The same questions seem to keep cropping up and there are endless topics about if the bike is or is not restricted, does the Flash do the same as the CJM or PC5 blah, blah, blah.
I have scoured the forum, spoken to several flash providers and tuning companies and stuck my own bike on the dyno with and without the CJM and have now finally tried the Flash, this is what I have learned (so far) much of it from other topics, so here it is under one place, not so much a Flash review as my bikes story to date, maybe others can add to this.
I will post a review in one of the "reviews only" topics, but finding it may be hard amongst the 3,000 posts that are not reviews
Before I start please not that I have stolen info dyno graphs from here and there, different dyno's may read a bit differently, and no two bikes are entirely identical, so a bog stock bike on a high reading dyno could show 100BHP, whereas a bike with a full system, flash and power commander on a low reading dyno may show the same - but on the same dyno on the same day there would be a good 10BHP difference, what I am trying to show is the difference the mods have made to mine and other bikes.
Is the bike really restricted
It sure is, I have seen a lot of posted graphs for both sport and touring modes in a variety of gears and these are spread across different regions, they all appear to be restricted in a similar way, although maybe not exactly the same. This is a neat graph of 2nd - 6th and really shows how badly restricted 2nd and 3rd gears are.
I have also seen a few other 2nd and 3rd gear graphs and tested my bike, the restrictions are real and very noticeable in the right conditions (lower revs in 1st - 3rd) but if you barely drop below 4th gear or 5,000 rpm you may never really notice. Similarly if you use quite gentle throttle openings (say under 30%) most the time the difference would not be so obvious as it is to a ham fisted rider like me who likes to swing on the throttle like a Chimpanzee on a vine.
The bottom line is these restrictions are quite massive, and if you pick your gear and point in the power curve you could claim something like 20BHP :exclaim:
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly:- What does the Clutch Jumper do
Does it remove these restrictions - Yes (certainly the fly-by-wire ones)
So is a flash pointless - No
The CJM has been totally de-bunked here by AVC8130
http://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?topic=9016.0
The post has full details, but the important takeaway is:
Now one thing I noticed later when reviewing Dyno graphs was the bike made 91BHP in third with CJM, but 95BHP in 5th (without CJM) although this could be the way the dyno "read" the power with the 5th gear load a bit differently to 3rd gear - or maybe the CJM "Map" does give a shade less top end :question: Never had the time / inclination / cash to throw at the dyno runs, the CJM had got rid of the stumble and low down restrictions.
The CJM is an awesome cheap mod, but it has limitations, and nobody really knows what it does - which some folk may find troublesome, from another topic:
What does the Flash do
Well ,they all claim to remove these 1st - 3rd gear restrictions and give full power in every gear ::012:: some claim to optimise fuelling and ignition, some say they can alter the dreaded closed loop area (which runs horrible to comply with emmisions regs) - it could also be this area is quite different from region to region :question:
I think ECU Unleashed are (currently) alone in actively offering a Flash for modified bikes, the others tend to advise a power commander and that the flash is just to remove the restrictions. These ECU's are so complex with so many maps for fuel, ignition, throttle timings (for each gear) and I doubt any two are the same, some will be better than others.
Most (if not all flashes) also make other changes that improve the feel of the bike, mine felt much smoother post Flash and far more responsive to part throttle, especially low down (possibly due to the Gen2 ECU Unleashed Flash improving the closed loop area) but from what i have read everyone has reported a nicer feel and smother transition from on / off throttle.
Who needs a power commander
Everyone and no-one IMO, all flashes are generic and all bikes are different, until someone offers a customized flash (i.e. they flash the bike, run it on a dyno, tweak fueeling, running again - and again, untll the fuelling is spot on) then a Power Commander will provide that last bit of fine tuning - of course those so inclined can then fiddle with maps and bugger around with it endlessly, or start doing other mods without needing a re-flash.
Probably the further from stock your bike is the bigger the gains of having a Power Commander will be, if it is bone stock a Flash will probably be quite good, and just an end can makes little odds - as soon as you ditch the headers things change a lot....
What effect does an exhaust have
According to Arrow their end can gives just over 2BHP, but the full system adds 9BHP, so most the restriction is in the front half, on my bike I got another 6BHP from Arrow headers with the OE silencer - again this may vary a bit from one market to another, but if your bike has cats in the downpipes then these will need swapping out for any big gains. Overall I gained about 10BHP with Flash and Headers, maybe another 2-3 can be had with a Can, but I now like the way it is (and have run out of money)
What about Surging and the Stumble Problems
As far as I am aware most (if not all) people with a Flash agree the stumble has gone, on my bike the CJM sorted this out, and now with the Unleashed Gen2 Flash I have no stumble.
