Depends on what you need.
I actually had the service manager at my local HD dealer (a good friend of a good friend) pull me outside to tell me that if all I wanted was a good stage 1 tune that the FP3 was the ticket, and that it would get me to about 95% of what time on a dyno would.
Besides, V&H develops these maps from similar bikes with similar hardware that were dynoed...

 

I can't say with certainty but that smells an awful lot like marketing B.S.

All tuners get their data from the ECM. There is no who "reads the 1's and 0's better." Who interprets the 1's and 0's better? Maybe but doubtful now.

Maybe it is true right this minute. Won't be before long though with V&H getting real time data from every bike with a FP3 jacked in it.

 

Marketing BS? Bring it to a tuner and ask them if they use FP3 to tune. Majority of them don't. Also last I remember you cannot retard or advance timing with FP3 which is needed for a lot of cams. Autotune via any of the ecm tuners will get you medium numbers. It's hilarious to think you would be spending $$$ building your motor out to not maximize its potential by using autotune.

 

May be tuners do not use the FP3 because it is locked to the bike/VIN. So they will have to sell the FP3 with each bike as they can not use it on other bikes

Other systems may be more flexible from that point of view. I like the FP3 because it tunes on the go, real life on the road and not a dynobank.

RJ

 

Nope. All ecm tuners are married to the bike.

 

I do most of the tuning for 3 of three HD dealers near me.

I have done 1 full tune using the FP3 (for forum member Robbyville), just to try it out. I can say this, for what I would have to charge someone to tune another one they could buy a better tuning and pay me for the tune. The FP3 is a PITA to make manual adjustments on, compared to the other big 3 (TTS, VISION, SEPST).

 

I have a FP3 on my current bike; my last bike had the now-illegal SEPST and was dyno' by a local guy who is well-regarded.

I think the FP3 is good for someone like me, who isn't looking to eek every single amount of power out of their bike, but who wanted to upgrade to a Stage 1 for a little more oomph and to try and cool the bike down a bit.

If you are comfortable with using a canned map with minimal adjustments to it, the FP3 is probably fine. I'm happy enough with how my bike is running not to mess with auto tune.

 

Everyone is jumping off bridges, it must be the thing to do! Your parents should have taught you that fallacy growing up.

Let's stick to the facts, please.

The FP3 does support cams, how in depth they go... we would need more info from V&H or an unbiased current accounting from an experienced tuner since V&H's last update.

 

When you run 'autotune' on the FP3, what is the A/F ratio the tuner is searching for?

 

I agree, and I'd say skip the dyno run too.

I have and FP3 and a PowerVision. I've used both to tune my bike and run autotune sessions and they both work great now that V&H has corrected their compatability issues with the new Harley ECM firmware for 110" motors.

There's really no need at all to **** money away these days for Stage 1 or even Stage 2 (cams) bikes at a dyno shop. FP3 or PV with autotune will get you a solid tune and you can autotune all the decel pop and crap out.

To get a dyno shop to tune your bike you'd either have to pay $150+ for them to get a VIN license for your bike to use their shop powervision on, or you'd have to buy your own PV at $400-500. Then they'll probably charge $300+ to tune your bike. If you have to bring it back, maybe multiple times to have them dial it in, they'd probably charge some lesser fee for that too.

With FP3 or PV, you get a base map based on your engine and air flow and then you can just go run an autotune session for an hour or two and it will dial it all in. FP3 and PV can handle cams too. Paying someone to do a dyno tune on your bike is only really warranted if you've gone beyond cams into headwork and turbo/superchargers and stuff.