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7/31/09 I worked on the Speed Fix quite a bit today. I am trying to combine a few other features with it and it is taking some time to get it sorted out. I may just give up and post the basic version. More tomorrow if time allows. 

I have also heard of another failure of and 09 model. Lost output in any gear.

I will be in the shop testing the analog version of the Speed Fix. If it works, I will post the parts list and schematics to the site. This adjustable switch point divide by half circuit will work for numerous applications and is not limited to the V-Max speed limiter. I will publish this design to the site for the DIY type people (individually or in groups) to purchase and make for themselves in a not for profit manner. I reserve the commercial rights to this product. Commercial venders of any integrity seeking to construct and sell this item will need my permission. For those less than handy with a soldering iron and prefer not to join a group that has someone handy with a soldering iron, I already have a vendor wishing to construct and sell this item online.

This in from the e-mail: Bruce Rossmeyer dies in motorcycle accident.

7/30/09 It stormed and rained here yesterday and as everyone knows, I can't run any PC's around here or they get fried. So I worked extensively on an analog speed fix last night. My problem is the cut-over point. I have the divide by half working perfectly. I have a PIC stamp version now working perfectly but this analog is switching randomly when on the bike. I have done some research and discovered a few things. More parts on order. More to follow on this one.  

I put together a "Look Inside" page of the multi function display. I was curious! 

I am trimming down the web site by removing some of the non-Youtube video to get my sync time down to a reasonable level. 

7/29/09 I was just on the VMOA web site and saw that Scott Wingerter has passed away. Scott served as our clubs Treasurer for as long as I can remember. I have met Scott several times and also dealt with him during my tenure as the Southeast Regional Director. You couldn't find a better person. 

7/28/09 Esten's Bike is here! In honor of it, I grew a beard!

Today, Esten's bike arrives. This means I get my hands on the Battlestar again. I have some stock testing to do on his bike first, then the pipe goes on. In all of my ECU testing and playing around, I have found a few tweaks I can make to the Max Tuner file. I am going to play around with it some more and see if I can refine the file and make a 2nd version with the improvements. One I will be looking at will be the start-up. The Race ECU takes way too long to cold start on my bike. I will see if I can adjust this. Tonight I hope to build the first Speed fix as the parts are here. Lot's going on!

7/27/09 Funny thing in the e-mail, Redneck Seafood Dinner.

I received an interesting e-mail from an ECU manufacturer. I have ask a few more questions, I will see what the response will be. Once I know what I am talking about, I will Blog about it. Today is a work day. Maybe more this afternoon.

7/26/09 Here are the first results of low RMP and low throttle angle ECU testing. I am tentatively going to post this chart. Since this was not what I expected to find, I am researching this more and I may have to change it before it's all said and done. It is one chart of a few to more to come and I am still working on it. 

7/25/09 I spent the entire day testing the Race and Stock ECU's. Much to my surprise, I have measured a difference between the two. I am putting together a page now.

7/24/09 Ok, the time has come! The blower project, I am starting on it. I have the blower  in a box . It will take me a while to get the other parts together. This gives me time to finish a few other projects I have at hand (what's being shipped is one of them). I still have Esten's bike to look at starting next week. I sent e-mail's off to two engine control companies asking some preliminary questions about the units they have. I will see what they come back with. I need to find another engine to have torn down and look get some internals made. Anyone come across one, drop me an e-mail. The plan is to keep you in the loop via the Blog as I build this blower bike. From internals to electronics to exploring a chain drive conversion, all right here. The mother of all projects! 

Gary Glisson e-mailed me to say the bikes actual racing weight ended up being 520 pounds. He say's his next attempt at riding it will be at an 1/8th mile track Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 31st. I am sure I join many others in wishing him good luck once again!      

Hhhhmmm, got an e-mail this morning:

 Today is a work day. I have to start shopping for parts for the blower if I have time. I will let you know what I am going to purchase for fuel injection and timing when I decide.

