These big Triumph Thunderbirds are a straightforward job when it comes to remapping the ECU. Pleasingly (for us) the improvements possible we can get over the maps Triumph put in are significant…
The owner of this one had put open pipes on it, but got nowhere with his local Triumph dealer when it came to a reflash to suit. First of all they couldn’t work out where to plug in and after they had finally done something weren’t convinced so put his old map back in. Oh dear.
So he came to us. We pulled the map out and started again; switched off all the emissions nonsense – lambda and SAI – and built a fresh map to suit the engine and exhaust. And it felt mint. In truth it’s all the emissions equipment that mess these engines up, without it they’re stump-pullers.
There’s more to be had out of them too – they run on in first and second gear when you shut the throttle, probably to lessen the effect of engine braking. By working in the ignition map you can adjust this to get a lot more feel and crisper response.