ECU Reprogramming

BSD Performance has a great deal of experience working with Dynojet’s Power Commander system and others, such as Yoshimura’s EMS and Nemesis. All offer options, but we’ve found in the last few years that many customers with stock (or lightly modified) road bikes have asked us to solve issues for them. Most can be traced to Euro 3 legislation, as all modern motorcycles are fitted with emission and noise controls that effectively handicap output and hinder power delivery, in some way or other.

By far and way the most elegant way of solving these problems is to work directly on the engine’s stock Electronic Control Unit (ECU). The system we now have allows us to ‘talk’ directly to the ECU and make changes – including switching off the Lambda sensor (which manages the fuelling to safeguard the exhaust catalyzer and reduce emissions). Lambdas also contribute to on/off throttle snatchiness at low rpm thanks to the lean running condition they create.

Many bikes have ‘noise flaps’ fitted in the exhaust, which only open at higher rpm. These too cause hiccups in power delivery and we can turn them off too, as well as dealing with any restrictions the manufacturer has built in through the lower gears (the Ducati Streetfighter, for example is restricted to 60% of its full power in first, second and third).

Essentially, our ECU Reprogramming service delivers a bike engine as the manufacturer designed it originally; after a Dyno run to establish baseline performance we suck the stock map out, switch off anything we feel that’s causing a problem and then re-map taking account of any changes made (air filter/exhaust etc). We can also check and turn off fault lights. The new performance map is then uploaded back into the ECU and the bike checked on the Dyno.

BSD Performance offers a cost-effective, wire and bolt-on free ECU upgrade for anybody that’s unhappy with their stock bike or who has fitted cans and not made any of the necessary adjustments. We can also make engines much more economical if needs be – perfect for the long distance or adventure sports rider.

Our ECU reprogramming service caters for BMW, Ducati, Triumph, KTM, Moto Morini and Moto Guzzi. We can also work on late-model Aprilias and will be adding new models – including the BMW S1000RR and key bikes from Kawasaki and other manufacturers – in time. The stock, original map is kept securely on file and is also supplied to the customer on a USB memory stick, along with a jpeg dyno graph that reflects the engine’s performance stock, and after the ECU reprogram.