Monday

Dyno Tuning A Race Bike

First thing I did with the new race bike was dyno burn it in.  When any motor is new, the valves haven't completely set yet, and during the first few hundred miles on the engine it will settle in.  Valves seat with compression on the engine, the "engine braking" action that happens when you take your foot off the accelerator and put negative pressure through the system.  The momentum of the engine propels it forward, not the ignition.  Think pull vs. push.

Horsepower is important on a race bike, and properly seated valves make better horsepower than improperly seated ones.  So the first fifty miles on my bike and first three oil changes were done on a dyno at Mammoth Motorsports North of San Francisco by about an hour.  $250 and a day later, I gained three horsepower.  Dyno graphs later if I can find time to scan in my maps.  I'm at 152 rear wheel horsepower.  This puts me well under some of the newest bikes and tricked out bikes which make over 200 hp, but overall it's a lot for a bike that weighs about 570 lbs full of gas with rider.



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