[BDMastiff]

Yesterday my upgrades were finished. I added a 103 kit, SE 258 cams with new cam bearings, billet cam plate. ported and milled heads by Branch O'Keefe (Branch Specs: Larger inlet and exhaust valves; .060" decked cylinder head; compression releases; new valve guides; racing valve springs; flowed inlet and exhaust ports; forged lightweight pistons contoured to match quench style combustion chamber), adjustable pushrods, RB Racing Pipes, and TTS Tuner. My friend helped me with everything including the tune. We had breakfast with Steve from TTS yesterday and then went by his shop and Steve personally tuned my bike. All I can say is WOW! My bike is now a beast. I've been patiently waiting for a couple of months for everything to come together. It was worth the wait.

Here's a photo of my actual new (to me) heads. I purchased them from my friend who works at RB Racing and they have less than 500 miles on them.

 

[Rowdy]

Congrats on your mods... Motor envy goin on here. Glad it all came together for ya...

 

[FLTRI]

That's a serious build!

I'd love to see the dyno, especially the torque curve. Any chance of posting it?

 

[BDMastiff]

That's a serious build!

I'd love to see the dyno, especially the torque curve. Any chance of posting it?

No Dyno for me. It is what it is and a Dyno would just be for bragging rights. Steve has a motorcycle dyno at TTS and I didn't even ask him to do it. He's a friend and he would have if I asked. All I know is that my bike has tons of torque plenty of horsepower. Steve took a copy of my custom tune for his research. He doesn't have a standard TTS download that is programmed for my setup. If he ever asks me to bring in my bike for a dyno, I will but I doubt it will happen.

Let me tell you how we tuned my bike. Steve set all the parameters and we rode my bike for 45 minutes (on Los Angeles freeways) with the laptop sitting on top of the tank and plugged into the motorcycle. The computer gathered data and told Steve exactly what needed to be tweaked. We did this several times and it's still not completely dialed in. I'll be going back in a few weeks to continue to get it perfect. It's amazing how much the different tunes can change the ride.

Thanks for asking. If I ever end up getting a dyno, I'll be happy to post it... but don't hold your breath.

 

[BillyBob]

Very cool, didn't know you could tune bikes like that

 

[BDMastiff]

Very cool, didn't know you could tune bikes like that

Of course I knew. Most people just buy a tuner and put in the standard downloads. I'm very fortunate to have the developer of the tuner as my friend. FYI, Steve was also the developer of the original SE Tuner.

EDIT: SORRY, I MISREAD YOUR REPLY. I THOUGH YOU ASKED IF I KNEW BIKES COULD BE TUNED LIKE THAT. IN FACT, IT'S AN EXCELLENT WAY OF TUNING. YOU GET THE ACTUAL RAW DATA OF HOW YOUR BIKE PERFORMS UNDER VARIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. THE WAY WE TUNED IT WAS HIGHLY ILLEGAL FROM A POLICE OFFICERS PROSPECTIVE. AS YOU RIDE, THE COMPUTER TELLS YOU TO DO CERTAIN THINGS. IT MAY SAY "GO TO 2800 RPM". YOU NEED TO FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS AND ALSO INPUT DATA AS YOU RIDE. THE LAPTOP REMAINS OPEN AND RESTS ON THE TANK AND YOUR LEGS/KNEE. ALSO, YOU NEED TO RIDE UNDER VARIOUS CONDITIONS. WE DID MOSTLY FREEWAY RIDING THE FIRST TIME OUT AND THEN ROAD ON THE SIDE STREETS OUR SECOND TIME. WE'D GET BACK AND STEVE WOULD ANALYZE THE DATA, TWEAK THE DOWNLOAD AND WE'D HEAD OUT AGAIN. IT'S A VERY COOL (AND EFFECTIVE) WAY OF TUNING A BIKE. IT'S ALSO A BIT DANGEROUS!

 

[FLTRI]

Okay, not a problem.

I was more curious as to where (RPM) the power comes on in your build, rather than how much peak HP/TQ was. From what I've read that is one of the nice things about the TTS tuner, it doesn't require expensive dyno time to get a tune dialed in...

I'm doing my build one stage at a time on my 2009. I did pipes & A/C first, then I installed cams a few months later. Next is the 103, and after that I'll decide if head work is in order. When I did my 2003, I did a mild Stage III all at once. It ran great, but I really never knew what part of it gave me the most bang for the buck.

Enjoy your build, I'll bet it's a fun ride now!

 

[BDMastiff]

Okay, not a problem.

I was more curious as to where (RPM) the power comes on in your build, rather than how much peak HP/TQ was. From what I've read that is one of the nice things about the TTS tuner, it doesn't require expensive dyno time to get a tune dialed in...

I'm doing my build one stage at a time on my 2009. I did pipes & A/C first, then I installed cams a few months later. Next is the 103, and after that I'll decide if head work is in order. When I did my 2003, I did a mild Stage III all at once. It ran great, but I really never knew what part of it gave me the most bang for the buck.

