Hi To everyone, I'm new to this forum, a mate suggested I join to see if any members could help me out. I have scanned through some of the past posts to try and glean some information, without success.
My delema------
I bought a 1200 custom a couple of years ago, new, put on a set of screaming eagle slip on mufflers, air cleaner and a super tuner, recommended by the dealer, as this not only would make it perform better but would give it a better sound???
My problem is the bike surges, and has done so since fitting the add ons, and when trying to maintain a cruise speed, it surges and when going around a round-a-bout it surges (this is scary).
I have had the bike back to the the dealer, Blacktown Harley, a couple of times to have it sorted out, no success and now out of warranty.
I thought about having the bike dyno tuned- made some enquiries, Trivett harley advised that this surging is normal due to the fact that I have screaming eagle slip ons??
They suggest going back to the original stock mufflers. I don't fancy puting the original muflers back on as this makes my Sporty sound like a sewing machine.
I wonder, if its true??
Why do dealers upsell to the screaming eagle product when the result is detrimantal to performance (and safety).
Is there any one out there in Harley land that can shine some light on this issue for me and give this newbee some advise as to how I can overcome this issue.
Regards Poppy
this is most definitely NOT normal I would be contacting HD Australia and tell them what these useless cunts at the two stealerships told you and request a resolve at no charge its any wonder so many people are hating on the dealers lately, absolutely fucking hopeless, obviously didn't give a fuck, even while the bike was under warranty there would be some serious fucken cursin' and counter banging goin on if that was my bike like you said poppy, serious fucken "safety issue" here mate FUCKEN SMARTARSE CUNTS, if this was "normal" no-one would be buying or riding them
How to do a Smart tune with a SEPST
Why Smart Tune? When you swap out the hardware on a Harley you get changes in the flow of air and fuel. Using Smart tune you can get the bike to tune itself to something close to the optimal air fuel ratios, these having been altered by a change in air cleaner, exhaust, throttle body, cams, etc. Summary I’ll cover: • Loading a base calibration • Recording data • Using Smart tune to change the base calibration • Reflashing the ECU with the changed calibration Loading a base calibration (AKA “map&rdquo I’m assuming you have installed the SEPST software onto your computer. If not load the disc into the disc driver and follow the instructions.
Note: this whole thing is much easier using a laptop because you can get it near your bike. 1. Once you have the main SEPST screen up, select “Tuning” (the tuning fork icon). 2. Hit “Manually Select File” and navigate to the appropriate directory where the software installed the canned maps (.dt0 files). This is typically in “C:\Program Data\Super Tuner\Delphi\Tuning Files\Big Twins\”. You will need to plough through a long list of maps. The details for the map will be displayed if you click on a file name. 3. Select the map that most closely matches your hardware. Unfortunately, HD doesn’t supply maps for non-Harley hardware so if you have non-Harley hardware then it’s a matter of making the closest guess. Generally, the stage 1 maps are fine for any stage 1 hardware.
