How to get more boom from Yamaha’s R6.
Yamaha’s R6 is notoriously difficult to squeeze performance out of by using conventional means such as Power Commanders. But via the ECU, however…
We’ve had a recent epiphany and, given the timing of the new R6 press launch, I thought it would be prudent to discuss some findings on previous models. The scenario is we’re constantly developing ECU remapping and its software, as is everyone else. We like to experiment and explore at all times, so like a bit of a biking David Attenborough really.
In many ways the R6 was the first ride-by-wire bike. We’ve always tried to get the most out of it and to learn from it, because there’s nothing black and white about this stuff, other than the workshop manual, so we took it upon ourselves. We had a spate of four or five bikes in for ECU mapping over a fortnight. We do the normal stuff, change a few bits, but we wanted to look at the relationship between throttle and throttle-bodies to try and get back that pure one-to-one ratio. Not a simulated one-to-one, as the bike leaves the factory with. When you are at 100% throttle with your hand, the throttle bodies aren’t at 100% – the ECU is controlling that in many ways. Specifically, it is in the low end of the rev range, which can only be tweaked in the ECU and is why fuelling modules don’t have the same impact, because they only adjust reset fuelling thanks to the closed-loop system. We can turn off the O2 sensor, but there are hidden aspects that can only be accessed by remapping software.
We’ve slowly but surely learned that changing X, Y, an Z will have an effect on A, B and C behind the scenes – not what you see in front of you. We’re now in a position where we can activate 100% throttle entirely throughout the rev range. We have seen as much as 10bhp in the midrange on several completely stock R6s, which is just a phenomenal number. The R6 has always been a great race bike with a great top-end, but it’s shit on the road because of a lack of grunt. You could wang on a YEC race kit, but you would still have no way of adjusting it to this extent. If we’re taking a stock 600cc and giving it 10bhp (without engine tuning), we’re doing something right.
Yes, 600cc sales are dying, but the used market is as strong as ever, and there are so many second-hand 600s on the road. Being as popular as the R6 is, and the fact they are cheap as chips, this is a very effective mod. Okay, so the new R6 has traction-control and other gizmos, but that’s the next thing we’ll start to look at – multiple maps built into the ECU, we’re trying to use the ride-by-wire as a form of traction-control. If there’s a sudden spike in RPM as the back wheel starts to spin, we can use the software to trim the throttle.
This is not traction-control, per se, but a form of traction aid at the very least. (In 2006/2008, we threw over £2.5k of tuning goodies at an R6, getting little in return, a scant few horses extra due to Yamaha’s CL system, an ECU hack is the way! –