Enjoy your build, I'll bet it's a fun ride now!

I'll look at the program on my laptop to see if I can find and print any data. If so, I'll post it for you. It may take me a few days to get to it.

Good luck with your build. I was inpatient. I went form a 2007 stage 2 to a stock bike. I felt extremely under powered and the bike just wasn't fun for me to ride. Now that I have the new build, I may be too busy riding to post on the forums

 

[FLTRI]

I went form a 2007 stage 2 to a stock bike. I felt extremely under powered and the bike just wasn't fun for me to ride.

Yeah, I know what you mean. After I built my 03 and rode it for four years, I bought a BMW rode it for the next two. Both bikes were very, very fast...

When I picked up the 2009 I loved the bike immediately, but man was it lacking when I twisted the throttle. The Stage 1 helped, and the cams helped a bunch more. I'm sure the 103 will get me back into the fun range.

I do a lot of two-up long distance rides, and being able to pass a long line of slow moving traffic briskly, is paramount to me. That's why I'd like to see what you got out of your build.

 

[BDMastiff]

Yeah, I know what you mean. After I built my 03 and rode it for four years, I bought a BMW rode it for the next two. Both bikes were very, very fast...

When I picked up the 2009 I loved the bike immediately, but man was it lacking when I twisted the throttle. The Stage 1 helped, and the cams helped a bunch more. I'm sure the 103 will get me back into the fun range.

I do a lot of two-up long distance rides, and being able to pass a long line of slow moving traffic briskly, is paramount to me. That's why I'd like to see what you got out of your build.

Cams make a huge difference in my opinion. If you add the 103 you'll be in HOG Heaven. The other thing about my upgrades is that the bike runs much smoother. I feel less vibration from the engine and everything is slick.

 

[SafetyMan]

You can Vtune with the laptop in the tourpak or saddlebag too.

You just have to make a conscious effort to hit the entire RPM range at all manifold absolute pressures. Living in the mountains helps this a LOT.

 

[BDMastiff]

You can Vtune with the laptop in the tourpak or saddlebag too.

You just have to make a conscious effort to hit the entire RPM range at all manifold absolute pressures. Living in the mountains helps this a LOT.

We did mine on the freeway in the rain. Nobody knew what we were doing but you get a lot of "thumbs up's" from drivers when they think you're playing Soldier of Fortune while riding your Harley on the freeway!

 

[akjeff]

BD,

When you had Branch do your heads, did you go with one of there "packages"? Is so, did you go with the " #4 " or the " PT " ? Just curios, as Branch is who I am planning to do my headwork next winter. The gist I get is the #4 is for overall high performance, and the PT is low/mid torque 2000-4000 rpm.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[BDMastiff]

BD,

When you had Branch do your heads, did you go with one of there "packages"? Is so, did you go with the " #4 " or the " PT " ? Just curios, as Branch is who I am planning to do my headwork next winter. The gist I get is the #4 is for overall high performance, and the PT is low/mid torque 2000-4000 rpm.

Thanks,

Jeff

I purchased the heads from my friend at RB Racing. They were already done. My heads are ported, milled and have compression releases. I'll have to ask my friend for more specs. All I can say is that the heads made a huge difference. My bike has come alive and has incredible power.

 

[akjeff]

Gotcha. If you find that out, that would be great. Also, was wondering what compression ratio the components likely yielded. Thanks, and glad the build worked out!

Jeff

 

[BDMastiff]

Gotcha. If you find that out, that would be great. Also, was wondering what compression ratio the components likely yielded. Thanks, and glad the build worked out!

Jeff

I'm riding with my friend this Sunday. I'll ask some questions.

 

[jbrushoe]

With 103 and heads decked at .60 your probably running 10.5-11 compression not good for pump gas. That is a big problem any more 91 octane just doesn't cut it on high compression builds. I have a 520 KTM dirt bike with some major work done to it and I have to buy av gas or the dam thing wont run very long.
I choose av gas because its easier and cheaper than race gas and it has lead in it. Anyway you might look into using some octane boost I'm just not sure how good that stuff really is. I imagine that thing runs really good with the big bore and the head work just be careful, most of the time you can't hear that dreaded detonation.

 

[akjeff]

90 octane is pretty common "premium", here in AK. When I have head work done, I'd like to keep it to 9.5:1 or so, which is why I'm looking at Branch's PT package. I don't want to fool with octane boost. I had envisioned going 10:1, but think I should be more conservative. Hard to believe with all the oil we have, and two refineries...and our pump gas sucks!

Jeff

 

[jbrushoe]

90 octane is pretty common "premium", here in AK. When I have head work done, I'd like to keep it to 9.5:1 or so, which is why I'm looking at Branch's PT package. I don't want to fool with octane boost. I had envisioned going 10:1, but think I should be more conservative. Hard to believe with all the oil we have, and two refineries...and our pump gas sucks!

Jeff

Ya adding that dreaded ethanol doesn't help any