When I traded the bike in to an experienced dealer, he remarked that "this one certainly has balls". He got a LOT of power and great throttle response out of my bike's engine. He knew the inherent weakness created by the valve timing in my HD Stage 4 power kit, and he knew the D&D Exhaust I had on it. I got a truly GREAT custom dyno tune by Mike Lozano of Lozano Brothers Racing because Mike knew Harley models and engines really well (although their claim to fame was building superb racing engines for Porsche), and knew how HD had compromised severely to inexpensively enable their big bore air cooled engines to pass emissions and noise testing while satisfying their traditionalist air-cooled-only customers. the Ninja/Z 400's particularly restrictive OEM exhaust and its tendency to run hotter than typical) is not going to be as good as a reflash designed by a tuner who is very familiar with the model, and even more so when that tuner has personally raced that model under varying conditions and has tried various exhausts (like Jesse Norton has).
A custom dyno tune done by a tuner not familiar with the individual model's characteristics (e.g. I consider a custom dyno tune to be superior to a "canned" reflash, and thus worth more than a reflash, BUT ONLY IF DONE BY A TUNER WHO IS VERY FAMILIAR WITH THE SPECIFIC MOTORCYCLE MODEL AND THE USER'S USAGE OF THE MOTORCYCLE. Secondly, I don't think modifying an OEM fueling signal after it is generated and before it gets to the injectors is as good as simply correcting the fueling signal right at the ECU source. First I don't like the idea of introducing extra electrical connections, and extra devices, especially in a motorcycle environment. I don't like the Power Commander or Bazzaz approach to tuning. Same with the Graves products, although the Graves products have gotten much more expensive laterly than they were a couple years ago. IF I lived in The U.S., I would probably have bought his Ninja/Z 400 reflash by now. I'd like to hear your opinionĬlick to expand.I believe Jesse Norton's products are well developed and good quality, and Jesse supplies more information on the specifics of his products than most other suppliers. I'm not convinced this is cost effective for the preformance gains. Would you recommend norton flash tune for the price or would you go with a fuel controller and a professional dyno tune? A couple shops have quoted me 500-650 for a tune in the Denver area and the fuel controllers aren't cheap either. The mountains have become my daily playground after work and I don't think I'd be willing to pull my ecu and sit for a week until the winter hits. Not hatin or saying I think norton is a shady company I just have no experience here and I know how niche the racing market is. Maybe I'm just a little too skeptical, but I know forums have a tendency to be co opted by sales teams that can flood thread topics as a way of marketing. I read alot of these posts about norton products and they sounds like someone selling me a product more than an honest review from a customer. I'm a young guy and I'm sure as **** not cash rich but I like to spend my money as wisely as I can. Iv been worried about AFR and damaging my engine bc i read the same dyno charts you've highlighted in this thread and interpreted "bad" as damaging. Iv got an akara slip on now and I'm gonna pull the trigger on the headers. Just look at his dyno charts which show that. I see that in the effects of the velocity stack and drilled airbox kits that Jesse Norton sells. Yes, I agree about the effect that intake mods can have. The R3 was simply just a bit too small in displacement, whereas the 400 is just large enough, and still light enough, to be able to hit really satisfying acceleration while still getting the smallest insurance premium demanded by our Government-run, monopolized insurance here in British Columbia, Canada.Īny time an "entry-level", relatively inexpensive motorcycle can easily be modded to out-accelerate some very quick performance cars, that's a winning product. The Ninja / Z 400 platform is proving to be a much more satisfying platform for me to do mods on than the R3 was. However, the subsequent applications of the same basic techniques by Jesse Norton and others to the Ninja 400 have shown that the Graves claims were legitimate. In fact, the effect was large enough that many on the R3 forum disputed my report on it, saying that it was unlikely that the kit could produce results that good. Graves sold me a pre-release kit that included a modified airbox & stacks and a new ECU tune and new exhaust to match, and it had a huge effect on the R3s power. Just look at his dyno charts which show that.īut I knew that a couple of years back, when I was doing my Yamaha R3 project.
Click to expand.Yes, I agree about the effect that intake mods can have.