7/23/09 I thought this would be easy, but it is taking some time to get this setup. I have the bike accelerating from the pot via a switch and relay now. I have bypassed the O2. I need to install the resistor on the coolant temp sensor and start a plot of the data. At least I have it working. The Dow passed 9k today, lets see if it holds! Tomorrow is a work day.

Sensor readings D01 thru D15 are the same for both ECU's. Found my TPS sensor was at 13 and out of spec (15 to 17). I fixed that. I am finishing the switch, pot and relay on the APS for testing.  

Discovery #1 - the CO settings are apparently not stored in the ECU's memory. My stock ECU has CO1 = 8, CO2 = 0, CO3 = 11, and CO4 = 0.  Swapped the stock ECU for the Race ECU and the same numbers came back up. Moving on to sensor readings and adjusting the CO settings to see what happens to injector duty cycle at various RPM's.

I wound up spending yesterday afternoon on business. Good news is I will be in the shop today. Forecast is for good weather.

7/22/09 I just received a conformation e-mail from Akrapovič stating they will be shipping a Slip On Open system for me to video, photograph and dyno test. Being familiar with this companies typically exquisite quality, it will be hard to render an objectionable opinion of this product but this statement should say allot for their reputation. I am also going to build a fuel map for this exhaust for the Power Commander PCV that will be available for download on this site. Per the e-mail, I will be the first to test this system and I should expect to receive it on or before the third week of August. They are in the middle of their summer holiday and company close-out. From the moment it arrives, you can expect photos and video to appear on this site as it will receive my full attention. Sometimes I wonder why I do this until something like this happens. This will truly be an honor.

Spoke to Jon of UFO today. His wife's surgery went well. I am sure I join many others in saying get well soon!

Storms! Still waiting for them to pass so I can get in the shop.

This in from the e-mail:

First time I have seen the site. View this and more wild digi-customs at Krax-Moto

 I have some work I need to tend to this morning, then I will be in the shop this afternoon. I hope to get settled back in and do some testing today. As I said before, I am now very curious about the Race ECU low RPM and small throttle angle testing. The way I am going to test this will be interesting and fun! I hope I have the switch I need in the shop.

7/21/09 I'm back. I have several e-mails to work thru so if you sent something, give me a bit to respond. I hope to get some shop time in tomorrow to look at the Race ECU stuff some more. I am still very curious about this. I also have some more measurements to take with the oscope that interest me. My friends Lambo. It's almost V-Max fast on take off but at 170, he would be waving bye bye at me on the bike!

7/17/09 - 7/20/09 Work (thank goodness)!

7/16/09 I will be busy with work for the next few days. I hate it when work interferes with my hobby! As for the e-mails about the two ECU's and a calibration. I would say the only real "calibration" per se would be the CO settings which is not discussed the manual or the Race ECU's accompanying documentation. I have not seen the CO adjustment routine in any manual so far. When I get done with work in a few days, I will run diagnostics on both ECU's and see if there is a slight difference in the base line readings (APS, WOT APS, TPS, WOT TPS, temp and so on) and go from there. Again, it may be beneficial to set the Race ECU's CO settings to the same settings as the stock ECU. This may help my RACE ECU's slow starting problem also. Good stuff!

