Ok, anyone got tips for getting better fuel milage? My light comes on around 90 miles and thats just commuting w/o getting all over it.
It is not necessary to have two different Power Commander maps. It IS necessary to have a single good map that operates the engine in the air/fuel ratio range for best economy (15.5 - 16.5:1) at 20% throttle and below, and transitions to best power (13:1 give or take) at higher throttle settings.
Doing this pretty much requires hooking up a wide-band air/fuel ratio gauge that you can watch while riding, and doing lots and lots of fine tuning. But, there is a HUGE difference to be found. I've gotten consumption during normal riding down to around 5.5 L/100 km (about 43 mpg US), give or take, depending on how heavy the throttle hand is. The low-fuel lamp typically comes on at around 220 km indicated which is about 235 km "on the road" (I have a speedohealer which I have used to correct for not only gearing but also the error in the stock speedo, but the side effect is that the odometer is now wrong). This is around 140 miles to low-fuel lamp.
Don't be surprised if you have to take out 25% or more at part-load settings. There's one area on my self-developed map that takes out almost 40%.
DO make sure you sneak up on a lean-running setting so that you don't go too far with it. 16.5:1 air/fuel at part load won't hurt the engine and will run fine, 17:1 is OK for little spots here and there but expect driveability problems if you have wide regions that lean, misfire is around 18:1.
One thing you should also do is advance the ignition timing by 3 or 4 degrees - no more. I did it by slotting the holes in the ignition pickup coil. Lean air/fuel mixtures burn a little slower - a wee bit more timing advance compensates so that the engine doesn't run too hot.
Also by doing this, the engine oil no longer turns black and smells like fuel come oil-change time ... indicating less carbon build-up and less fuel dilution in the oil.
The stock engine (programmed way rich) will actually run okay on 87 octane fuel. If you do this ... no more cheating.
Driveability is fine once you get it right (but not before!). I was concerned about snatchy on/off throttle ... which was true, when it was running near stoichiometric at 0% and 2% throttle. Once I had it leaned out to 16:1 - 16.5:1 in this range, it felt similar to stock, which I can deal with.
It is A LOT of fine tuning to get it right, but oh boy does it ever run well once you do. I wouldn't rely on copying a map from someone else's bike for this, either. The difference between max economy and lean misfire is too close for that to be reliable.