I swapped out exhaust on my ‘14 Breakout from V&H Big Radius to V&H Short Shots and discovered the bike has a ThunderMax tuner. I bought the bike used. Unfortunately the new pipes don’t have the 18mm bungs for the wide band O2 sensors. My shop will put a set of bungs on the pipes; right now it’s running fine with no O2 sensors. I have a few questions.

I put a new battery in several months ago and since I didn’t know about the tuner I didn’t do the reset procedure and therefore the bike was running the stock EFI MAP, correct? I didn’t notice any difference in performance after the battery install.

I don’t have the equipment/license to tune the bike, anyone know how much it costs and I imagine some shops can do it?

The bike is stage I and I don’t plan on doing any other engine/performance mods. What can the tuner do for me?

I researched the tuner settings and it seems there’s no retune required - the two pipes are basically the same.

I reached out to ThunderMax via email and haven’t heard back. I wanted the check with you guys here. Thanks a lot.

 

Never had an issue with mine. Multiple battery changes, main fuse pulled etc. Never an issue. On/Off procedure is probably there "just in case".

 

The Thundermax is designed for wide band auto tuning through the O2 sensors. There is software that you down load to a windows computer that contains maps for your bike's set up.

You should take your bike to a shop that knows Thundermax, have them hook your Thundermax up to a laptop, and then see which map your bike has loaded. If the map isn't the correct one, it is easy to select one that is close enough for the auto tune feature to work properly.

My local Harley dealer did not load the correct map for my bike after a Stage 2 and it was noticed while riding. So I took my bike to an Indy who knows Thundermax and he loaded the correct map and test rode the bike to make sure it was running properly. It cost $230 but it was worth it.

There are You Tube videos on how to set up a Thundermax

 

Got a helpful response from ThunderMax, turns out I just need a cable, pc, and a few downloads and I’m good to go. Problem is we ditched any Windows pc’s long ago so I’ll be using a shop to access the tuner. It’s not all bad but I was hoping to geek out some on this.

ThunderMax’s download page is is pretty awesome, lots of great information there.

Chopper Man here’s what happened to me; I put new pipes on w/o the O2 sensors and the bike ran fine. I had a problems with the fuel pump and took it to my indy shop for that and new tires. The mechanic who’s also their tune guy fixed the pump but said it won’t idle b/c the ecm/tuner needs the O2 sensors. I brought the bike home armed with knowing about the ThunderMax so I read up on it. That’s where I saw the initialization/reset procedure when you interrupt power so I decided to unhook the battery and subsequently not ‘reset’ the tuner. The idle problem is now fixed. I’m assuming the mechanic reset the tuner when he put the bike back together. Haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet but that’s next on my list. It’s interesting that you haven’t had any problems. Looks like you have a ‘14 bike also and I wouldn’t expect there’s much difference between the different tuner models. Thanks.

 

You mentioned you got rid of all windows PC's, did you go to MAC? If so, you can run a virtual windows PC in VMWare Fusion or Parallels. Been using it for years including for my TMaxx software. Geek away!

 

Remove thundermax, install the o2 sensor and do a good dyno tune with professionals in the bike.

 

Didn’t know there was such a thing, thank you.

 

I was thinking about doing this and maybe adding the V&H fuelpak. I need the check with my tune guy. Interested in a used ThunderMax?

 

You probably don't have the Original ECM do you? You'll need something if you remove the TMax

 

Who is your tune guy? Looking for a tuner in the Melbourne area.