Power Commanders

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beemerbadboy

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Hi Guys and Gals. This is my third GS and bestest ever! It was new in June 2010 and it's now done around 8500miles, having been down to Morocco and back. I've just changed the exhaust system, removed the cat and put a new BOS can on. The bike is SO MUCH BETTER it's unreal - Looking now to put a power commander on it, but would like to know others experiences of these products to see if they are worth it ?? (Looking at around £311 for the Dynojet). Merry Xmas!! Trevor
 
I had my old bike remapped on stock ECU at a place called Hilltop Motorcycles, he reckons he can do wonders with BMW's, although I cannot comment from personal experience, he told me he has done quite a few for Rainbow BMW customers... anyone here?

I know he has done quite a few ZZR's from a forum I was on and everyone was very happy with the results. I certainly prefered this method to the PC3 I was running before as he can do each cylinder and individually change mapping per gear on some models, as well as alter the timing. It picked up a couple of mid-range horsepower over PC3 setup and definately vibed a shade less.

There are loads of Power Commander dealers so if you wanna go down that route you should be in luck, just try to find one with expereince of these engines, and of course if you want to revert to stock you can just remove the thing and sell it on.
 
arrow full system 2010 gsa

hi all

just put a arrow full system on mine it removes ths noise flap and cat
got a power commander on order and the new auto tune system i will dyno it it in the new year and post the results should be good

what power do you think it will be?????

andy
 
but would like to know others experiences of these products to see if they are worth it

I had a PC3 on my multistrada for 1000 miles. It sorted out the fuelling when I fitted a de-cat / k&n air filter / open airbox and made a huge difference to the torque. The first time I washed the bike water got in and the thing failed completely and the bike wouldn't run at all.

Speaking to several people afterwards, it seems that's not too unusual, so I'd never have another. I guess its fine for a bike thats only going out on sunny days, but not so good for a bike thats year round transport.

Mark
 
I had my old bike remapped on stock ECU at a place called Hilltop Motorcycles, he reckons he can do wonders with BMW's, although I cannot comment from personal experience, he told me he has done quite a few for Rainbow BMW customers... anyone here?

I know he has done quite a few ZZR's from a forum I was on and everyone was very happy with the results. I certainly prefered this method to the PC3 I was running before as he can do each cylinder and individually change mapping per gear on some models, as well as alter the timing. It picked up a couple of mid-range horsepower over PC3 setup and definately vibed a shade less.

There are loads of Power Commander dealers so if you wanna go down that route you should be in luck, just try to find one with expereince of these engines, and of course if you want to revert to stock you can just remove the thing and sell it on.

How much do they charge?
 
Speaking to several people afterwards, it seems that's not too unusual, so I'd never have another. I guess its fine for a bike thats only going out on sunny days, but not so good for a bike thats year round transport.

Mark

If were having a pop at them then another thing to check is that they are well earthed, on sportsbikes it is common to have problems with them if the earth is not very clean, often people use any bolt that goes to the chassis, this can give problems (including the bike stopping) so if you fit one you may wanna connect earth lead direct to Battery bolts.

One of my main concerns was that they are another thing to go wrong, which is why when I found someone who could remap stock ECU I took that route.
 
If were having a pop at them then another thing to check is that they are well earthed, on sportsbikes it is common to have problems with them if the earth is not very clean, often people use any bolt that goes to the chassis, this can give problems (including the bike stopping) so if you fit one you may wanna connect earth lead direct to Battery bolts.

One of my main concerns was that they are another thing to go wrong, which is why when I found someone who could remap stock ECU I took that route.

how much did they charge you?
 
how much did they charge you?

I think it was about £300 so similar cost to just a PC3, and cheaper than PC3 plus remap.

On ZZR I started with map from Dynojet website which was better than stock, and required as I had removed secondary butterflies which limited early bike to about 10% throttle below 6k in lower gears! without a PC3 this mod would probably burn out valves.

I later had a custom map done for PC3 (@ £150) before removing it and having stock ECU remapped for about £300 - can't remember exact amout as I had tyres fitted at the same time and did a deal on all the work.

Would be interested to hear if anyone here has had this work done, you can not beat a reliable recommendation IMO, certainly PC3's do work but they are very primitive and just adjust injector duration aftert the event.

I was shocked to learn that they do not even know the throttle position but estimate it from the injector signals they intercept (they plug inline with the injector wires)

What led me to ditch the PC3 was the fact that ZZR fuelling is very different in each gear, as in 1st full throttle is not avaliable until 6k, but in top would be available from about 5k, with more progressive opening from 3.5k, this meant the PC3 fuelling would only be good in the gear used for the dyno work (typically 4th) and would be a bit rich in 5th / top and a bit weak in 1st - 4th at the revs you typically use.

Also fours tend to run quite different on inner cylinders and again the ECU remap allowed for trimming each cylinder independantly, not really an issue on a GS.

The worst thing with this method is you cannot "see" what has been done, with the PC3 you can look at you map on your home computer and have a copy on file of what has been done, the ECU remap is very much a blind faith type of thing as the bike goes into the dyno room, comes out four hours later and looks no different, has no new parts and you have nothing to show your mates on your PC screen.

Obviously got dyno curves of before and after showing some nice improvements and the bike felt smoother afterwards, the Dyno they run is also much more sophisticated than the DJ ones:

Also unlike the DJ ones it did not touch the rear tyres, in fact he did not even strap the back end down, you can check out the dyno here:

http://www.dynapro.ws/

It also gives real horsepower and torque in real time (Dynojet Dyno's are software based and cannot really measure power and torque accurately) Check out the PDF's from a magazine interview with dynojet where they admit they could not figure out what a horsepower was!

http://www.dynapro.ws/true_hp.htm

In fact DJ power was based upon dynojet assuming a US Spec 1985 V-MAX had 125BHP (they had about 100 - see the flaw in the plan!) They later revised their own version of 1 BHP but have never found an accurate way of measuring horesepower - I just can't believe they admitted this in an interview!!!

I have posted a far more techy article as well

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2571692#post2571692
 
PC III

I ran my bike with a Bos can and this from standard made a nice difference.
I decided to upgrade to the Power Commander and must say it was a good decision.
With the addition of a K&N Filter and a dyno run the bike now puts out a heathly 100 bhp at the rear wheel. The low down fueling curve has been improved so lowdown pull is great - top speed is dificult to ascess as have seen 135 on the clock but how accurate is the clock over 100 ? Top speed is not the issue for me as the fueling improvement low to mid range is good now.
Oh the bike is a 2005 with 23000 on the clock.
Power commander worth it ? YES Make sure that if you fit one make sure the connectors are waterproofed and to mount the main unit away from waterand covered.
 


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