trip of 2200 miles, up to Zippers and back, and stopped perhaps 12 times or so. I got more bad gas than I care to actually remember, but at least twice. It was ping city. What I discovered on my visit.
1. Semi clogged fuel filters
2. Intake Leaks
3. Exhaust Leaks
to name a few. It did surprise me, however it is like a computer, howz it go? Bad data in bad data out? I can't recall. But on one instance, on a map that was not a perfect match to Zippers, at a setting that overcame the issues of lean and ping, was a substantial retard of 4-6 full points in the area of pinging. 1 or 2 did not cut it. Another surprise, was that there was no power loss after that adjustment. I have seen this 2 times now. Makes me wonder. And the reasons were not so easy to understand, BUT it made sense when we ran stuff at the factory. The TMAX was re set to run at 6 degrees for example, but it was MASKING the problem. It became clear when there was no power loss. What we were seeing was a power loss all along, and the TMAX was simply adjusted to be in the proper range it was sensing. Of course, it was outside the original map parameters, (which by the way development of them is quite intense). A minor leak in or out will change the way the tmax behaves. Its natural, becasue the signal was mixed with a leak. Fuel, another factor, good or bad certainly did not allow a good fuel batch to a bad fuel batch, enough time to autotune the differences. And bad fuel, lets face it is pretty sad sometimes, knocking sensors won't even come close to fixing that. Debris or a coating from additives was another example of the sensors not being accurate.
Interesting enough, on that 6 point retard, it did fix the ping, but there are other issues at play here. One of the above, or something else. In each case, it was not the TMAX, but an outside force creating the problem. They can drive you crazy. I also learned an easy test for the sensors. When ignition on, and bike not running, the sensors will read about 19.2 AFR. It shows that they are working. If the readings are other than that, on the software, you may have a bad sensor. COol to see some of this stuff, that's for sure.
And on the new software, and firmware, you can download the new software, and hook up the module and do the firmware upgrade. As stated above, there are a lot of changes you can now make regarding nitrous, supercharger, a fix for backfiring if you like in the new decel rogram, and a few other goodies. But personally I think if the bike is tight, the stock maps are great. I am back to running my stock map with the 575 cam in my 110, and it is so spot on I cant believe it. I did a lot of changes, and the bottom line was, the only change I did leave was a careful reduction of rpm's, and lower with heat, and that's it. I let the autotune do it's work.
Zippers knows my feelings about opening up the maps a little more for the end user,, but with that being said, it is a wonderful thing if you know what you are doing, and not at all neccessary if you are just plain happy the way it was designed and mapped. It's only if you need some correction due to the above, or, if you MUST get that last 1 pound of tq or last 1 hp hiding in there somewhere. I have not seen any great differences at all when playing up there off of a base map. But what I did see was differences with different exhausts. So that in itself becomes a personal preference, I could have 2/1 loud ass torqy pipes to pulL out all the available, or in reality, I can use the RINEHART td'S AND enjoy that rumble, with a little sacrifice on performance. Not measurable by seat of the pants anyway.
Hope this helps, and remember, I am biased and opinioted, but always correct.
Rhino(yesilikezipperssowhat)
Any new maps in the pipeline for our stock 110s, Ron? If I'm to continue with the TMAT, it's essential that the major pinging problem I have gets fixed. Why on earth they don't use the knock/Ion sensor and adjust the timing is a real mystery to me!
Jim