We still see plenty of LC8 V-twins rolling in for an ECU remap to sort the tricky on/off power delivery. Gabriel Barton brought his in recently and took the time to write us a detailed email with his thoughts. Cheers mate!
Sent: 28 July 2014 16:26
To: info@bsd.uk.com
Subject: KTM Remap
Hi Mark & Everyone at BSD
A quick chance for some feedback concerning my recent KTM990 remap now I’ve put some miles on it
First and foremost, I brought it to you to fix the infamous KTM snatchy throttle. Mark explained he would turn off the O2 sensor and Secondary Air then adjust the original map as required to achieve the desired result. After he had done the runs he patiently explained what he done and where he had made changes.
Turns out my bike never had an Akro map like the dealer said and was running Akrapovic exhausts on a standard ECU set-up! What can I say? From the moment I rode out of BSD it was transformed. No more covering the clutch on roundabouts, just a smooth pull from 2000RPM upwards.
Mark did warn it would lose some of its V-twin character, but for me all it’s lost is the ability to waste my heartbeats. It still has the urgent raw power waiting when you open the throttle, now it’s just more usable. An added benefit is the other adjustments Mark made changed (very slightly) the deceleration characteristics of the engine.
What I wasn’t expecting is the proportional and progressive throttle response this has given (over the previous hair-trigger) means gear changes, particularly down-shifting, are much easier to make silky smooth when able to accurately match engine RPM to road speed.
The only item I haven’t really managed to check yet is fuel economy, I still need some more miles to get accurate numbers. My gut feeling is it’s still a bit high (I’m getting about 32mpg for normal road riding), which might mean a minor adjustment. I’ll let you know.
Finally, I did a lot of research prior to coming to BSD, I wasn’t sure about the best way to proceed to get the bike sorted – and it needed something because I loved the bike but The Snatch was awful.
If anyone else is looking for something similar I would have no hesitation in recommending BSD: friendly, professional, straight-talking bike people and an ECU remap is the most elegant solution to sort the issues I (and lots of other KTM riders) had with the 990/LC8.
With kind regards,
Gabriel
An ECU remap can transform KTM’s Adventure…
