Dips, flat spots, and irregularities generally point to areas of improvement. Peak power and torque are fun numbers to talk about, but Pathak is more curious about the entire curve. Upon receiving a new bike, the first step Pathak takes is to put it on the dyno to get a baseline run.
Tuning starts with a run on the dyno to establish a baseline. “Bikes are way more fun,” Pathak says, “but the car business pays the bills.” While Pathak mainly deals with tuning ECUs for the car world, he’s no stranger to motorcycles. To guide us into the world of ECU flashing, we turned to Shiv Pathak, proprietor of Open Flash Performance. Whereas in the past we’d have to get our hands dirty and physically alter or change a part, today we can gain back a considerable amount of performance by simply plugging in a computer and altering specific lines of code set by the OEM. This much hasn’t changed between analog bikes and digital. By definition, however, those settings compromise maximum performance in order to meet government regulations. OEMs spend a great deal of time developing specific lines of code to meet certain requirements, primarily emissions-related, in order to make authorities happy and to be able to sell the bike all around the world. Only now the process is a little different. Like a carb, we can still adjust what they do and how they do it. Modern road-going motorcycles now rely on a computer, fuel injectors, and a number of sensors. All that just to gain five horsepower, if you’re lucky. Odds are you probably lost your 10mm socket, too.
It’s annoying and time-consuming, to say the least, and often you walk away greasy, dirty, smelling like gas, and a little pissed off. Get it wrong (which is much more often the case), and you have to pull it all off and try again. Get it right and it’s certainly rewarding. There’s an art, some might even call it a cathartic undertone, to pulling a carburetor and adjusting float levels, changing jets, moving clips, and reading spark plugs. If you’re of a certain age, then you might remember the nights spent in the shop, turning wrenches and busting knuckles trying to add more power to your motorcycle. But while the term is gaining in popularity, and is often associated with big gains, we wanted to know – what the heck is ECU flashing, anyway? For that, let’s start with a little back story. You hear the term “flashing” brought up all the time – and no, we’re not talking about spring break antics, either. The hot topic in motorcycle performance these days is flashing your ECU. Photos by: Evans Brasfield Video by: Sean Matic
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