www.VMaxGuru.com - The Guru's Blog

4/30/09After being delayed by UPS and traffic, we arrived a little late and it was one big rush from that time on. Getting the bike out for Jay. Getting the track paperwork taken care of. Then setting the bike up, making sure the suspension is right. Jay schooled me on how he likes it. He gets on the bike to ride the practice path. I go for a soda and look up, he's out there ready for a pass. I run to the stands, flip on the camera and pray for a 9.60.

Priceless!

Mr. Gleason, that was amazing!

I found out I am good at tuning, I'm not so good at drag racing. My first time ever on a drag strip and a slick and at night and I had a dark visor and, and, and,,, I suck.11.16. Think I could have walked faster, but it was fun! Late night tonight. More details tomorrow. Don't you worry, I will never forget them. What a day! It's worked, whipped and spanked, now let me drag my butt to bed! To all that had a part in this, thank you and good night.

Who knows what today will hold. For the record, I don't care what times are ran today. I'll just be happy to have my picture taken with Jay! Everything looks good on my end. I will start loading everything up and look to head out to the strip around 3 o'clock. Off to get the tire mounted.

4/29/09 Jay's condition, bike has to have a slick. My condition, the man has to have power.

	AND
Check!		Check!
It goes on in the morning.		A consistent 189.9 SAE RWHP.

My invitation, to a very special person that I mentioned before, has been accepted. None other than THE Jay Gleason has tentatively accepted my invitation to take Eleanor down the 1/4 mile at Bradenton tomorrow. I have to do some more work to the bike to get it ready. If I can get the changes made in time, he will be there. I don't know about you, but this is monumental to me.

Back to making the stack spacers and hope to start tuning the new setup today. I have e-mailed a very special invitation last night. I have to get a few parts on order this morning, so I will come back in from the shop mid morning and see if I have a response.

4/28/09 My internet has been down since yesterday's post. So let me bring you up to date. I plan on being at the Bradenton Drag strip this Thursday if all goes well. I will say that I have been a little under the weather, so for now it's still a strong tentative plan to be there. I am pretty excited about going down the strip for the first time. Bob has told me his friend, Lee, is a semi-professional light weight rider that could take my bike well into the 9's. At 270 pounds unsuited, it would be hard for me to do so. I plan to meet him, get to know him and watch him ride. I have to be comfortable with the situation before handing him the key to Eleanor.

Next, Bye bye air box! Here is a rendering of the Stock Stack Spacers I have been making today:


Bottom	Top

Next, I was still surprised and puzzled about the air filter test, so I did another quick dyno test this morning before I started stripping off the air box. Just for my own peace of mind. Reason being, it occurred to me the remaining rear intake half of the air box may still be restrictive even with the rear filter cover removed. When the faux tank is re-installed, it almost re-instates the original tracts extending into the scoops to the left and right of the filter. All of our previous testing was done with the bike assembled. This morning I removed the faux tank and pulled a few runs. The bike was making 2 hp less than day before (goofed and put 87 octane in the tank, bad habit). Long story short, it made a little difference. Click here for the zipped run files. Of course, all of these are static dyno test. Run 4 - UFO with faux tank cover ON. Run 7 - UFO with faux tank cover OFF. Run 12 - EVO with faux tank cover OFF.


SAE Corrected	Uncorrected (Actual)
With this last test, I am done beating this horse.

4/27/09 I had a chance to play with the Dynojet Run Viewer software. To change what is charted, click to the left, right, and bottom of the chart. It will prompt you for the chart inputs.

4/26/09 Oh, one other thing. The reason why I included the run files with the Air Filter Dyno test below was the results are very mixed. Look at the files to compare. This was my first .djr extension export. I have played with the viewer and the Torque readings are not coming up. ?? I will look at it more in the AM.

Ok. I have finished the web pages for the Air Filter Inertia Dyno Challenge. Before I give you the link, aside from the actual hard work he performed today, I wanted to thank Bob (Bad Max) for lending his recently service bike for this test. I re-iterate, when it comes to being the V-Max addict, I have been topped. He loves his bike and can't seem to get enough - V-Max. I feel the best key to describing this bike to someone would be handing him or her the keys. It's a cult lifestyle. Air Filter Inertia Dyno Challenge, the results are the results. Click Here

The preliminary web page is done. I have mail Bob the link for his opinion and concurrence.

We just completed the Air Filter Inertia Dyno Challenge. The results are interesting. I am downloading the data and working on the pages now.

4/25/09 Back from Leesburg Bikefest. Big crowd this year. I met up with Esten and Bob (Bad-Max). I think I finally found a bigger V-Max addict than myself. The plan is to perform the on bike air filter dyno test on Bad-Max's bike in the morning. Tired. Nite!

