Ivan's ECU Flash Review

[FJRPittsburgh]

Look what I just received. Review on the 2013 to follow later....



Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[FJRPittsburgh]

So, after a 20 or so mile ride, here is my initial feedback. In one word....smooth. Low speed parking maneuvers and pulling out off the line, I see considerable smoothness. No more jerky throttle action. The 2 reasons I chose to buy Ivan's flash was to be able to use my cruise control in any gear at any speed and to tame down the throttle jerkiness. I have a 2013 and the cruise control was capped at 80mph. I figure the ECU flash is worth about $529 to me so at $350 it was a good deal.

Upon starting the bike up initially, I noticed a higher RPM idle which warmed up to a nice smooth idle. Smooth is the key word here. Once on the road I experimented with the touring and sport modes along with Ivan's 3rd mode indicated by a blank space where the T and S are normally shown on the dash. Now obviously I have to ride much more in these modes to give a full review. My initial butt dyno tells me the throttle response is smooth in all 3 modes. Ivan told me he doesn't change the fuel mapping in the touring or sport modes. They are just smoother due to the elimination of the throttle cut, etc.

The touring mode is just like I remember it with added smoothness and the same with the sport mode. Ivan's mode felt very similar to the sport mode, both smooth and responsive. I would have to ride more in both modes to give a more informative review. After spending considerable time in Ivan's mode, I don't really feel the need to be in any other mode. Ivan explained that he's able to cut out the throttle delays and make the bike feel like you're riding a Gen 1 or 2 with a throttle cable. Honestly, the throttle response of the bike felt very similar to my Gen 2 with added smoothness during slow speed maneuvers and pulling out from a stop.

I revved the bike up in 3rd gear before entering a series of tighter turns. When releasing the throttle before laying over into the first turn, the transition was smooth (surprisingly). I felt the normal engine braking going into the turn, but no jerkiness letting off the throttle. I read somewhere that a rider felt there was no engine braking or at least reduced engine braking after receiving Ivan's flash. That's not my experience at all. Before the flash, when letting go of the throttle in 3rd coming into a turn, I felt more jerkiness when getting on and off the throttle. Now its, (you guessed it), smoother. I revved high in 3rd gear and let off the throttle and back on etc. multiple times. The bike jumps and dives like it always did, but more controlled.....shall we say.....smoother.

I also noticed the radiator fan coming on a little earlier as I pulled into my garage. That can't be a bad thing either. I also read where some riders are saying they are experiencing better or worse fuel economy. I can't see where there would be much difference either way as most of the poor fuel economy comes from how you twist the throttle. I'm sure you could baby the bike and get great gas mileage with or without Ivan's flash. Fuel economy is not the reason to get Ivan's flash in the first place. It's easy to get much better fuel economy. Buy a lighter bike with a smaller engine. So simple.

Here's a link to Ivan's ECU flash for the Gen 3s. He also has a flash for the Gen 1s and Gen 2s.

https://www.ivansperformanceproducts.com/fjr1300.htm

[Festus]

I hate you.

[FJRPittsburgh]

I hate you.

I love you too!

[FJRPittsburgh]

Some of Ivan's links on his FJR webpage are in white text on a white background. If you do a "Ctrl A", you can see some of the camouflaged links as they will be highlighted.

[wheatonFJR]

I just realized that this guy's mailing address is 7 minutes from my front door.

edit: Jeff, if this ICU mod is actually a good thing, I might look into it. However, I can't take a big hit with mpg. I plan on doing some serious touring on this thing, and I'm pretty used to getting 43mpg average on my gen3 FJRs.

[Festus]

If I recall correctly, he stated that it bumped the MPG's up about 7 MPG. It also required 89 Octane gas, so if you calculate it out, the extended range is a wash for cost, since the gas needed is more expensive. (I was trying to justify it a while back by the higher mileage ).

[FJRPittsburgh]

If I recall correctly, he stated that it bumped the MPG's up about 7 MPG. It also required 89 Octane gas, so if you calculate it out, the extended range is a wash for cost, since the gas needed is more expensive. (I was trying to justify it a while back by the higher mileage ).

7 MPG increase? Nope. He said that if you baby it, you could get over 50 MPG. I could do that before the flash. It's called low RPMs and no fun.

[FJRPittsburgh]

This is a flash for more direct throttle response, Elimination of the cruise control limit and available at all speeds in all gears, and smoothness by eliminating fuel cut, etc.

