Thunder Air Kit & PCIII ride report. Wow!!!

[Scubat]

I picked up the 05-1500 Classic today after having the local Kawi dealer install the Thunder Air Teardrop kit and the Power Commander. All I can say is wow!!! It is like a completely different bike! The dragon can breathe! The power gain is the most noticeable change. The bike just pulls and pulls at all rpm ranges. I actually had to hold on tight when I first jumped on the throttle. What I did not expect was the beautiful change in sound coming from the Straight Shots. It is a much deeper/cleaner sound. The idle sound also changed and it almost sounds like the bike has a larger cam. Lets not forget the cool sucking noise of air filling the motor at every twist of the throttle! This was not a cheap mod at $800 but well worth it to me.

I did have one question for you guys and girls with the Power Commander on your bikes. The dealer did not use a custom map for my bike and just used the stock settings on the Power Commander. If I understand this correctly, the stock PCIII set up would be for a stock 1500 with stock exhaust and intake, right? Am I harming the bike at all by using the stock settings? I thought the whole purpose of these fuel managment systems was to achieve the full potential of our bikes power with the specific exhaust and air intake mods that we have. Is there more power to be had here?

A few pics of the completed job!

[Scubat]

Sorry the pictures are so big! My Bad.

[Tod]

It's okay, just edit the post and hit enter after each ending image tag, that will stack them rather than stretching them out side by side.

Great looking bike.

[uechi kid]

http://www.powercommander.com/203-211.shtml
Here are some maps from the powercommander's web site.

[anamosity]

very nice looking

[Frankt07]

very nice. i like the air kit.
you should look into getting the PCIII custom tuned. you might pick up some more ponies

[pitchinguy]

Lookin daaaaaam good!!





http://www.smileycentral.com/sig.jsp...p=ZNxdm801YYUS

[Phatboy]

Try m203-005 from the above link or t203-004 from thunder:

http://www.thundermfg.com/store/index.php?action=t203


......actually I just compared the two and they're excatly the same. Either one should be fine for now, but a dyno tune would produce a few more ponies.

[Scubat]

Originally Posted by Phatboy

Try m203-005 from the above link or t203-004 from thunder:

http://www.thundermfg.com/store/index.php?action=t203


......actually I just compared the two and they're excatly the same. Either one should be fine for now, but a dyno tune would produce a few more ponies.

Thanks Phatboy. Do you think I am missing a lot of power by leaving it the way it is? My biggest concern is if the bike will be running too lean or rich with the stock settings.

[ontwowheels]

schweet

[NY_Guy]

The DynoJet site does have a map for stock Classic 1500-- but if that's what you have loaded, you should change asap. The whole point behind after market fuel mgt is the addition of gas to compensate for increased air flow, the absence of which can fry exhaust valves. Your dealer did you no favors.

[Scubat]

Originally Posted by NY_Guy

The DynoJet site does have a map for stock Classic 1500-- but if that's what you have loaded, you should change asap. The whole point behind after market fuel mgt is the addition of gas to compensate for increased air flow, the absence of which can fry exhaust valves. Your dealer did you no favors.

Ny Guy. The dealer didn't load any map as far as I know. He just installed the Power Commander. I would think even the stock Power Commader settings for the 1500 would be adding fuel to the mix so I don't think I am running lean right now.

[jukief]

I was doing some reading on the PC web site last week because I was really concerned about the map I'm using. I couldn't find one specific to my setup, so I just picked one I thought might be closest. The web site says that it won't hurt your bike if your map doesn't exactly match your bike's setup, so I'm not as worried as I was before. But I'm going to try to do some manual finetuning. I've only taken the bike out once since I installed the PC. I'm going to try to do a lot of riding this weekend and keep checking the spark plugs. I really can't spend the $$ right now to have a custom map made so I'm going to try to get by the best I can on my own.

[jukief]

Here's what the PC web site says about this:

Is this all to say that if we do not have an exact map for your bike that the Power Commander will not work for you? No. We are very specific about what parts are used in the development of our maps, but that does not mean
that the map will only work with those exact parts. Mufflers, air filter kits (Harley models), and full exhaust systems of similar construction can be substituted for the ones in the map notes. While substituting parts may not yield 100% optimization, performance will still be noticeably improved.

Well then, when is a custom map required? Custom maps can help achieve closer to 100% optimization on any bike, but is that really necessary? Generally no. A bike may be 60-70% optimized in standard form. With the
Power Commander and an available map from our database the bike may be 90-95% optimized. This constitutes a huge gain in performance. Is it crucial to have the last 5-10% of optimization? It depends on what your goal is. If
every last bit of power is necessary then it can be. If what you want is a bike that runs considerably better than standard without any additional adjustment then it is not. The point at which a custom map is really a necessity is when the engine and or exhaust are heavily modified. When a bike has special cams, ported heads, and or a “one off” exhaust system a custom map is the only way to fuel curve match the engine requirements.

[NY_Guy]

Originally Posted by Scubat

Ny Guy. The dealer didn't load any map as far as I know. He just installed the Power Commander. I would think even the stock Power Commader settings for the 1500 would be adding fuel to the mix so I don't think I am running lean right now.

There's really no such thing as stock settings for PCIII, since one model can be used on different motorcycles: either there's a zero map (which means the default ECU settings control) or someone's created a map for stock equipment. Either way, since you've added a Thunder Air Kit, unless you want to fry the exhaust valves, you should load a map that adds gas or manually richen the mixture (by using the buttons on the unit). Otherwise and esp at high rpms, your a/f mixture is going to be way too low and operating temp way too high.

[steverc]

Love it , do they make a fake cover for the other side of the bike to match.

[MeanWon]

Surely the dealership loaded in a map for the air kit. If carrying and installing the product they should know how to install and use it. My dealer when I picked mine up told me they loaded in the closest map they could find on the dynojet website and then fine tuned it by ear and riding it. They did a good job in my opinion.

[Phatboy]

Originally Posted by Scubat

Thanks Phatboy. Do you think I am missing a lot of power by leaving it the way it is? My biggest concern is if the bike will be running too lean or rich with the stock settings.

A dyno tune will alleviate this concern forever. If you're going that route be sure to get the cylinders mapped individually at 500 rpm increments.

Now if you have a laptop it is pretty easy to change maps. If you don't have a laptop a Palm can do the job or you can just get a long usb cable and toss it out the window.