I've been a member for some time but have never posted anything. All I've done is read everyone else's thread. I've one question, hope someone is interested enough. I staged my 03 Road King with: (SE air, TFI, V&H ovals). I set the four pots, on the TFI, to the recommended settings, based on my upgrade. I got good power gain, but suffered with poor fuel economy and annoying exhaust popping. I removed everything, and now I'm back to a stock engine. What did I do wrong? Most everyone on here is happy with their stage 1 upgrade. Members have gone on the record saying: they have improved fuel economy. How can that be when you've modified the engine to accept and get rid of more air, and added more fuel. Thanks. for taking the time to read my thread. p.s. My bike runs hotter, would like to try and stage it again if I could only get rid of the popping and poor fuel economy.

 

Brian, there is simply more to it than just adding a bit of fuel. Unless you get a dyno tune with a GOOD dyno guy and a flash tuner, mileage will go down. The TFI, and even PC#s will add enough fuel everywhere to make it simply become a gas hog.

This will suck, because I recommend you spend some money and get a dyno tune by a competent tuner using a flash tuner system to do that tuning with... THEN you will see how nice a bike can run.

I say this, because you have an 03 bike. You, yourself, cannot self tune like guys with newer bikes at all, because your bike has no Oxygen sensors from the factory. ANd... it is too old to rewire your bike to accept them, because one needs an 04 and up bike to do so. My recommendations to you are both expensive. One... find a dyno tuner that is a good tuner and who uses either TTS or PV to tune with. (one should ALWAYS use a tuner the dyno shop recommends, because that is the tuner that they will get the best results).

Two.. would be to go and buy a Tmax system, weld in O2 bungs and use that system.

Both of these 'solutions will cost around $1000!!! But they ARE total solutions for what you seek.

An option, though would be to buy a Dynojet PC3USB. You will not be able to tune this without a dyno, but Dynojet has simply a TON of maps available for free to try. Try a few, and one will be able to run your bike OK. You will be in the high 20s or low 30s for MPG, but the bike should run OK.

I am not for certain, but Dynojet may also have PV maps for your bike. You could spend the money and buy a PV with the Wide band module and tune your own bike yourself. This will come close to the price of the TMax set up.... if it would work (I admit that I do not know if you can do this, Jamie from Fuelmoto would know for sure!!)

I personally recommend finding a dyno shop that has, and uses, a brake when they do tunes (there still is a surprising number of shops that have no dyno brake, and those shops aer to be avoided), have then tune your bike with TTS, and it will run very nice. Tune with the PV if you cannot find a TTS shop, PV will work very well for you.

With Dynojet stuff. A "PC" is a Power Commander" and a "PV" is a Power Vision.

The TMax system will be the one to own, if you feel that you wish to work DIY on your bike and its tune. On an 03? Absolutely nothing wrong with the TMax system. There are better alternatives, any more for newer bikes, but your bike? That could be a very nice solution for you if you are willing to do some homework.

The reason for the fuelers sucking gas and not running right? There are, today, in flash tuners tables and settings that we use that have nothing to do with 'fuel' itself. Not only do we change timing, but we individualize each cylinder's timing, just like we make the fuel requirements different for each cylinder. Then, there will be the other 30 odd settings and table that allow a falsh tuner to adjust how much fuel to add or subtract when you close your throttle, or we can change the timing when you close that throttle if fuel itself isn't enough to kill all that POPPING BS.

Think on things a bit and decide if old Betsy is worth a $1000 upgrade to you to get her to run well.

 

I want to thank you for such a comprehensve and informative reply. I knew things couldn't be as simple as I thought. My riding buds, with their new scoots, have gone back to the dealership for staging and tuning, now I know why. If I keep my 03 I will definetly follow your advice and have someone who knows, do the work. I now understand that I am not qualified. After all, a thousand dollars isn't that much if you consider the amount of the initial investment. Thank you for taking the time to clear up the mystery for me. I really do appreciate it.

 

NP, my friend