The overwhelming majority of modern motorcycles have a significant amount of untapped potential. There’s no question that manufacturers want to build bikes that provide an enjoyable ride and plenty of power, but they’re often hampered by the need to create bikes that perform equally well in a multitude of different environments; from the scorching heat of death valley to the wet and windy reaches of North West Scotland.
Modern manufacturers are also hampered by the need to meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations and performance parameters set by marketing executives who are invested in establishing a clearly-tiered product range, and not at all interested in ensuring that individual models of bike are tuned for peak performance.
As such, it’s no surprise that a significant percentage of fuel injected motorbikes roll out of the factory with de-tuned engines – running software that’s actually designed to limit the amount of power delivered to your back wheel.
Fortunately, there is a way to remove these limitations and unleash your bike’s true potential.
This process is known as ECU remapping, ECU tuning or ECU flashing. In simple terms, we reconfigure the computerised tables (or maps) that your bikes in-built computer (or ECU) uses to that manage your engine – tweaking parameters, altering torque curves and changing the way your bike responds to inputs so that you can access more power (bhp) and torque (Nm) without pushing your engine too far.
Think of it as fine-tuning your bike’s engine to optimise power delivery in real-world conditions. In some cases, our tweaks will also unlock more power at the bottom end of your rev range, which is a real boon if you do a lot of city driving.
Remapping your motorbike’s engine can also improve throttle control and the overall quality of your ride. If you’ve ever found yourself battling with a snatchy throttle, struggling to pull away smoothly in the wet or battling power surges at the bottom of your rev range, a specialist ECU remap is a great place to start.
And if you’re already well on your way to solving some of these problems with aftermarket upgrades like a new exhaust, air intake or filter system, remapping your engine is the single best way to ensure that your bike’s inbuilt computer can take advantage of these upgrades.
When we sit down to write a remap, we have a unique opportunity to ensure that your fuel pressure, air-fuel ratios and are optimised for the parts that are actually installed on your bike – rather than the ones that shipped from the factory.
The results of a remap do depend on the exact make, year and model of your bike but most of our clients see a 10-30% boost in bhp and a significant increase in ride quality. To find out exactly what a remap could do for your motorcycle, use the lookup table below to find your bike:
Modern motorbikes are complicated machines; carburettors and other analogue components have been replaced by sophisticated computers that are responsible for managing the performance of your engine.
Every time you squeeze your throttle, hundreds of sensors fire - sending data about the air temperature and manifold pressure, cam and crank speed to computers that make split-second decisions about your ignition timing or fuel pressure.
Of all these computers, the ECU or engine control unit is definitely the most important. The ‘brain’ of the modern bike, this palm-sized component takes inputs from all over your machine, and uses a series of spreadsheet tables or ‘maps’ to fine-tune your bike’s performance on the fly.
When we remap a bike, we change the data in these tables; altering the way that your ECU responds to inputs to smooth out power delivery, alter torque curves and tweak things like air-fuel ratios to ensure that we’re getting 100% of your engine’s potential.
10 years ago, remapping was something of a dark art; practised by petrol heads huddled in their bedrooms or a poorly-lit garage on a run down industrial estate. But the industry has changed a lot over the last decade. The techniques we used are increasingly understood - and valued - by the mainstream and the overwhelming majority of people now know that ECU remaps are a perfectly safe and reliable way to upgrade a motorcycle’s performance.
In part, this is because of the time, energy and effort invested in writing good remaps. Working out of our specialised 19,000 sq ft. tuning HQ in Tockington, South Gloucester, our technicians use state-of-the-art technology to write maps that are sympathetic to the limitations of your bike.
We take great pride in our ability to boost performance without putting too much strain on key components, and we never write remaps that’ push your engine too far.
If you’re really worried about the potential risks of a remap, you’ll be pleased to hear that we always store your bike’s default maps on our servers, so that you can roll your ECU back to the factory-default settings whenever you want.
Irrespective of whether we’re working on a BMW Motorrad, a Yamaha or a Kawasaki, we hand-write remaps for specific makes, models and engines to ensure that we’re squeezing every drop of potential out of your machine.
When you buy a remap from Avon Tuning or one of our, you’re guaranteed to get a map that’s sympathetic to the limitations of your hardware – and capable of completely transforming your ride.