topic approved.

The first lot of series production is now ready.

I"m confused, I thought that the 5% gain was due to the big bore, and this thread clearly says "Race Concepts ECU - Reviews and updates". So why are the merits of big bore being mentioned of here?

Or would this thread serve as a review station of ALL your Yamaha R15 goodies?

the bigbore gives nearly 15% bump in power and nearly 10% bump in FE. This 5% is only with the ECU and nothing else is related here. Other topics will be discussed in seperate threads. This is dedicated only to the ECU.
Nothing of the Bigbore is discussed here!

Race Concepts - ECU Review

After lot of PMs and coaxing here's a detailed review of the ECU for everyone.

Joel has infact hit the nail on its head. It performs and does what it is claimed to do. I can't give percentage increase in power but it makes the real 'big difference' on my bike's setup. There is no Magic but simply WYSIWYG. RaceConcept ECU allows you to tweak all engine parameters required to improve engine performance.

Low-Midrange Performance

Low-end and midrange performance is far better with this ECU. Fueling is the key to performance on the bike and ECU delivers exactly that. Stock ECU makes the bike feel very sluggish and gets it moving once the cam wakes up as I hit the powerband from 6000rpm but with the RaceConcepts ECU bike builds power very low in the RPM range (read idle rpm) and builds up rpms very fast and gets its screaming after all the way to my current rev-limit of 11800 RPM. Bike revs up super quick and the performance has been consistent on every ride. Feels like a little 2stroker and it powerwheelies all the way to revlimiter with a pillion/single rider on a speedbreaker whenever you go WOT in first gear.

Top Whack

I've managed a decent top speed of 155-156kph (speedo) couple of times. My setup is built for purely for touring with focus on low-end and midrange and wasn't designed to break any top speed barriers but bike still pushes towards the 150kph mark easier than before. ECU has made it possible to cruise sitting upright at over 130-135kph with ease hitting 140+ sometimes with some tail wind.

Fuel Efficiency

Fuel Efficiency is averaging at around 35kmpl+ mark with my current map but I go WOT on every ride everyday so this is still a good figure but I've seen much better results when I've been easier on the bike. Stock ECU runs the bike extremely lean which technically improves the FE but results in a loss of power. Fueling is smooth all the way from idle rpm. End of the day it's built to improve performance and not fuel efficiency but it still delivers!

Reliability

9000 kms done on this bigbore setup and in that 4000 with the ECU in 5 months the setup still remains partly developed and its still not purpose built. But I intend to get there later this year. Still running stock clutch and most engine internals including valve train is stock. Performance has been consistent throughout.

Battery

The battery consumption is slightly higher than stock ECU so to compensate for the additonal load on the battery from my twin HID setup I've upgraded battery to a 5AH Amaron. It seems to be working well with the ECU and on a recent trip back from Bangalore at night I was able to use the HIDs for a longer duration without the malfunction light coming on at anytime, which was the case with Stock ECU also.

Credits @Joel

Thanks for the ECU. Your custom mapping of the ECU as per my requirements has made it a joy to ride the bike every time. Puts a huge smile on my face=

Joel knows his tuning very well and listens to my inputs. He's an expert at mapping ECUs now. His tuning kit covers all areas of engine management and he is able to tweak all parameters required to push the performance on your R15. The ECU compensates for varying altitudes and the performance is consistent everywhere, everytime!

@Joel: Thanks for letting me in on the ECU while taking it through the development stages. Will be back in bangalore later this year to further tweak my bike's setup and mapping and take it for a short ride.

Budget Performance is VFM?
Hell Yeah!

Reaction
A ride on the bike tells it all. People seem to change their minds quite quickly about the bigbore setup with a single ride on the bike. But a little more faith in Joel's work should do more good for everyone interested in souping up their R15s. After all there aren't options which work consistently, are there? IMHO

P.S. All speeds mentioned are from the Speedo.

Not bad for a 165cc setup eh?...So What next?...

Thanks or the input Meghan. Once you come here, we'll do some more testing. I hope we can do the V-box if possible, maybe!

A second quicker?so tht means Meghans set up will do a 100 in less than 8 secs?damn i need to ride this setup one day!
Btw does this have the launch control?

^No launch control on street bikes. His bike is in the 8s to 100kph indeed.

I'm confused again, Meghan says that the stock ECU provides better FE, while Joel says that his ECU gives 5% increase in FE over the stock. Contradictory statements? or am I missing something here, again.

Congrats on the succesful launch of RC-ECU Joel
I have a question about the predictable performance and fe gain of an ECU & FFE combination. Can you provide some numbers based on your testing or else the calculated prediction?

V-box test would be super! Will be there as soon as I can.

Parth: Bro.. tell me do you want fuel efficiency or power? For the power it makes it is relatively more fuel efficient than or equal to a stock r15 running stock ECU! Where do you expect the power to come from if the bike doesn't consume any fuel?

We ran a less aggressive mapping on my trip to Munnar and bike still gave an average of 40kmpl on the trip and that's when i clocked 156kph. We are running a different mapping now and this is the current result. So what is the contradiction? You want fuel efficiency Joel can make it deliver 45kmpl+ too I'm sure. But then you will ask where's all that power gone?

Its time to stop looking at these negligible % gains bro if you are serious about upgrading your bike's performance.

I'm just trying to understand the product as I'm pretty serious in getting for myself too. My desire of getting custom parts is certainly not fueled by the wish to not burn more fuel, I'd have got a CB twister if I wanted that. Just looking to know what's actually gonna go in my bike when I make the purchase.


So you mean to say that the ECU will need to be remapped for lesser mileage for it to deliver maximum performance? Joel did not say this anywhere, he has said , while your statement seems to indicate that we can either have better mileage or better performance.

Again, I'm just trying to understand the product before buying it. I read the whole R15 ownership thread before buying her and that's exactly what I'm trying to do here.

With stock ECU, r15 does true topspeed of 138kmph i suppose. So what is true topspeed of the bike now with Joel's ECU?

You don't seem to be understanding bro. The parameters are tweaked as per the requirements of an individual setup. Joel will map ECU according to your bike's requirements depending on the combination of parts on it and he will give it a very fine-tuned-balanced-afr which will make it perform and still remain fuel efficient.

Stop thinking of my bike as the only benchmark. It's a project bike which will continue evolving so stop start drawing comparisons on it. Instead focus on what you want to do on your bike. Rest easy because you'll get what you want man.