There’s a slew of common prejudices against tuning our motorcycle engines, especially those put forward by the incompetent or biased. To quote a few: “it breaks your bike”, “the guaranty is no longer valid”, “it’s useless”, “have you ever gone faster than 120 km/h with your Harley?”, “do you ever race on a track?” Since I work in the field I am biased, yet I will try to advise you objectively just the same.
Dyno graph before and after a Tuning
A good tuning doesn’t cost a mere two cents and the gains in terms of torque and power don’t always leave you open-mouthed.
On the other hand, the exhilarating feeling you get when you’re back on the bike after a good tuning is always true: smooth running, easy driving, exuberant torque, constant power delivery and very quick responses to the throttle.
Anyone who has driven a motorcycle that has been well-tuned knows exactly what I’m talking about.
So, is it worth it? Yes, always.
Let’s consider costs, reliability, and results.
Costs are truly contained: with our bikes, we have often spent much more on things that have proved far less useful.
Reliability: an engine tuned to perfection is more efficient. Cleaner combustion benefits the engine?s duration and reliability, reduces consumption, increases torque and power and overheats less.
Results: the joy of riding a motorbike either returns or increases, tame while cruising, powerful and rabid in “critical” situations.
The motto is:
You’ve never had such an amazing bike before
So, judging whether it’s worthwhile depends to a great extent on who does the tuning, I speak for myself: what I wrote is true and verifiable.
