Solomoto

Why deviate from OEM pads to start with? Honda (and most other OEM's) engineers their stuff to work and fit right; it may not always be the most premium material nor highest performance due to practical costs but is appropriate for the application, and tested to the nth degree because the manufacturer's reputation and liability is on the line. The after market is usually just generic parts shoehorned to fit a particular bike without careful system considerations or testing. Brake pads and exhaust systems are perfect examples of this. The after market is also use at your own risk, they don't have any legal obligation to design and test to any particular engineering or safety regulations. I recall a couple years ago Recalcitrance on this site used an after market ride height adjuster for the rear suspension; after some miles the threaded link stripped out and dropped the back end of her bike onto the tire while riding on the freeway. She managed to get to bike off the freeway but that easily could have been a deadly failure. I doubt the vendor ever did any bona fide engineering and testing to ensure such a failure never occurred. Many after market vendors are fabricators, not engineers who perform rigorous analysis and design safety in their products. Almost anyone can fabricate, but few can engineer. Caveat emptor.

Hi fotodaddy, While it is encouraging to hear from Honda about your dilemma, it is not good practice to post all of your direct communication on this or any forum. It can potentially sour any goodwill between you and the other party. Transactions of goodwill should be kept private lest it jeopardize future instances of goodwill. If Honda or any mfgr of goods sees its actions broadcast like this, it will be less inclined to do so in the future simply because it establishes the perception that this is now legal obligation for any such instance when in fact they are acting beyond their legal obligation. Furthermore, from a cultural perspective, the Japanese and most Asian cultures expect confidentiality in the business dealings. Violating their trust can scuttle the best of intentions. IMHO you would do well to keep a lid on it.

This is easy to understand once you realize that the TC software wasn't fully developed in time for the 2010 release. Unlike other manufacturers, Honda doesn't like to release half baked solutions to let customers do the beta testing, something most of us would appreciate. The short term option was to moderate the power in the lower gears until TC was available.

No. The restriction is presumably a timing retardation. A power commander only alters air/fuel ratio, not ignition timing. I've suspected that the restriction could be a clipped throttle map, rather than an ignition map. And if that were the case, the same would be true.... a power commander would have no effect. True that, the VFR is now throttle by wire so crippling the power is a rather simple matter of restricting the throttle in a controlled manner. I wonder how Bazazz claims to get around this unless they've figured out how to remap the throttle control, that's a lot more involved than simply intercepting and modifying the fuel injector controls as does Power Commander. Altering the fuel-air ratio or ignition timing simply cannot compensate for a closed throttle.

I'm curious if Bazazz is actually altering ignition timing or if it's like the PC5 which is fuel mapping only. I find it hard to believe that they make such a drastic change to the power curve with only a fuel map. Not saying it can't be done, but engine tuning is a mix of several variables, fuel mapping is but one variable. Please see if you can find out more about what they did besides fueling. Thanks.

While taking risks always has it's cost/benefit tradeoffs, one thing that hasn't been mentioned is the fact that your warranty will most likely be null and void with this mod and one that will be detectable even if you decide later to remove this mod. The only way to make it untraceable is to fabricate an intermediate harness that inserts between the GPS and main harness connector, thus not making any DIY looking cuts into the main harness. :idea3:

I happened to read the test of the DCT in the current issue of Sport Rider in the store the other day. The commentary (I would assume this was the message from Honda) was that in the DCT the dual clutch basket is not quite as robust as that of a single clutch. Kinda makes sense since they are essentially stacked on top and concentric as well. The added 2 inches of width means the huge forces it must transmit are extended farther outbound on the coaxial shafts and clutch basket fingers, my intuition suggests it would not be as structurally sound as a thinner, more compact basket mounted on a solid shaft. This is not to say the structure is weak, but every component no matter how strong still has it's breaking point. Honda being traditionally conservative probably chose to err on the side of restraint and added reliability over all out performance. That said, it does not explain why the same crippling in the first 2 gears is present on the standard clutch model which does not suffer the same mechanical concerns unique to the DCT. It could be that for the first year out they want to be conservative with both models to gain some real world reliability data, and perhaps dial back the degree of restraint in subsequent releases. Dunno why, but you have a good point that Honda (and virtually all companies) certainly has their rationale for the engineering decisions they make. The last thing any manufacturer wants is a massive design flaw that will cost them millions to fix. Just ask Aprilia about their RSV4 woes.

While this looks feasible in some respects, I would caution that unless you know what the I/O interface properties are, you may be violating circuit constraints which would then risk a blown sensor or worse. I offer the following scenarios: 1. Each output of the GPS is an open drain that is asserted Low (or simply grounded) for a given gear selection. Then tying 3 output wires together into one input as you have shown is a wired OR gate and will logically work. 2. Each output of the GPS is an open drain that is asserted High (or simply opened) for a given gear selection. Then tying 3 output wires together into one input as you have shown is a wired AND gate and will NOT work as all 3 outputs must be asserted High simultaneously which will never happen. 3. Each output of the GPS is a CMOS type output that is asserted High (i.e. actively driven high) for a given gear selection. Then tying 3 output wires together into one input as you have shown is a definite circuit rules violation as the output that is attempted to be driven high will be actively countered by the other two outputs which are actively driven Low, thus causing a near direct short to the supply voltage and maybe a fried GPS. Perhaps you've already found that it does work as shown, in which case scenario #1 is most likely true. If it doesn't work, then beware of scenario #3 which could end up costing you some $$$ to fix. Good luck in your efforts, I wish I could do the same but the DCT control needs to know the actual gear selection otherwise it would be constantly trying to downshift below third and never finding it.

Hmmm...would that be snake oil? :offtopic: