I took the XCountry, which I recently bought from Longjohn on here, into Motorrad Central in Dalkeith to have Hilltop software uploaded to the ECU today. Motorrad Central is the only place in Scotland doing this. They have a hot line to Geoff's server. They plug in the bike and he uploads the software. Having fitted a Leo Vince can which removes the OEM cat', I thought it would be a wise move to have the fuelling optimised to prevent any engine damage from it running too lean and maybe squeeze out a wee bit extra performance at the same time.
It took just over an hour all in to do the upload. Motorrad Central don't have a dyno so there's no printout of any power or torque improvements, just your own seat-of-the-pants dyno to help you calibrate any changes. Mine tells me that the bike is now a bit more grunty, a bit smoother and has a bit more throttle response. It's not night and day but maybe a bit richer is better for it in the long term when it's sans cat' and getting thrashed. It was very woolly to begin with and a bit less so now. I think it must have a pretty conservative cam. It could do with a bit of a harder edge to it. Having said that, it did elicit my supermotard hooligan on the way home. Time will tell what the result, if any, might be on the previous c. 70 mpg fuel economy.
I think a small improvement to something that's not got a whole lot of performance to begin with and which I use almost all of all the time, is very quickly taken for granted and thereafter goes unnoticed. Does that mean it wasn't worth the £350...?
It took just over an hour all in to do the upload. Motorrad Central don't have a dyno so there's no printout of any power or torque improvements, just your own seat-of-the-pants dyno to help you calibrate any changes. Mine tells me that the bike is now a bit more grunty, a bit smoother and has a bit more throttle response. It's not night and day but maybe a bit richer is better for it in the long term when it's sans cat' and getting thrashed. It was very woolly to begin with and a bit less so now. I think it must have a pretty conservative cam. It could do with a bit of a harder edge to it. Having said that, it did elicit my supermotard hooligan on the way home. Time will tell what the result, if any, might be on the previous c. 70 mpg fuel economy.
I think a small improvement to something that's not got a whole lot of performance to begin with and which I use almost all of all the time, is very quickly taken for granted and thereafter goes unnoticed. Does that mean it wasn't worth the £350...?