From the E-mail, what do you plug on the AIS? I am not the first to discover and report this, but mine has been plugged ever since a conversation with Innovate about the bad LM-2 O2 readings. The first thing they advised me about was plugging this. Apparently this helps with the back-firing of aftermarket pipes when no EXUP is present. I just shoved a plug down into the tube and slid them back on. Here are the AIS tubes under the left scoop in question:

4/24/09 Couple things. One, in the new V-mAX video below, at 1:07 on the time line, did you notice the Gen 1 style helmet lock under the seat with cables that must allow you to secure a helmet to the bike? Good idea! Two, I installed the seat pins from Evoluzione Cyclesports tonight. They work perfect. I took some pictures and I hope to do a page soon.

Next, the bike is back together for Bikefest. I should get there a little after noon or so. Lastly, I finally added the Feed Button.

I spent most of yesterdays allotted shop time looking at Gen 1 Ver 2 timing signals again. I will have to chew on them a little more, make some corrections and improvements and post a nice page as time allows. Thanks for the help Mark.

Notice the differences? I really like the pieces that replace the X-Brace on the customized bike. (It can be seen at 1:57 on the time line) It brings more of the Gen 1 look to the bike. Man, if I could have spent an hour with the cutaway bike, I would not have to slowly dissect Eleanor. I think I will rip the audio and listen to it while I ride. It will take the place of this audio that I currently listen to: (1:10 forward)

Just kidding! I will say Conan The Barbarian was an amazing movie for it's time. It mystified me as a young man. I think the V-Max has the same barbaric appeal. The answer to the V-Max's riddle of Steel, as little of the finest steel as possible. It's too heavy.

This concludes today's Audio/Visual presentations. I hope you found it entertaining! I am glad to say that I have to work today.

4/23/09 This was interesting video on people making a living with a Blog. For me, Living = No, Horsepower = Yes.

I hope to get a little shop time in today. I have the last of the new parts for the combo speed limit fix. I hope to finish that and draw the board up this weekend along with the EXUP eliminator I designed back in March. Speaking of the EXUP. Those wishing to buy an all solid state EXUP eliminator now, there is one available from Smanna Systems that may work on the V-Max. Without even knowing this thing existed, my original "all solid state" one seemed to make the bike glitchy. It seemed like the ECU spent too much time trying to recharge the capacitor for re-position. I tried it both ways. Hold steady the open voltage and flash the close voltage on the cap and vice versa. It ran funny enough for me to know it was not right either way. The one from Smanna Systems may not have this problem. Mine almost perfectly emulates the V-Max EXUP signal as seen in part two of this video. The difference, mine will have electromechanical relays and will not be all solid-state.

4/22/09 I have been contacted by persons living in other countries looking to purchase a Race ECU (for the third time). Unfortunately, I do not sell anything from this site. I do, however, want to help these people find what they are looking for. Any person or vendor interested in facilitating these overseas transactions, please contact me. I think the folks overseas have figured out the simple ECU connector re-wire which enables them to use the Race ECU on that bike version. They must feel the need for full speed and full power. Which leads me to this, I am looking for a Euro Guru that is willing to purchase a fuel module and perform a mod I am finishing. I have been working on something that I think will make all other speed fixes, Race ECU's and the likes - OBSOLETE!

I received my order I placed with Evoluzione Cyclesports. I had ordered quick release pins for the seat, performance air filter and a filter bracket. Included in the box was a free throttle controller. I can already tell you, the seat pins will be a must for anyone that needs quick access to a fuel tuner for adjustment. I have already tweaked my mid seat (fuel filler section) while moving the bike around with the rear bolts out. Next, I have a lathe and mill myself and I am impressed with the throttle controllers machining quality. If time allows, I will shoot some video of it's installation and performance. As for the air filter, I am still waiting to dyno test it on a stock bike before I speak of the performance. The construction of the three Evo filters I have seen so far has been consistently fantastic.

I had to work yesterday and I have to go back again today. It will be a day or two before I can get back in the shop.

4/21/09 It has come to my attention that a fellow 09 rider, Robert Jones and his wife Elizabeth, lost their lives while riding. To the family, my most sincere condolences.

