Joe,

You forget. The SERT is a download. There is nothing to brake. When you unplug the cable you leave nothing behind but the program. I've never heard of a SERT going bad, just like you've never heard of the hd download going bad.

The HD Download is just a program downloaded to your ECM. The SERT is the program to create your own custom download/map or you can use a canned map or customize a canned map. The download/map you create is saved on your computer so you can modify it later if needed. It's downloaded directly to your ECM like the HD Download. There is nothing to go bad.


Terry

 

Personally, I tend to agree with what your saying. The thing that is hard to swallow for most, someone, especially a dealership, telling me that in order to get my BRAND NEW bike, less than 5000 miles, to run correctly, I need to drop another $1000 + on a race tuner and then duno time.
In actuallity, if HD didn't make all of their dealers tune bikes to California EPA standards, most of us would already have good running bikes.

 

Stock Harleys DO run just fine, till you start adding upgrades then you have to adjust.

 

Terry, don't you just hate people who are both cheap and stupid. I deal with this type of "customer" everyday. You try to educate them and guide them in the right direction, and they still ignore your many years of experience. Why? because they are CHEAP and STUPID. they should stick to driving cars instead of trying to be bikers. If you have to try this hardto be a harley owner, you should have never bought a harley in the first ***-n place.. I love ALL H-D's and will never owm anything else. The only reason I own a truck is because it is too hard to ride in the winter in New England with 2 kids on the back.. Just tell these morons to sell their bikes and get back into their suv's. that way they can wave at us from the safety and security of their suburban shzt head lifestyles. Maybee even the prices will come down back to where they belong. Sorry, just have had enough of the whining from these people.

 

Sadly, Harley is being forced to anticipate and respond to present and future EPA restrictions; if it didn't, it would have to either close up shop or go all-water-cooled. And we're stuck with the result, which some people are quite satisfied with overall.

For the rest of us, there are SERTs and PCIIIs and good dyno tuners, along with after-market pipes, air cleaners and other add-ons. However, I'm not sure how long these things will continue to be available. For example, though HD continues to sell the SERT, I'm not sure that the latest version of the program itself has not been modified or in some way crippled. Anything they list as "street-legal" has been to some degree modified to meet current EPA requirements, and is not the same as one or two years ago.

On another note: While it is true that the SERT is more flexible than the PCIII, it has two major drawbacks (IMHO) that caused me to buy the PCIII. First, it's more expensive than the PCIII. More important, once you use it, it mates to your ECU and can never be used on another bike. You can't move it to your next bike, and you can't sell it. That little Microsoft-like bit of patent-protection alone would have steered me away. Also, unless you're running a pretty impressive build, I would venture to say that you don't really need more flexibility than the PCIII affords you.

I bought my PCIII from Fuel Moto USA, who programmed it before sending it to me for my specific configuration. A couple of months later I had the bike dynoed, and the tuner seemed surprised that the values were pretty much dead on. This weekend I'll be changing the pipes, and Fuel Moto emailed me a new map. Can't beat that service.

If any part of this reply is considered a thread hijack, I apologize.

 

Yeah...I can see your pain.....you must be fed up with like the WEEK that you've been a member here. You got a rough life.

[&:]

 

just waiting on the 08's. and then i will be ridin not bitchin about how bad my ride is or that no one will wave back. The check is in the bank so i can pay cash. i must admit this forum has some knowelagable people on it but seems to have more whinners thani can understand.. I appreciate the tech input but cant stand the bitchin. Oh i didn't realize that i had to do time to comment. thanksfor the lession in hd forum etiquette.

 

Well, I am not a "wrench". I can change parts and fix autos of my own. I have for over 38 years. And, I have nodoubt that, if I live long enough, I will have fixed many things on the second Harley Davidson that I have owned. The first wasn't owned long enough to find enough problems to fix. It was just ridden.
Cheap. I spent 17,000 okani on a brand new motorcycle. I would hardly call that cheap. If Harley can do all of these wonderful things, why didn't they do them on my $17,000 machine before I bought it.
Stupid. Maybe. I spent $17,000 dollars on a machine that purposefully runs hot and spits and sputters so I will spend another $3,000 after the deal to get it to run right. If I had known this going in, would I have spent that much money? I doubt it. I could have bought a used machine and fought these kind of problems.
Trying to get a dealer to just change the injectors on an early productionl 2006 Dyna that the MOCO admitted was faulty when they changed production to a different injector took an act of Congress. I really hate doing things like that. I mean I really, really hate doing things like that. The bike was stalling at redlights and the dealer said they "couldn't duplicate it". And they had the TSB for over six months telling them what the problem was.
I am really trying not to lump Harley Davidson into the Ford, Chrysler dealership portion of my brain but it is extremely difficult not to with examples like that.
I apologize that I haven't yet learned to disassemble any year model Harley Davidson and put it back together blindfolded in 10 minutes and don't have the wisdom that all of you guys have who sling out words like "cheap and stupid". (Note sarcasm here.)
I am not angry because I haven't cared what other people think or say for a long time. But the charge of "cheap and stupid" is not warranted and may be deeply felt by some on this forum as a personal insult to their limited knowledge of what needs to be done and their lack of ability to get it done.

 

Since you're open to lessons in forum etiquette, here's another one: Before you start calling out forum members as "whiners," you might want to fill in a proper profile, rather than hiding behind a blank page. It'd be common courtesy on your part to introduce yourself, if you expect anyone to actually give a crap about anything you have to say.

 

Holy crap, I was wondering why I didn't see this post earlier, it's almost a 2 year old post.

Anyway, great post Terry.