Once the map you selected has loaded, you need to click on “Tuning Setup” and open it, then double click on “Working” then select ACR, if this is enabled leave it, if not you need to click on “ACR Enabled”. Connecting the VCI to your bike and laptop 4. Make sure your bike is turn off. 5. Pull off the battery cover on the left side of the bike. Here you will find an oblong grey connector with a black rubber bung in the end. Slide the grey connector out of its slot and take out the black bung. 6. Insert the correct VCI lead into the grey connector. 7. Connect the other lead from the VCI to your laptop’s USB port. Uploading the new map into the bike 8. Try not to spend too long on the next part because your ignition and headlight will be on but the engine won’t be running and this will flatten your battery after 30 mins or so. 9. Turn on your bike’s ignition switch and have the Run/Stop switch set to Run but don’t fire up the engine! 10. If the connections are all good then you should see the previously greyed-out “Reflash” icon (the lightning bolt) has now become active. If not, then you need to check the connections again and maybe read the SEPST help files relating to connecting up the VCI. 11. Press the “Reflash” icon. 12. On the next screen under “Programming Status” there are two radio buttons; make sure both “Enable Smart tune Reflash” and “Reset Adaptive Fuel” are selected. 13. Hit “Program ECM Cal” and click “OK” to confirm. 14. Do not mess about with anything now! You can screw up your bike if you do. Just sit on your hands. 15. When “Flash Update Process Complete” is displayed, follow the instructions on the screen exactly: Turn off the ignition and wait 10 seconds. 16. Click "OK" to clear the message. Great. The bike now has a nice new calibration/map loaded that matches your hardware. Next step is to tune this into your bike. Recording data You still have the VCI all connected up, right? 17. Turn the ignition switch back on. 18. Click the “Toolbox” icon (looks like a toolbox). 19. If things are connected up OK then the bottom three icons on the left of the screen will now be available. 20. Select the “VCI Data Record” icon. 21. At the next screen (“VCI Data Record&rdquo, click “VCI Record Start”. 22. Follow the instructions and, when prompted, turn off the bike and disconnect the VCI from the laptop but leave it connected to your bike. 23. The VCI has to stay on the bike. So find somewhere to tape it up to or bung it in a pannier. 24. Get geared up and ready to spend an hour out on the road. You want a nice long, quiet stretch of road where you can drive safely and uninterrupted at all road speeds in all gears. Finding this road is one of the hardest bits of the tuning process. 25. Don’t start recording until the engine is warm. 26. When you reach your “test track”, pull over and leave the engine running. 27. Press the button ONCE on the VCI. The light should start to flash. 28. Now ride the bike in all gears and at all speeds and at all throttle openings. Try to cover as much variation in driving conditions as you can. The VCI only records at steady speed, so hold each speed/gear for about 10 seconds. You will be able to record for about 30 to 45minutes, which is usually plenty of time to get bored. Don’t forget to just ride the bike for a while like you normally would too, trying to cover around-town and highway riding. 29. LEAVE THE BIKE RUNNING – if you turn it off now all your riding time will be wasted! 30. Once you are finished capturing data and/or are back home LEAVE THE BIKE RUNNING! 31. Press the button on the VCI, ONCE. 32. Now if you are where you need to be, you can turn off the bike, or when you get back home you can turn it off. Getting the recorded data from the bike 33. Reconnect the VCI to your laptop. Turn on the bike’s ignition switch. 34. In the VCI “Toolbox” menu on the “VCI Data Record” screen, select the “Download data” tab. 35. Download the recorded data following the prompts on the screen. Make a note of the filename of the saved data e.g. scribble down something like: “VCI_121-124211_7.hdx: first data run recorded on March 1st 2012 with new stage 2 hardware fitted, driving about the A14 and the airfield”. OK so far? You’ve done the hard bit and now all you need to do is merge the recorded data into the canned map you chose earlier, stick this onto the bike and Robert’s your Mum’s brother! 36. If you turned off your laptop, fire it up again, run the SEPST software and load the map you used before, it cannot be a different map with different settings. See steps 1 to 3 above. 37. Go to the “Tuning” screen and click on the “+” signs to expand the “VE Front Cyl” and “VE Rear Cyl” displays on the left of the screen so that you can see “Working”, “Last Saved”, “Original” and “Smart tune” under them. 38. Click and drag the “Working” version of the “VE Front Cyl” table into the lower half of the big space over to the right, selecting the “Display as table” option as you let the mouse button go. 39. Click and drag the “Smart tune” version of the “VE Front Cyl” table into the upper half of the big space over to the right, selecting the “Display as table” option as you let the mouse button go. It doesn’t matter really which cylinder you do first or which two of the four windows you use. Drag and stretch the two windows you used so you can see the tables in both. 40. In the “Smart tune, VE Front Cyl” window, click “Add New...” and use the dialogue file box to locate the file of data you saved in step 35 and open it. You’ll get an error if you try to load a data file recorded using a different map. In the future you might have several sessions’ worth of recorded data and you can open them all now. 41. Now hit “Generate”. It’ll take a little while to generate the new VE table. 