7/15/09 I was IM'ing with Bob tonight and we discussed that some people are still having issues with the Stock and Race ECU results. I had figured that if there was any difference between the two ECU's, the RACE ECU would have a different response to a WOT input rather than the cruise region. This was part of my logic for the test I did. That being said, I feel my purpose with this web site is to realize when someone makes a good point / question and use the tools I have available to try to test the issue and produce a reliable result. I would like to walk away from this, but if there was a difference in the lower RPM fuel tables, it would make a difference in how the PCV would perform on the bikes. With respect to other throttle openings, I am not about to rule anything out at this point.  I also have felt a difference in the two ECU's and I was puzzled about the different "feeling" the Race ECU seemed to have. After studying the problem, gut feeling is a difference in the CO settings of the two ECU's and the calibration of the bike to this and other sensors. Also, there may be minor differences in the way the ECU's translate the analog signals into values.  It is still my contention the best map for the PCV will be one that has no adjustment at throttle openings from ~ = 20% or less. Leave the stock O2 sensor intact and the stock O2 sensor will take care of fuel corrections in this region for either ECU. It's no biggie to test small throttle openings as the bike is still on the dyno and wired up for testing. I intend to test the two ECU's at part throttle openings that I will set with a known value determined by a potentiometer set with a volt meter. This will force both ECU's to give a response to a accurately replicated percent of opening.  I will start the bike on the APS signal and switch it to the preset potentiometer signal. I will install the O2 sensor eliminator and hard wire the coolant temp at 220 ohms. I will use the same cylinder identification sensor as I did before to look at RPM (via pulse width) and take a measurement. I will do a couple at different % of openings and RPM's to see what it looks like. I will focus on the region that concerns me which is from 20% and 40% throttle opening.  The bad news is, I have some urgent work to attend to. I had to get ready for it today and did not get anything done on the bike. I hope to be back soon to do this testing and start on Esten's Battlestar tuning. Maybe by then someone will take the time to adjust the CO settings of the Race ECU to match the original stock ECU and try the Auto Tune again. 

Today I will be continuing the Dynojet Power Commander 5 installation. Since they appeared on the scene, I have had a few folks ask questions. Some I had answers, some I did not. So, I will continue on with this installation / tuning and see what happens. Since I have data logging capabilities of the LM-2, I can tune the PCV and take a ride in the real world and see what happens. 

7/14/09 I have completed the ECU test and the web page can be found here. 

I have finished testing the Stock ECU and Race ECU. I am going to construct a page and post the data tonight.

This morning, I had time to split the June Blog into it's own page and updated that. Last night I corrected some others issues. Hope to get somewhere with the testing today. In the shop today, finally!

7/13/09 Just realized that I orphaned the Jay Gleason page. Well, I fixed that! The page will be a permanent side panel link. Speaking of Jay, there is still some conversation about a "Jay Day". Ironing out a few details to see if this is viable. 

Have to go into work today. I hope to get some more shop time in tomorrow to test the Race ECU verses stock. Still have a PC issue to deal with first. 

7/12/09 No Blog, spent the day with the wife and friends.

7/11/09 Good news and Bad news. Good news is, I had time to get Eleanor on the dyno and strapped down. I was able to setup the oscope to externally trigger from the A channel on a set pulse width. A feature the oscope had that I never used before. I did some probing on the bike and found the signals I can use to test the injector and timing signals and make a single shot of the signal trace when the preset pulse width is passed by revving the bike up. Bad news is when I booted the PC for the dyno and oscope, the BIOS gave an error. This is not good. I have another PC so it will take some time to get this sorted out. Not a good week for setting records or figuring things out. I have a little trip with the wife planned for tomorrow, so I may not get back in time to play with this. We'll see.

This just in from Jon. They arrived at the track around 8:30 AM. The track started running  some of the other categories as scheduled. It came time for the V-Max competition. The V-Max guys, including Jon, lined up to make a pass and the bottom fell out. It was a whiteout from raining so hard. The track officials ended up calling an end to the competition for the day. This is really starting to suck! Working my way down a few "Hunny Do's" and getting closer to some shop time today. 

Hope today will be my first day in the shop with Eleanor. I intend to get a little saddle time in this morning. Then, I am going to look at the Race ECU and Stock ECU again. I am going to build a couple of circuits. One will combine two of the bikes timing signals to be observed on a single oscope channel. The second will be a chip to read engine RPM and trigger my DSO to store a capture of the combined signal at the selected RPM. I will be able to determine if there is any timing and fuel injection differences via this method. I hope to bring closure to the ECU debate. As I have always said, I can feel and hear a difference the dyno is not picking up. It will be interesting to see the outcome. 

7/10/09 No Blog.