I believe the surging has only affected bikes with aftermarket exhaust systems, on mine it happened at low throttle settings from @1700 - 2200 RPM, no problem on the open road, but in traffic was a PITA. The Unleashed Gen2 Flash has almost cured it, the area it happens to has been massively narrowed, my initial guess it happens about 10% as often as it used to, and as it affects an area of around 100rpm as opposed to 500 rpm, and also on a much narrower throttle range you almost have to go looking for the problem now on my bike.
My real test was a 3500 mile trip to the Alps, I would guess the amount of times it surged could be counted on my fingers, and the surge is now quite gentle rather than the pre-flash bucking bronco so as it starts to creep in I either speed up a little, slow down a little or change gear - may still be a pain for those who often trickle along in traffic or off-road, but for me its now OK.
I do plan to try O2 eliminators soon.
What where my results
The bottom line is stock my bike was knocking out around 90BHP in stock trim, the Arrow Headers took this to a healthier 96 BHP and the Flash added another 3BHP to give a fairly respectable 99 RWBHP.
The torque curve is now very impressive, being dead staright pretty much from 3k to 7k, but the dyno does not give the whole story, the throttle response is far crisper and makes the bike feel a lot more powerful low down than the dyno gains suggest, I think because it now takes far less wrist movement for the bike to respond. It also feels so much smoother - basically it just feels "right", how a long stroke, low state of tune 1200cc Twin should feel.
And compared to a bog stock Tenere you can see how much extra Ooomph it has at the top, most of this is down to the Headers and with a decent end can I am sure it would just top 100BHP
I am probably not quite done yet, the Gen2 Flash could do with a bit more refining at very low speeds, hopefully they will get it sorted with a Gen3 but if not I would be tempted to get a power commander later on, but at least I know I can run my bike as configured safely and it is 90% there now, with the headers on a stock ECU (With CJM) it was probably only about 70% there so it is a great improvement.
Now I have ridden it over 4,000 miles with the Flash I am really happy, the instant grunt and response is amazing, even two-up fully loaded I rarely needed more than 4k-5k on the tacho, and when there is a tricky overtake the extra top-end is welcome, rather than the sluggish crawl to the redline the bike had in stock trim, it now races right up to the red building power all the way.
The most impressive thing is the better fuel consumption, at first I was not so sure, but having piled on so many miles it is now apparent it is giving better economy, even ignoring the computer I now get about 10-15 more miles to the fuel light and have achieved some amazing figures on my recent tour.
I have scoured the forum, spoken to several flash providers and tuning companies and stuck my own bike on the dyno with and without the CJM and have now finally tried the Flash, this is what I have learned (so far) much of it from other topics, so here it is under one place, not so much a Flash review as my bikes story to date, maybe others can add to this.
I will post a review in one of the "reviews only" topics, but finding it may be hard amongst the 3,000 posts that are not reviews
Before I start please not that I have stolen info dyno graphs from here and there, different dyno's may read a bit differently, and no two bikes are entirely identical, so a bog stock bike on a high reading dyno could show 100BHP, whereas a bike with a full system, flash and power commander on a low reading dyno may show the same - but on the same dyno on the same day there would be a good 10BHP difference, what I am trying to show is the difference the mods have made to mine and other bikes.
Is the bike really restricted
It sure is, I have seen a lot of posted graphs for both sport and touring modes in a variety of gears and these are spread across different regions, they all appear to be restricted in a similar way, although maybe not exactly the same. This is a neat graph of 2nd - 6th and really shows how badly restricted 2nd and 3rd gears are.
I have also seen a few other 2nd and 3rd gear graphs and tested my bike, the restrictions are real and very noticeable in the right conditions (lower revs in 1st - 3rd) but if you barely drop below 4th gear or 5,000 rpm you may never really notice. Similarly if you use quite gentle throttle openings (say under 30%) most the time the difference would not be so obvious as it is to a ham fisted rider like me who likes to swing on the throttle like a Chimpanzee on a vine.
The bottom line is these restrictions are quite massive, and if you pick your gear and point in the power curve you could claim something like 20BHP :exclaim:
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly:- What does the Clutch Jumper do
Does it remove these restrictions - Yes (certainly the fly-by-wire ones)
So is a flash pointless - No
The CJM has been totally de-bunked here by AVC8130
http://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?topic=9016.0
The post has full details, but the important takeaway is:
I would also steer clear of making recommendations, my dyno test results are here.....avc8130 said:
Now one thing I noticed later when reviewing Dyno graphs was the bike made 91BHP in third with CJM, but 95BHP in 5th (without CJM) although this could be the way the dyno "read" the power with the 5th gear load a bit differently to 3rd gear - or maybe the CJM "Map" does give a shade less top end :question: Never had the time / inclination / cash to throw at the dyno runs, the CJM had got rid of the stumble and low down restrictions.