[bungie4]

You don't ride an FJR to save gas money.

[raYzerman]

Ran the flash on my '14 for couple of years. No hit at all to mileage, and got all the benefits Jeff mentioned. Never noticed much loss in engine braking, but the person who said that had an '07 with the flash. Mighta been noticeable on that bike....

Ran 89 sporadically, but extensively tested it using only regular.... ran fine, no ill effects, just never is advisable to lug 'er down until it pings... but I couldn't get it to ping no matter what, so stuck mostly with 87..... slight increase in mileage using 89, was it a wash, maybe. I didn't keep any record of it, just looked at the average fuel consumption on the dash. Really there is no downside except the initial cost.

[bill lumberg]

Some Ivan’s bikes bricked when Yamaha administered a recall. IIRC, Yamaha made good on them, but I’m sure it cost some riding time.

[wheatonFJR]

Some Ivan’s bikes bricked when Yamaha administered a recall...

Yikes!

[Mossyrocks]

Got my 2016 this January and sent the ECU to get flashed. I have been enjoying it ever since

[SkooterG]

I concur with pretty closely to what you say. I'm not sure I noticed a huge difference in smoothness, but I did notice some. A bit more fun when going through the twisties. Same high cold idle. I think it takes just a tad longer to warm up also. On a rare occasion, idle will be weirdly high for a short time. Elimination of CC limits in all gears is awesome. I am guessing I have put about 20k miles on it so far?

I now spend 95% of the time in his smoothness mode. Definitely a sweet spot. For background, I almost never spend any time in the Tour mode on my other FJRs. I think my mpgs went up slightly. I can get high 40s to low 50s running around town riding like normal traffic. Heading west on I-10 to La La Land with a stiff headwind at 85-90 mph and its back down to 35-39 mpg. Very similar to before, but just a bit better imho. Typically, its 42-47 mpg. I use 89 octane most of the time. Or, actually, since I live really close to a Costco with cheap gas I fill it there with premium 91 octane which is cheaper than everybody else's mid-grade, and then halfway through the tank fill it with some cheap 87 octane.

Right now the plan is to keep Ivan's ECU for my 'fun' '13 FJR - but keeping my new two-up and touring '23 FJR stock.

[Hppants]

My uneducated and biased opinion of this has shifted a bit over the years. "Back in the day" (whenever that was), I was adamantly against this - worried about collateral damage from programmers that are not as "experienced" as the manufacturer. Now this is kind of the norm and my fears were clearly paranoia.

And so paranoia has morphed into my age old cheap bastageness....

I don't find the "ride-ability" issues of any of the Gen 3 bikes I've owned to be worth the money or hassle. If I had a '13, I could see value in the cruise control limit, but not that much.

Of course, like anything else, this is why they have all kinds of things, and we have choices. I'm glad you like it, Jeff. Ride on, man!

[Festus]

Pants, it doesn't appear to be the case of the FJR, probably because I haven't found anyone that does it yet, but in the case of sport bikes, the maps are cutting the throttle massive amounts. In many cases, wide open throttle is only giving you 50% throttle. There's a guy in NC, I think it's Moore Mafia who remaps sport bikes and put them on the dyno and it's pretty mind blowing. He's constantly getting another 40-50 hp out of bikes by changing the maps to use more throttle. He pulls the data up and shows you what the current mapping is doing. They cut a lot of throttle to comply with regulations. He removes all that.

I emailed him a while back and asked about mapping the FJR and he didn't have a map for it. The FJR seems to be a bike no one wants to mess with other than Ivan and he's posting a couple of HP gain. Nothing like the gains they show on sport bikes.

I find it all interesting and enjoy learning about it.

Here's his channel..

https://www.youtube.com/@TeamMooreMafia/videos

[bill lumberg]

If I found a deficiency in the stock mapping, Ivan is the only person I’d consider for a modification.

[chazglenn3]

The flash for me was worth it just to stop the decel popping thru my Staintune cans. Then again, the low speed jerkiness being gone is awesome too!

[raYzerman]

The flash for me was worth it just to stop the decel popping thru my Staintune cans. Then again, the low speed jerkiness being gone is awesome too!

That's the PAIR system at work...... didn't know if Ivan could disable it (leave solenoid in the closed position). You could just remove the PAIR system.