7/9/09  As promised, this just in:

I run a family oriented site so I will refrain from the expletives! Thanks for the update Gary. It happens. I wish you the best of luck next time! I think Jon Cornell will be trying for the 8 second crown on the 11th at the event listed below. You two seem to be the ahead of the pack.  I will honestly say, I think 8's on the motor alone will be very tough! It's gonna be fun to see who does it,,  first!

Just a reminder, the second annual UFO DAY AT THE DRAGS at Thompson Raceway Park is July 11th. Bring your Max, sportbikes welcome! 

I am now aware of two 2009 VMX17's that have suffered failures of some sort. The first failure was a shift fork bearing. The second has not been determined. I am awaiting a post mortem report from the owner. Early report was an engine failure that made the bike run on two cylinders and turned the oil milky. Does not sound good. I am constructing a page for breakage & damage pictures & reports! Have some, e-mail me.

Live near Hatfield, PA?

Click Image to visit the site

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8 seconds?? I hope to hear from Gary of Munford, TN soon to see what his times look like. I will post it as soon as he replies. 

Worked some on the top speed limit Nix Fix last night. I have changed the design and slimmed down the number of components. The spice models look good. I may attempt to build one tonight if I have the parts. If you are interested, here are examples of the Tee Shirt art. The examples you can see at Zazzle do not show what they look like. I am working on a few more as time allows. This will be it for a while. I designed the VMX17 art to cut the CNC router art I raffled away for the VMOA at Bikeweek. Click to enlarge:

The diagonal watermark was added and will not be in the actual artwork.

7/8/09 Still having to tend to my business, so not a lot of tuning to Blog about today. Due to the work backlog, I am reduced to spending a little time at night working on some Tee Shirt artwork. I have made some quick ones and posted them to Zazzle. I am still working my way to a couple shirt ideas the wife came up with. Due to her designs, they will have to be printed locally. I don't want to appear to be a sell out, but this is another outlet for my passion for this bike. So far, I am my own biggest customer. Buy one if you want, or not, I don't care. I am having fun drawing them up. 

Aside from this, soon Esten Spears will bring over his bike and I will start tuning a Max Tuner and PCV for an all stock bike and then the Battlestar goes on. Hope to see some big numbers from that and maybe another trip to the track. Which brings me to a "Jay Day". I have been kicking around the idea of a "Jay Day" for some time. I may approach the VMOA and see if they would like to tie it in with Biketoberfest. The concept is to find a track to rent for a day and have as many V-Maxes as we could attract come for a photo shoot with Jay Gleason. Jay would be there with posters and video's. The VMOA store could bring some merchandise. Jay could autograph things like store items, your "Unitized" book, numbered frame badges, or the faux tank cover! Jay could try to beat 9.5 on my bike. I could have the dyno down there. Maybe invite a magazine like Cycle World down for some catered BBQ. Just ideas. Don't hold me to thinking out loud.

7/7/09 Gary Glisson of Munford, Tennessee may have the first all motor VMX17 to run in the 8's. In it's current form, the bike weighs 520 pounds. Gary say's a slick is on order for the front. That should bring it down to 516 pounds! Soon, I hope to change the 8 Second punctuation from "?" to "!". We will find out this Thursday. Click the image below to see more about this machine!

7/6/09 Tennessee was a needed break in the activities. Nice to have a good calm vacation. I am working on catching up on the e-mail. To those that have sent me something, hopefully I will either get it posted or send a reply soon. Wasn't as much e-mail over this break so it shouldn't take too long. There are a few new toys showing up for V-Max owners. Accompanied by good weather in States, this means most people are tinkering and riding their bikes now. While on vacation,  I have decided to start drawing up some Tee Shirts and selling them on Zazzle. The wife has some good ideas too. Here is a few I have started working on. Remember the "Need 6"? 

I am back and I am swamped at work. I have some new ideas developed over the vacation. Hope to post more soon.

7/1/09 thru 7/5/09 Vacation!