The CJM is an awesome cheap mod, but it has limitations, and nobody really knows what it does - which some folk may find troublesome, from another topic:
Probably best to have it on a switch and use it when around town and on tight switchback roads, then turn it off on free flowing roads, or just pay up for a Flash ::008::avc8130 said:
What does the Flash do
Well ,they all claim to remove these 1st - 3rd gear restrictions and give full power in every gear ::012:: some claim to optimise fuelling and ignition, some say they can alter the dreaded closed loop area (which runs horrible to comply with emmisions regs) - it could also be this area is quite different from region to region :question:
I think ECU Unleashed are (currently) alone in actively offering a Flash for modified bikes, the others tend to advise a power commander and that the flash is just to remove the restrictions. These ECU's are so complex with so many maps for fuel, ignition, throttle timings (for each gear) and I doubt any two are the same, some will be better than others.
Most (if not all flashes) also make other changes that improve the feel of the bike, mine felt much smoother post Flash and far more responsive to part throttle, especially low down (possibly due to the Gen2 ECU Unleashed Flash improving the closed loop area) but from what i have read everyone has reported a nicer feel and smother transition from on / off throttle.
Who needs a power commander
Everyone and no-one IMO, all flashes are generic and all bikes are different, until someone offers a customized flash (i.e. they flash the bike, run it on a dyno, tweak fueeling, running again - and again, untll the fuelling is spot on) then a Power Commander will provide that last bit of fine tuning - of course those so inclined can then fiddle with maps and bugger around with it endlessly, or start doing other mods without needing a re-flash.
Probably the further from stock your bike is the bigger the gains of having a Power Commander will be, if it is bone stock a Flash will probably be quite good, and just an end can makes little odds - as soon as you ditch the headers things change a lot....
What effect does an exhaust have
According to Arrow their end can gives just over 2BHP, but the full system adds 9BHP, so most the restriction is in the front half, on my bike I got another 6BHP from Arrow headers with the OE silencer - again this may vary a bit from one market to another, but if your bike has cats in the downpipes then these will need swapping out for any big gains. Overall I gained about 10BHP with Flash and Headers, maybe another 2-3 can be had with a Can, but I now like the way it is (and have run out of money)
What about Surging and the Stumble Problems
As far as I am aware most (if not all) people with a Flash agree the stumble has gone, on my bike the CJM sorted this out, and now with the Unleashed Gen2 Flash I have no stumble.
I believe the surging has only affected bikes with aftermarket exhaust systems, on mine it happened at low throttle settings from @1700 - 2200 RPM, no problem on the open road, but in traffic was a PITA. The Unleashed Gen2 Flash has almost cured it, the area it happens to has been massively narrowed, my initial guess it happens about 10% as often as it used to, and as it affects an area of around 100rpm as opposed to 500 rpm, and also on a much narrower throttle range you almost have to go looking for the problem now on my bike.
My real test was a 3500 mile trip to the Alps, I would guess the amount of times it surged could be counted on my fingers, and the surge is now quite gentle rather than the pre-flash bucking bronco so as it starts to creep in I either speed up a little, slow down a little or change gear - may still be a pain for those who often trickle along in traffic or off-road, but for me its now OK.
I do plan to try O2 eliminators soon.
What where my results
The bottom line is stock my bike was knocking out around 90BHP in stock trim, the Arrow Headers took this to a healthier 96 BHP and the Flash added another 3BHP to give a fairly respectable 99 RWBHP.
The torque curve is now very impressive, being dead staright pretty much from 3k to 7k, but the dyno does not give the whole story, the throttle response is far crisper and makes the bike feel a lot more powerful low down than the dyno gains suggest, I think because it now takes far less wrist movement for the bike to respond. It also feels so much smoother - basically it just feels "right", how a long stroke, low state of tune 1200cc Twin should feel.
And compared to a bog stock Tenere you can see how much extra Ooomph it has at the top, most of this is down to the Headers and with a decent end can I am sure it would just top 100BHP
I am probably not quite done yet, the Gen2 Flash could do with a bit more refining at very low speeds, hopefully they will get it sorted with a Gen3
but if not I would be tempted to get a power commander later on, but at least I know I can run my bike as configured safely and it is 90% there now, with the headers on a stock ECU (With CJM) it was probably only about 70% there so it is a great improvement.Now I have ridden it over 4,000 miles with the Flash I am really happy, the instant grunt and response is amazing, even two-up fully loaded I rarely needed more than 4k-5k on the tacho, and when there is a tricky overtake the extra top-end is welcome, rather than the sluggish crawl to the redline the bike had in stock trim, it now races right up to the red building power all the way.
The most impressive thing is the better fuel consumption, at first I was not so sure, but having piled on so many miles it is now apparent it is giving better economy, even ignoring the computer I now get about 10-15 more miles to the fuel light and have achieved some amazing figures on my recent tour.
