My benefactor (thanks Ivan!) was very kind with the Foxley starter and in no hurry to have it returned, but I really needed to push on with my own slightly more agricultural version. If anything I had too many options with how/what to mount it on and wasn't quite sure which way to go, but discovering some rusty old framework from a kid's trolly or something gave me a clear way forward.
Some "re-purposing" later, this is the result;
And it works an absolute treat!
Next up was getting a decent map into the ECU, and again I had a few options, bearing in mind I had the lambda kit to enable tuning on the fly:
1. I could take it to a track day
2. I could use some of my local semi-rural roads
3. I could tune it on a dyno
All of which would get me to the same place, but involved differing amounts of risk and information gathered.
I'm not really serious about the first two, in theory you could do either, but in reality you need to be in a mid to high gear when accelerating otherwise it transitions through the rev range too fast for the ECU to make the adjustments. The local track is fairly short at just 2.4km, so not ideal, and with an unproven engine potentially fuelling quite badly, at least initially, the option didn't appeal.
The roads? The WSB engine has a super-close ratio gearbox, 1st is good for close to 160kph, now picture the speeds 3rd or 4th would entail......and standing in front of a judge trying to explain your way out of that one....on an unregistered race bike. No thanks.
I'm really not into the pub racing numbers game but a dyno session seemed the safest option, from both a personal and licence perspective. Plus, with future improvements in mind like that 1098 TB/Jetprime setup, it was a no-brainer to establish not just a decent baseline of what had been achieved thus far but also quantifying what is achieved through future fiddling.
There are numerous good dyno operators around Perth but this is where I had the opportunity to repay a kindness: Wayne Patterson down at Ducati Bunbury/Wayne Patterson's Motorcycle Centre kindly offered to look after selling my old 916 when my wife's mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer and we decided to scoot back to NZ to share what time we could. Taking only a nominal fee, he made what could have been a tricky and/or financially painful situation completely fuss/stress free.
He and his son Todd also just happen to be a couple of the biggest rev-heads you are ever likely to meet, having built the world's fastest 2 valve Ducati (turbo 900SS drag bike) and more recently an incredible turbo 749R drag bike that pushes all sorts of boundaries. In short, they aren't just good people, they are my kinda people, lol.
Despite being a 2 hour drive away I was quietly stoked to put a bit of business their way, and realistically, after extracting what they had out of their own incredible projects there were no better tuners for the job. So early one crisp Spring morning I strapped the bike and Little Toot (starter) onto the trailer and nervously set off, hoping against hope I wouldn't return with an oily collection of scrap exotic metal....
Note to self: always turn off the fuel when transporting machinery! Why? Because when you go to operate said machinery, after jiggling around in the trailer, fuel is liable to work its way into the cylinder and hydraulically lock the machine. Yup, feeling pretty chuffed to have my all singin' all dancin' petrol starter make its public debut.....only to go "click!"..."click!" and barely move. "Hmmmm, gimmee a sec' will ya Todd?"
Remove the 'plug, crank it over, and a gout of fuel was ejected from the cylinder! Luckily no harm done and after a couple of dry cranks, and 'plug reinstalled, she was soon purring on all...er...1 cylinders again.
Next hurdle, start the bike = all good. Or is it? Todd has cocked his head and gone "It's only running on 1 cylinder...." It's suprisingly difficult to tell, having just a touch more of a drone to the note, but a cold front exhaust header confirmed his suspicion.
"Gimme another sec, will ya Todd?"
Pull the front plug and it was just a wet black mess. Nothing to do with the transport this time, it turned out the fuel pressure regulator had been swapped out for a 5bar unit (from standard 3 bar) so my rough "999R Superstock +10%" map was way over-fueling it. FYI, the higher 5bar fuel pressure is standard for Factory race applications. It's also a fairly common "trick" for earlier road bikes with adjustable reg's commonly tweaked to get around any injector duty-cycle limitations and/or for better atomisation. Combine the extra fuel with a cold morning and the "surface discharge" type racing plugs and the fire didn't want to light.
But finally Todd's patience and my scrabbling around with (kindly) loaned tools were rewarded and she eventually got to properly stretch her legs...and her vocal cords:
From that point on it was the time consuming process of running through various throttle openings and mapping accordingly for each cylinder. We could have played around with the Nemesis Lambda/Auto-tune kit, but with neither of us having had a chance to get up to speed with it we just went for the Keep It Simple Stupid old school approach.
The only real bug-bear was the engine's forged lightweight internals and it's intended use (cams, lightweight valve closing springs etc) means idling is more of a theory than a reality. If you remember in the earlier vid of Ant first starting the bike he automatically goes into WSB/RS mode and the throttle is constantly just "blip-blip-blip-blip", 'cos it just dies in the arse under about 3000rpm. Which is pretty painful when you are strapped to the dyno trying to make adjustments and have to unload the bike to restart it.
But this is where Todd proved why he is paid the big bucks: what if we just put your starter against the (heavy!) drum of the Dynojet 250i and wizz up the whole lot without unstrapping the bike?
I honestly thought we had Buckley's...but Lil' Toot came through like a champion and I couldn't have been a prouder Dad!
"So how does she go, mister?"
Blue - "799RS" as found
Red - "799RS" post tuning
Green - Todd included a customer 999 with minor mods for comparison
I really didn't know what to expect given the limitations of the small throttle bodies, home brewed intake manifold adapters and the exhaust (the 57mm Leo Vince is big for any "normal" 749/999, but the RS is typically 63.5mm) all combined with a conservative redline of just 11.5krpm. But I remembered thinking way back with my 916: this thing, with 150hp, would be the perfect bike.
So when I saw +150rwhp come up as the starting point, with plenty of room for improvement on the AFR, and then see/hear the final result, it instantly justified the battle to get there.
The 999 for comparison puts things in perspective. They are obviously designed to meet completely different briefs, with the 999 having to be a jack of all trades, where a 999RS only has to do one thing extremely well and to hell with everything else. It's kinda like having an Olympic athlete for a sibling, I guess...."Yep, that could be me, if only I didn't have to work a day job and run around after the kids."
To be honest I was expecting the RS to be very top-endy and flat through the mid-range, so I was suprised to see it overtake the 999 at a lowly 7.5krpm. Maybe this is where the smaller intake/exhaust systems actually help support the mid-range? Either way, it's still pulling hard at 11krpm, so hasn't hurt the top-end too much.
To top-off what had been an absolute roller-coster of a day Todd was very generous when it came for billing for his expertise (or, more correctly, not charging for answering my dumb questions). Incredible knowledge, genuine passion, a few laughs, and they don't charge the earth...good people.
Who needs headlights? My grin pretty much lit the way home.