42. When it’s finished generating, the “Please wait” disappears and the “Update” button will no longer be greyed out. 43. Check the modified cells in the “Smart tune” table. The ones that the tuning session got data updates for are shown. The actual contents aren’t terribly important at this level of tuning. What is of interest though is the range of the cells you have managed to get data for. You’ll probably have a rash of cells across the middle of the table and not much at the extremes. That’s OK if you did your usual riding as there will be data for that. The cells with no updates are what you missed on your ride and you might want to repeat this all later and try to hit some of those throttle position v RPM combos. 44. Once you are bored with looking at that, hit “Update”. 45. Look now at the “Working” table. The cells to be changed are highlighted in turquoise. 46. Repeat steps 38 to 45 for the other cylinder. 47. Save your modified map by hitting the “Save As...” button on the top right of the screen. Try to give it a useful name, like “176ST002 with first data run made on 1 March 2012.dt0”. Getting your new tuned map into the bike 48. Make sure you have your modified map selected on the “Tuning” screen if you have more than one map open. 49. Now reflash the ECM as you did in steps 8 to 16, except do not select “Enable Smart Tune Reflash” but do select “Reset Adaptive Fuel”. 50. Follow the on-screen steps like you did before. Then turn off the bike, disconnect everything and wait at least 10 secs before starting the bike. And that’s all there is to it! You will now have a tuned map in the bike that matches your hardware.
Can you elaborate a little bit when you say surging? Like a flat spot? Losing power and then kicking off again? If so, I have a similar issue that I have been slowly improving using the SEPST smart tune process, as outlined in the reply above me (which was actually sourced from a US forum that was written back in 2012). I have done two sessions, first one was approximately 30km worth of riding around and logging data, with the second session being about 55km. I immediately noticed an improvement after the first session, and further change with the second. Although I still need to keep working at it because now it is more prevalent at low RPMs in 2nd gear than it was before, with the flat spot being almost eliminated in first gear. Otherwise, if you have the cash, I'd just send it in to be Dyno Tuned. Sounds like you've had a shit experience with a couple dealers so maybe look elsewhere for a reputable dyno tuner in your area. I will likely send my bike to be dyno tuned regardless of how I go with the SEPST, when I have the cash.
I hate to hear these stories about poor customer service from dealers when it comes to problems . Recently someone I know had issues with a car so I became invested in sorting out some problems and found that calling head office australia was quite helpful they got on the case and the arrogant service managers attitude did a backflip. I don't know if it would work with harley but you never know maybe even harley u.s.a might care about customer service enough to sort it out.
Hi Mate , thanks for replying to my problem.
You hit the nail on the head with your discription of whats actually happening. I am not able to play around with the tuner as I did not get any leads or a disc with it when It was purchased. I'll probably save up for a few weeks and try and find a good dyno tuner close to my area Penrith NSW.
Thanks again for your advise
Poppy (Pete)
Hi Bakes, thanks for replying and your advise. I would really like to have a go at tuning it myself, as you have provided what seems to be a relatively easy process to follow, however when I bought the tuner I did not get any leads to connect to a comuter nor any disc, so I guese I will have to save up for a few weeks to have it dyno tuned. I need to chase up a good tuner in the Penrith NSW area--- can anybody suggest someone that can be trusted?
Thanks again for your input.
Regards
Poppy(Pete)
Hi Flipdog, I agree , dealers generally rip you off once you have the bike. If I didn't like my bike so much I would probably change it for an Indian Scout??????
I'll try and get it sorted out before I do anything that drastic. I just need to find a good dyno tuner in the Penrith NSW area. ANY SUGGESTION??
L.A Cycles a top tunner !
No Harley dealer no matter what, have experience in high performance. they just know how to do stock, sure they can bolt on SE bits bolt in SE cam's but so can anyone who wants too and who buy some tools to do the job but they don't know anything about tunning ( hard to explain )
If your motor is surging it just means its too lean. a well tunned Harley is a lot nicer to ride than one that's out of tune, & they will last longer too.