I am very surprised at the low view count of the "Easter Egg" video I posted. The video details how to use the EXUP servo to trick the ECU into thinking the throttle servo is still attached and thereby giving me almost full control over the butterflies. This mod, I have labeled the Bye By Wire System may be a rather nice mod in the long run. Next, I wanted to dyno test the air filters today but I did not make contact with Esten in time to see if he could bring over his stock bike today. Maybe later this week we can get together. I may have another type filter to test by then. I will try to test the filters on my bike today if I get the time. Next, I shot a quick video in response to an e-mail I received asking how to upgrade to an illuminated switch for the Fan Switch Modification video I posted some time back. I found a quick and easy way to upgrade mine. I will add more later. When I first made my promo video, the original was a little longer. I was bored with the current video so I added the original to the index page. It is non-Youtube so it may download slower. It's a little more indulgent, but I like it!? The part where I sip coffee and look at the bike, I do that allot. (I watched it from the shop and it was too slow, so I removed it. It can be found here)

4/20/09 I give up, no one has found the "Easter Egg" I put on my site. It was one of my biggest finds lately.

From the e-mail, Michael sent me a link to a site that sells a green light trigger. It is a kit with a 1" X 2" X 3/8" magnet and double sided sticky tape. I have been purchasing magnets from KJ magnets. They sell the same sized magnet with out the kit. In another e-mail, Jay has warned me the manual cautions of using magnets around the ABS sensors, so keep that in mind when installing them on the bike. I will test the ones I have and post a page when I am done.

4/19/09 Man, I had a hard time with the carb's on that bike. I wish I had more time to tinker with them but the owner had a long ride home. I only added 4 to 5 hp to the bike. I really enjoyed tuning the old bike again. Unfortunately I spent too much time on the Gen 1 bike, this leaves me with no time to get after e-mail I have piled up. I will try to in the morning

I am back from vacation and I am surprised to see that no one found the "Easter Egg" I hid on my site before I left. It was (still is) hid pretty good on my site. Since you didn't get the hint I left and I had to tell you it was here, I removed a few clues to make it even harder to find. Next, my vacation. It was the peace I needed. If I had to post one picture to represent it, this is it:

Back on track, I will be tuning a Gen 1 bike today. Tonight I will try to reply to all the e-mail that accumulated while I was away. Tuesday I will dyno the air filters.

4/11/09 Looks like I will be good to go in the morning. When some of you read this it will be Easter, so Happy Easter to you. Most of you will read this after Easter. I hope during Easter, you were happy. Easter is also about Easter egg hunts! I thought I would spend a little time working on the site tonight. ;) About this air filter thing. I will spend some time thinking about it during my vacation. Folks, until I return I hope you ride soon. Till then, a completely goofy waste of time: (Goat Rock's Video was removed to increase download speed)

4/10/09 After a conversation with Esten Spears and viewing some of the forum threads, I think I should perform an actual dyno test of the three filters. Hopefully Esten will loan me his stock bike again for this test. Mine is in pieces. From the previous testing of the Air Box modification, Esten and I thought it would be overkill to dyno test again what we have tested before. Though I have no recent correspondence from Evoluzione concerning this matter, I feel it's only fair to offer them a real dyno challenge. One problem exist. I am leaving for spring break vacation. I was supposed to depart today, but I had some trouble with the motor home and spent most of the day working on it. If all goes well with the repairs, I should make a very late departure Sunday. I am not going to put my return date on this web site. That would not be smart. I will refrain from interjecting any further opinion about these filters until the actual dyno test are performed. I feel it only wise for everyone else to do the same. Give them a fair shot, they deserve it. I have a considerable amount of e-mail tonight and it will be some time before I can work thru it. If you e-mailed me, it may be a while before you get a response. It's not because I don't like you. Just tired and overloaded.

I want to update you on the Air Box mod video where I flip the stock air filter around. On the bike, with the stock air filter flipped over, the paper element will slightly rub the YCC-I stacks. It will put two small dimples in the air filter. Again, I recommend the Air Box mod with a performance Air Filter. If you want to keep (or return to) the stock air filter, either put it in the right way or remove the YCC-I stacks before you flip it around. I have noted everything on my site and Youtube to reflect this finding.

For the short Air Filter challenge video click here. For a second longer and more detailed test, click here.

4/9/09 I am editing video and I noticed the Guru is getting a gut! This will be the next thing I start working on. I spend too much time at the computer!

4/8/09 Something that really ticks me off. Sitting at a "demand actuated" red light that does not know I'm there. I have one intersection here in town I call the intersection of Never Change and Wait A While. I always get caught by this red light pulling out of this shopping center I frequently on my bike. I pull up, and nothing. I have actually turned right to make a u-turn before. Well that has changed after reading this. The starter one seemed to work if I was in the right place. I have ordered some large neodymium magnets to glue to the frame. I will let you know how that works.

4/7/09 Here is your opportunity to look at some data from my Innovate Technologies LM-2 data logger. Click here to download the Log Works program and then you can play with this short log file from my last ride to Quaker Steak and lube.

