Back in the day to do a Stage 1 all you did was swap out the pipes or 'spike' them, let the bike breathe and re-jetted the carb or put a nice S&S Carb or equivalent and re-jet kit and Bob's your uncle, job done, bike runs sweet and fast. If it broke down it was easy to diagnose and fix.

Now with fuel injection, ECU's, fly by wire controls, ABS, cruise control, coil packs - just seems like there's more to go wrong, difficult to diagnose, and a lot more costly to fix.

Reading through some of the threads on 6th gear light not working, fault codes, etc. etc. it just seems to me biking's getting way too complcated. I liked it when wrenching was easy and didn't involve a computer. For me Harley are going too Jap and German.

 

So why aren't you on a pre f.i. carbed evo, with not even a fuel gauge ?

 

just saying!

 

I agree, but on the other hand once you get an FI bike dialed in your pretty much done.IE my 06 with a Thunder header and K&N was tuned with a SERT on a dyno back in 07 and I haven't had to do anything else to it but change fluids since.Granted it was way more complicated and expensive to set up but literally I do nothing but change the fluids on time and ride now.I just recently changed out the original plugs it made no difference.

 

More costly to fix, sure.

More difficult to fix? That depends. I wouldn't say "more difficult," I would say that it just requires a new set of skills. Which most old school type mechanics don't have. And it does require a laptop and some software, and the skills to use them.

 

I would rather get out my laptop that yank a carb apart, posssibly several times before getting it right - if the map is wrong I just get out the LT again and change it. FI engines of any sort are much more capable.

 

I definitely get where the OP is coming from. Finally got my bike semi dialed in and my wife is wondering why in the hell we have to make all of these changes. I told her if I have to explain, you wouldn't understand lol. Fuel injection is still very young compared to carbs and I think over time it will become less complicated or the people that ride FI bikes will become more knowledgeable.

 

I use to feel the same way, but that was because I did not understand the new systems very well. The more I understand about them the more my opinion changes on the subject.

 

Just an observation, but most of the time that people post these "problems" you can look at their signature and see all the mods they have done to the bike. There are probably millions of combinations of parts available. No one can offer a map that will work with every combination.

This is a very pro mod forum. There are plenty of bikes out there that are basically stock and are working just fine, and will probably do so for years.

 

Yea but then what? There are a high percentage of EVO's out there over 10 or even 15+ years old running just fine with well over 100k on them, some over 200k still on the same bottom end.

There's no question electronics have made the bikes more complex. Try diagnosing, much less fixing one on the side of the road. I guess more folk these days are happy enough to wait for a dealer to come pick them up on the side of a road.