Riding Modes and fuelling.

[Bigtrucknuts]

I've been fiddling with the riding modes and I have a question that's not answered by the manual or web site.

Do the different Riding Modes have different fuel maps?
I know the delivery of the power is altered. I take this to mean the speed at which changes made to the twist grip are applied to he engine.
The power output is the same regardless of Mode.
But is the fuelling different ?
Is one mode smoother than another through town?
Is the fuel consumption the same at a given speed?
Am I thinking about this too much?

 

[Sooty09]

My bike feels a bit stronger low down in Rain mode, it uses a bit more fuel but feels flat once under way. Having just ridden some fairly tricky mountains in rain and mist I set to rain mode and can honestly say road feel much better even in the wet, never set off the ABS or traction control in road mode so really don't know why they bothered with settings. Dynamic & endure on those with the facility could be the reason.

 

[Giles]

My understanding is that it will only affect your throttle and, as you say, delivery of power.

There was a thread a week or so back (by wreford) about the 'feel' of the old twin cam versus the LC, and one of the things that many agreed on, was that the old TC 'felt' more torquey (but wasn't) probably because it made it's power a little more slowly and so you had a chance to 'feel' it.

I would say to sooty that this is likely to be the same in rain mode - it feels gruntier at low revs because it all happens a bit more slowly and now you can actually feel it happening.

Personally, the only modes I use are dynamic and the off road modes (off road!). I personally believe that your wrist is your brain for bad weather and slippery surfaces. What I wouldn't want is to take a bike with a throttle that I know and understand, hit some shiny wet cold mountain passes ..... and then suddenly change the throttle that I'm used to, to something that I'm unfamiliar with
So to that end, all my road riding stays in dynamic ...

 

[WindyChuffer]

I think it just affects throttle response and when traction control kicks in.

Not sure why you would care if it effects the fuelling or not. If you were bothered about that, then you are likely caring only about performance, which means you will be in Dynamic mode and likely ignoring the other girly modes.

Rain or Road modes are good for round town / heavy traffic as you have relaxed throttle response. I keep mine in Road mode, soft damping and no preload for London. Out of town I up the game a bit.

In answer your question: Yes you are thinking about this too much.

 

[Giles]

Won't affect when traction control kicks in, (obviously it will be harder to spin up the rear in rain mode than it will in dynamic 'cos the throttle is softer), the only thing that will alter the 'when and how traction control works' is by altering the engine mode and going into one of the off road modes. (now you can play with some or no traction control .... ).

 

[JayGee]

Won't affect when traction control kicks in, (obviously it will be harder to spin up the rear in rain mode than it will in dynamic 'cos the throttle is softer), the only thing that will alter the 'when and how traction control works' is by altering the engine mode and going into one of the off road modes. (now you can play with some or no traction control .... ).

My experience is that rain mode does make the traction control kick in earlier, not that I feel the rear spin but that the traction control light comes on with less provacation and under less aggressive acceleration as compared to road mode. To be honest, in rain mode the traction control light comes on way before I would expect the rear to start spinning.

 

[karlp]

I've been fiddling with the riding modes and I have a question that's not answered by the manual or web site.

Do the different Riding Modes have different fuel maps?
I know the delivery of the power is altered. I take this to mean the speed at which changes made to the twist grip are applied to he engine.
The power output is the same regardless of Mode.
But is the fuelling different ?
Is one mode smoother than another through town?
Is the fuel consumption the same at a given speed?
Am I thinking about this too much?

The easiest way to control the output is by altering the ignition advance/retard. This will affect how the power is delivered.

The power is the same in each mode because that part of the map is similar in each mode but it is near the max rpm.

 

[Bigtrucknuts]

Thanks

Thanks for all the replies.
I was actually more interested in the fuel economy and the feel of the engine with a little load on the throttle.

 

[Little-Brit]

Thanks for all the replies.
I was actually more interested in the fuel economy and the feel of the engine with a little load on the throttle.

It's a fair question. I know that the previous R1200GS had the ability to advance the ignition and lean the fuel mixture by really significant amounts regardless of gear selection. This had the effect of making really big improvements in fuel consumption when riding gently, whether in a high or low gear. It was helped in this by having knock detectors which allowed the settings to go to disaster conditions then back a notch! At the time that was not how other bikes worked.

The water cooled version doesn't have the knock detectors but I suspect that it still does a similar trick with the timing and fueling when riding gently. I was easily getting north of 60 mpg whilst riding the lovely open roads of Spain the other week - two up fully loaded and paying lip service to the speed limits, fantastic roads...

 

[Nick V]

The easiest way to control the output is by altering the ignition advance/retard. This will affect how the power is delivered.

The great thing about 'fly by wire' throttle is that you don't even have to do that. All the development engineers had to do was create three different rates at which the throttle butterflies would open when the servos receive the opening signal from the throttle (via the engine ECU).

Expressed mathematically, the three opening rates would look like this (throttle movement at left of equation, TB servo movement at right):

Muted throttle response setting (Rain and Enduro modes): X°/sec = (X – Y)°/sec

Direct throttle response setting (Road and Enduro Pro modes): X°/sec = X°/sec (Throttle response is therefore at a ratio of 1:1.)

Augmented throttle response setting (Dynamic mode): X°/sec = (X + Y)°/sec