I just read an article in the May 2009 issue of Cycle World about Harley Davidson possibly resurrecting the 1970's V-4 Nova project. The new engine is said to be a 72 degree V-4 with a displacement of 1300 to 1600cc and a redline of 12,000 rpm. Horsepower is rumored to be around 170. With a 170hp V-4 in the V-Rod, the "V" may stand for Vindication. I love competition, Bring It!

Bad weather canx'ed the job today. Windy! Looks like the Dynojet Power Commander V may make be headed my way soon. They are starting to post the generic maps on their site. Click here to see some of the first maps and links to software on their site. You can download the software and see what it looks like. I am excited about this one! Last I heard from them, they needed the connectors to fit the ECU so it sounds like this unit may have a set of connectors that connect this unit between the ECU and stock harness. That would have been my guess as they are reading several things other than injector timing such as engine temp, gear input, and TPS. Looks like this unit will also have a lot of options such as Autotune, A - B map selector switch, electric Quick shifter and an all weather LCD display. Visit the website here.

4/6/09 Today is a short work day. I may be able to goof with the bike some this afternoon. Tomorrow I will be on a job site all day.

4/5/09 A new challenge has been issued concerning air filters. I have agreed to test the stock filter verses two aftermarket versions. I am waiting for the filters to arrive.

I spent a little more time with the YCC-T alteration project today. I found that each of the position sensor's (APS and TPS) have two outputs that mirror each other in amplitude. I think this is primarily for error checking safety reasons and noise elimination. The ECU will go into error if either signal is missing. I also found that I could share one signal from the TPS sensor's dual output's as an input for both and the ECU will not go into error. By doing this, it allowed me to alter one signal and observe the alterations effect with the other. I started by adding resistance to this circuit which has caused the ECU to go into error with no throttle input. I constructed a resistor network with a 20 turn pot and this seemed to work a little better at controlling the opening rate but I still get the error. I obviously do not want this error and I really don't want the plates to be open until I have the accelerator > 50% open. I will control them with the APS signal. I am ordering some small relays to accomplish this. As seen in the chart from March, the APS signal moves from about 1.5 volts to 5 volts in relation to the position of the twist grip (throttle). I will build a small circuit to turn on a relay. The relay will switch between the signal in normal operation and the signal modified with a RC network. I am more comfortable with an analog circuit to switch this. I will have to add some capacitance to cover the small blip caused by the relay transferring from pole to pole. I have not excluded placing the resistance in series of the sensor rather than the output. More to follow on this one.

Taking it easy this morning surfing the internet and found that Ducati is about to throw it's hat into the power cruiser arena with this bike called the Vyper:

4/3/09 I made my first php page! Here is what I am after, it could be another rabbit trail. Early on, I discovered I could alter the Air Fuel ratio of the stock bike by changing the resistive value of the Intake Air Pressure and Atmospheric pressure sensors. I want to get a general idea of what the sensors read at various altitudes and various airbox setups. If you have the time, please take the survey:

4/2/09 OK. I posted the stupid promo video I made to my front page. I will let that run for a while. Hope you get the flow of it. Guru, rock and roll sitar music,, get it??? Maybe the exhaust fumes are getting to me. Anyway, looking into the future. We will need a place to cross reference OEM parts with aftermarket parts. To give you and example, batteries. I am wondering if the PC680 battery from the GEN 1 will fit? Tires are another example. What fits the stock rim? I am trying to hammer out the background stuff. I have been working on a database and submission page to handle that. I am running into a wall of time. If there is a web guru out there interested in helping develop this page, e-mail me. Lastly, I have calculated the following formula:

I Have added a site search that I will be working on today as well as upgrading other parts of the site. The site search is slightly functional. I have to reset page permissions to get all of the pages searchable. Strange problem. Over the coming days, I will be slightly changing the look of the site. I am teaching myself php and css so expect a crash or two. I add also added a "Bang for the Buck" sheet for the UFO Cat Sass system. It can be found here.

4/1/09 I just got back from a long ride to Quaker Steak and Lube in Clearwater. I met lots of people. A few very interested in the V-Max. Hope to hear from you soon if you was one of them.

I have added a blank "Tuner Files" page to my site for the various files that will be generated for different fuel tuners on the market. The Power Commander V with auto-tune will be a hot item for the serious user. Owners can post the resultant tuner file they develop on that page to share with others. I am working on a search page.

Ok, if you read the Blog at home, and the wife is around, go get her before you hit play on this next video. First off, I love the words to this song. Now for some history. A V-Max rider named Jack Mitchell sat down and videoed himself playing this song. He then posted it to Youtube asking for people to harmonize with it and post it back as a video response. Here is a duet response from karaokewoman4life:

Strangers miles apart, sitting at the computer and in one continuous take. Lots of talent out there. I will move this to the Seen This? page in time