We ‘flashed’ the ECU of this Yamaha R1 and spent a lot of time building the map. Flashing, in common terms, is remapping the ECU by sending it a new configuration file of your own making. The program we used is new to us and employs a useful generic map that can deal with all of the standard emissions problems and restrictions bikes are blessed with these days – but there’s no facility to watch in real time, on the Dyno, what the engine’s actually doing.
Which is a problem, so we built a map, uploaded it, tested and checked it on the Dyno and so on. It took a long while before we were happy. We actually changed the fly-by-wire throttle settings so it was more responsive, shortening the distance between what is actual throttle and what the ECU allows you to have, and remapped the ignition in the bottom end as well as sorting the fuelling and switching off the lambda sensor and SAI valve.
If we’re honest, the program itself could do with more work – we had an issue with idle speed (it was too high) which was most likely down to the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) settings. We had a long chat with the UK agent, and hope it’s a work in progress… watch this space. The Quickshifter went on a treat and worked perfectly.
Which leads us to something we have to say; a lot of our customers believe that if they’re buying a YEC or HRC ECU they will get something special – not true. They’re paying a lot of money, basically, to access what is already in their stock ECU. Which is exactly the case with this R1’s ECU; it has every facility a YEC ECU has, you just can’t get to it to alter it.
Owned by a regular customer, this particular R1 will feature here again. But we’ll sign this off with a final thought – just because one person on an owner’s forum has an answer, don’t assume it’ll work for your bike. Especially if it’s anything to do with remapping an ECU…
Stock ECUs are very clever things these days… it’s just getting inside ’em!
