Gear-based mapping

G'morning.

2007 ZX14. BPP exhaust, window links, strap, PCV, blah blah blah.


I am in the process of setting up for racing this summer, and it's getting closer at a scary pace! I intend on using the Brock's Pump Gas Track map, which is almost exactly the same as the street map, other than the very low TPS% settings at various rpms. As the rather big numbers on the map make sense when you're trying to hold the rpms at a given figure, it makes sense. However, it doesn't make sense when I keep thinking about it.

On the 06-07 ZX14, apparently tying into the yellow wire off the sprocket cover gives you the ability to do gear-based mapping on a PC5. It makes sense to me that if I go that route, I can combine the maps and use the 'track map' first gear numbers along with the 'street map' in the the other gears and get the best of both worlds. Also I could in theory lean out the 6th gear cruise rpm for mileage and so forth--I don't expect big gains, though, but the theory should hold.

The next interesting idea is simple. I'm still running the stock 17/41 gearing, but I'm entirely too heavy and expect to have wheelie issues. Not while still on the clutch, but when the power hits in first gear, I expect it to stand up more than is productive. So if I've got gear-based mapping, let's make that work to my benefit. Which way to go on the PC5 numbers? Let's say I lean it out a bunch from 6-10krpm in 1st gear, and thus can keep it on the ground. This may well mean that I can run an extra tooth on the rear sprocket (may wind up needing another 500rpm in the ECU, but that's not difficult to go find), so I'll pull less hard in first, but enough harder to make up for it in the other gears.

Am I better to run my first-gear anti-wheelie map too lean or too rich in an effort to lose power? I know both are wrong, but what's less likely to cause significant damage to my ET and engine?

Am I way out to lunch on my thinking? I just figure that maximizing the gears other than first will net results, even if I cut first a bit (like running a TRE on a busa sorta thing)... control is worth more than actual power to me. Yes, I'm asking how to effectively remove power from the bike!! But only in one gear. If I can have a good linear response in first and have the ability to lock the gas firmly early, it dramatically reduced cogitive load on the rider (me!), and I can focus on staying straight, upright, and shiftpoints. I know this wasn't a tested thing back in the bad old days of the PC3, but I'm trying to leave no stone unturned while maximizing how usable the power that I have is. (A Dragshock is the next step, but with opening day less than two weeks away, my payscale doesn't support heading into battle with one on the bike, though I expect to end the season with one under me!)

I assume the reason that there's no offical BPP pump gas map that combines track and street use is that they were written for a PC3 and not a PC5. Because the PC3 lacks the ability to change maps by gearing, it makes sense to make as much power as possible in all settings. Because I'm not remotely enough of a rider to control wheelies by varying from 80-100% throttle, I'm looking for an easier way. The PC5 has the ability to make this a thing. The other unmentioned benefit is being able to bump the fueling progressively by gear to make the ram-air effect that much more useful (for example, +3% near redline at WOT in 3rd, +5% in fourth, 7% in 5th, etc). Again, just more laying on the table and ready to be taken.

Interested to hear any input from those who have properly explored what an early ZX14 can do with tweaks and a weak rider, as well as those SS racers getting that last hundredth.

I am! I'm just trying to optimize a bit more. It's not entirely about making it faster, I'm trying to make it easier to ride hard, so safer and more consistent, for a non-pro rider.

Also, trying to take advantage of some of the changes in the twelve (!? when did that happen?!) years since that was written... There's some better parts available, so the idea is to use them to the fullest.

Brock, I'm old and fat too. Maybe a bit less than you are (185 unsuited) but I figure being the first guy to see a 7's pass on a streetbike should offset that a bit on your end :) (Yes, I'm teasing!)

As memory serves, your red 06 14 didn't have lightweight wheels either, when making that pass. So you'll agree that there's tricks that can make it quicker without the tiresome routine of putting an arm on it, I suspect!

All I'm doing is trying to take what you guys were doing more than a decade ago, and update it with some modern tricks. Sadly, the carbon wheels aren't in the budget, but ZX10R wheels just arrived yesterday, and not in time for this weekend! So I'm not so much looking to follow the BPP's path, but instead to continue it! It seems like the idea of bolt-ons used effectively and to their fullest is the program in this house, and I quite like that and just intend on updating things a little. We'll see if it works, though at this point, I'm going to be going out slightly short:

185lbs unsuited
pump gas
Haven't ridden in months... well, a winter
And expect to fight the lack of hook, because...well, winter!
Ceramic-coated StreetMeg
PC5 with the appropriate mapping
Window links--and by god I love these things!
1.100 showing through the triple clamps (I know, I know... but it's close, and dammit it's COLD in the shop! I'll get the rest out of it!)
A speedohealer that won't matter much
Stock gearing (17/41)
An O-Ring chain (it's a streetbike, and I DO put miles on it, albeit not in the winter)... but it's two links longer, for that extra wheelbase, and that's a trick lifted straight from the Diaries
Shinko 190/50 usoft rear, because you can't go if you can't hook
A strap, of course, and brock's links to hook it to
Good Brock's springs in the clutch, but no spacers (yet)

So this weekend, my goal is to first make a pass that's safe and controllable, and second to get threatened with being kicked out for going too fast if I don't do test passes for an NHRA licence! I'll call that a win in any case, as I fully intend to deserve one!

Bike has gone 9.95 with a PCV and a crap map, 1.64 short, through the stock exhaust, while strapped and lowered. It went 142mph in good air with a horrible 60' time, and then went significantly better, handing over that 1.64, but the air was awful, and slowed to 139mph, so the overall ET didn't change much.

Will report back, weather permitting!