Man Day at the Dynos - FZ1 Edition

A local bike shop, Metric Cycles, had an "End of Summer" bash on Saturday at which they were offering $20 dyno pulls. I thought this would be a great opportunity to get the Fizzy baselined for horsepower and also, I hadn't had the ZRX officially dynoed since I added the hi-comp pistons and cams so was excited/nervous to get that done. I invited a few folks to join me and Dick, Brett and I headed up to the shop arriving right at 10:00am, Dick on the Fizzy, me on the ZRX and Brett in his truck. Dyno runs were from 11:00am to 2:00pm and I was just sure bikes would be lined up in the streets for the bargain dyno runs and I wanted to get in line so we would be sure to get a pull. Well, I guess the rest of Tulsa wasn't quite as excited as I was and Dick, Brett and I were the first 3 people to show up. Fortunately there were donuts and coffee available and we sat around for a while catching up and talking motorcycles. After "breakfast", I got both bikes signed in and paid for and we rode around back to the dyno which was loaded with a beater V-Max that was just finishing a wicked 90hp pull. As much as I lusted over the V-Max in the late-80s, they seem to disappoint every time I see one on a dyno!

As we were the only bikes there, the Fizzy immediately went on the dyno. Now I really had no idea what to expect as I had read so many different things on the Fizzy board concerning various mods and expected horsepower. All I have done to the Fizzy performance wise to this point has been to add an Akra slip-on I got from Scott Vint for $300 shipped, install Ivan's Fuel Cut-Off Eliminator for about $100, gutted the catalytic converter in the mid-pipe along with opening up the airbox. Collective wisdom on the FZOA says these mods require a power commander lest "extreme damage" be inflicted on the engine due to an exceptionally lean A/F ratio. "Danger, Danger!". Well, although I had intended to pick up a Power Commander at some point just to get to play with custom mapping, I almost pulled the trigger as soon as I found out about the dyno day thinking I would need it to make maximum horsepower. As you can see from the dyno chart below, that would have been an exceptional waste of money and I may still buy one but it is by no means "required".

The other guy in the video, assisting the dyno operator, is Brad and is someone I have dealt with before as he mounted my last set of Diablos for me. Interestingly enough, it turns out he has an '07 Fizzy as well but his is bone stock but more on that below. Once the Fizzy is secured on the dyno, the operator brings the bike up to speed and pulls some baseline readings. After his first full pull, I notice him glance over at Brad giving him a strange look. Although I can see the dyno monitor, I can' really tell what is going on but fear the A/F might be so out of whack that the operator is concerned to pull again. That turns out not to be the case as the operator executes another couple of pulls. As the operator finishes the run, Brad steps up to the operator who says something that I can't quite hear and to which Brad responds with a blank look. At this point, all I am thinking is that either my A/F is way out of whack or my bike has just pulled some really pathetic numbers and they are trying to decide how to break it to me. Neither is the case and the brief exchange between the operator and Brad is due to the Fizzy just pulling 150hp! The look on Brad's face was actually surprise as he had just dynoed his bike at 133hp! Cool! See video below and then dyno chart below that.

Embedded video hint: Start video then hold down the CNTRL and ALT key and then click anywhere in the video window again. This will take you straight to the Youtube version where you have access to video info and High Quality setting.

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