| Author | Message | ||
     Falloutnl |
Asking for a friend of mine who recently bought a 2008 XB12X Ulyssses. He seems to get about 180 kilometers before the light comes on. That equates to about 30.5 miles per gallon. Seems awful for a Buell, but after doing some searching, a couple of threads from this board came up where a lot people mentioned the same thing, no real solutions though. It's been a couple of years since those original threads, so I was wondering if anyone has managed to remedy these issues, even if only partially. (This particular Buell still has the original exhaust and air filter. Exhaust valve is held open by a piece of wire. While the ECU does have a Twin Motorcycles sticker - implying a remap - the ECU wasn't yet set to an open exhaust valve - implying it hasn't been remapped either. Not sure if any of this info helps, but might as well mention it). | ||
| Hughlysses |
The original ECM factory programming on the early 08 models resulted in pretty miserable fuel mileage (~35 MPG), but it seems likely his program was at least changed from this. I would think having an operable exhaust valve would help the fuel mileage as it helps the mid-range torque of these bikes. With a later stock ECM program and operable exhaust valve, he should at least get 40-45 MPG. With a "race" program, I'd expect only a couple of MPG worse (say 38-43 MPG). Perhaps you could contact Twin Motorcycles and see if they have a record of this bike or at least the ECM? It would be worth checking to see if there any stored fault codes. A faulty sensor (O2 or intake temperature) could hurt the fuel mileage. | ||
| Tootal |
You say the ECU wasn't yet set to an open exhaust valve. How did you find that out? Using ecmspy on race ecms will screw them up. I don't know what twin motorcycles do for their ecms. I had a factory race ecm and ecmspy would not work on it properly but mine was an 06. I too would contact twin and see what they say. | ||
| Falloutnl |
"You say the ECU wasn't yet set to an open exhaust valve. How did you find that out?" The bike gave a CEL when we rode it home. When I connected my Buelltooth dongle to it, the bike had stored an error relating to the exhaust valve and the valve was still set to active. Thanks though guys, probably a good idea to inform with TM whether they have a record of what happened with this bike. | ||
| Ourdee |
Let the valve do what it was made to do. I have always got better MPG when switching to a RACE ECM on Buells. My 08 XB12Scg consistently gets 45+ MPG with a race ecm. Try a different fuel station if he doesn't change it up. Does he flog it all the time? | ||
| Phelan |
The valve tied open cuts 15 ft/lbs at 4000 RPM. Not only that, but the reversion involved that causes the loss in power/torque is right in the rev range of most riders, and it literally pushes gas back all the way thtough the intake. I bet you can smell gas pretty heavy on the air filter after a longer ride. The inactive valve is most likely one of the largest contributers to his poor performance. (Message edited by phelan on June 02, 2017) | ||
| Mark_weiss |
I have an '08 that does not have Buell's last update which changed the fan logic, but has the mapping that was used prior to that change. My fuel consumption has always been in the mid 40 mpg range for city riding and near 50 for highway riding. Evan at a trackday, my fuel consumption only drops to about 30. Either your friend has a really abrupt throttle hand or there is something else going on with the bike. As noted, wiring the exhaust valve open cannot be helping. | ||
| Falloutnl |
Nope, it probably doesn't help, the inactive valve. We'll look into it. Thanks everyone. | ||
| Griffmeister |
My 08 had the same map as Mark's and would get 40 to 43 mpg on the highway or flogging it hard on the back roads. Too much around town was really bad for it giving only 34 to 38 mpg. I was having a lot of running issues and bought an IDS ECM set up for the way my bike was equipped. Now I get 55 to 62 mpg on a long run not matter how hard I am on the throttle. The exhaust still has the valve and the only caveat from IDS is that you use a K&N air filter. Of course that's an expensive fix just to get better fuel mileage but a good one if you also have performance issues or other ECM problems. | ||
| Hughlysses |
^ That is pretty impressive. I really need to bite the bullet and buy one. The increase in fuel range alone would be worth it. | ||
| Tootal |
But how would you set tps. ECMSPY probably doesn't work on the IDS unit. | ||
| Griffmeister |
08 and up bikes don't need a plug-in to set TPS. In this case, the IDS unit works the same as the stock unit. In fact, they ship the new ECM with instructions on doing the reset and tell you to do it after installation. | ||
| Sagehawk |
Tootal, IDS sells their own cmi lite for connections with buells for normal maintenance. price on site is 125.00 usd. with 425.00 on that tab, one may as well look at their full software and ecm option for 630.00. makes more sense to me. | ||
| Falloutnl |
My 08 had the same map as Mark's and would get 40 to 43 mpg on the highway or flogging it hard on the back roads. Too much around town was really bad for it giving only 34 to 38 mpg. I was having a lot of running issues and bought an IDS ECM set up for the way my bike was equipped. Now I get 55 to 62 mpg on a long run not matter how hard I am on the throttle. The exhaust still has the valve and the only caveat from IDS is that you use a K&N air filter. Of course that's an expensive fix just to get better fuel mileage but a good one if you also have performance issues or other ECM problems. Yeah that is very impressive. 08 and up bikes don't need a plug-in to set TPS. In this case, the IDS unit works the same as the stock unit. In fact, they ship the new ECM with instructions on doing the reset and tell you to do it after installation. So you don't need a bluetooth dongle thing to set TPS with the IDS unit? | ||
| Hughlysses |
So you don't need a bluetooth dongle thing to set TPS with the IDS unit? You don't need external equipment to set the TPS on any 08-up ECM (stock or IDS). You do a "forced" reset at the initial installation. After that, it automatically re-zeroes itself every time you shut off the bike. | ||
| Falloutnl |
Gotcha, thanks Hugh. |
