The fuelling of my 2013 HS 821 was never especially troublesome when I got it at 8K miles, but in light of all the problems others reported, I was intrigued to see if mine could be improved. First I fitted a Booster Plug, but found little-to-no effect so took it off and got my expert mechanic to install a Rapid Bike Easy. He cursed the tight packaging of everything on the bike but fitted the RBE, programmed for its Ducati map. He reckoned the fuelling had been improved over stock, so that's the way it's been for a couple of years now. However, recently it has occurred to me that the motor is more fussy at the end of a ride when hot, compared with earlier in the day, so I started thinking. ..
As I understand it, the Booster Plug simply tells the ECU that air temperature is 10degrees lower than reality, so the mixture is enrichened slightly. What if I added the BP to the RBE and fooled the ECU a bit more? I had a good long ride at the weekend just with the RBE to check the current situation, and then fitted the BP too. No problems with fuelling at all and the motor seems smoother than ever! Normally I ride in Touring mode, but switched into Sport for a few miles of fast and slow and was surprised at how well-behaved the motor was, picking up without the abrupt response found on my Cagiva Raptor 1000 and other less powerful machines I've had. No jerkiness in Touring or Sport at low constant speed, and pretty flexible at low revs too.
I reckon I'll leave it at that now. I don't know what the fuel consumption is but assume it will be a little worse but this is such a fun bike to ride I really don't care!
At only 10K miles now the performance is probably going to get even better if my old ST4 is any guide. 25K miles we used to reckon for fully-run-in on those!
As an aside, I remember being impressed with the reported frugal consumption when I was researching the HS before I actually got one. I guess we know all too well why this was so, because the motor simply isn't given enough fuel in its standard state!
As I understand it, the Booster Plug simply tells the ECU that air temperature is 10degrees lower than reality, so the mixture is enrichened slightly. What if I added the BP to the RBE and fooled the ECU a bit more? I had a good long ride at the weekend just with the RBE to check the current situation, and then fitted the BP too. No problems with fuelling at all and the motor seems smoother than ever! Normally I ride in Touring mode, but switched into Sport for a few miles of fast and slow and was surprised at how well-behaved the motor was, picking up without the abrupt response found on my Cagiva Raptor 1000 and other less powerful machines I've had. No jerkiness in Touring or Sport at low constant speed, and pretty flexible at low revs too.
I reckon I'll leave it at that now. I don't know what the fuel consumption is but assume it will be a little worse but this is such a fun bike to ride I really don't care!
At only 10K miles now the performance is probably going to get even better if my old ST4 is any guide. 25K miles we used to reckon for fully-run-in on those!As an aside, I remember being impressed with the reported frugal consumption when I was researching the HS before I actually got one. I guess we know all too well why this was so, because the motor simply isn't given enough fuel in its standard state!
