Resetting Your Bike’s Brain: How to Flash a Motorcycle

ECU
If you’ve never heard the term flashing an ECU before, no, it’s not showing a form of
identification or using a photo flash—or any other type of flashing for that matter.
Flashing an ECU is tuning or reprogramming the engine of your motorcycle to take what
the manufacturer or a previous owner sold you and (ideally) enhance its performance.
So, what is an ECU anyway?
A motorcycle’s ECU, short for the engine control unit, will sometimes be referred to as
an ECM, or engine control module. So, what exactly is your bike’s ECU? The ECU is a
device that governs a sequence of actuators within internal combustion engines
(automobiles also have them). It does so to make sure of prime engine performance.

The Tech of Your Bike

An ECU ensures this by analyzing denotations from a variety of sensors inside your
motorcycle’s engine and taking that information and translating it via lookup tables, then
tweaking the engine actuators if needed. Before engine control units existed, this dance
of ignition timing, gear position, your combination of air and fuel, throttle position,
coolant, and air temperatures, as well as idle speeds had to be set and controlled
mechanically.

What ECUs Do

Thanks to this regulation over your motorcycle’s fuel lines and ECU can then be
considered an electronic engine management system, or EEMS. At the heart of this,
your ECU plays a significant role in the fuel supply to your engine. Unfortunately,
standard ECUs in motorcycles can often be a long way from ideal and are designed for
a variety of fuel qualities, outdoor conditions, as well as types of riding. The stock quality
of these engine control units can leave something to be desired when it comes to the
performance of your bike.

What Is ECU Tuning?

Tuning your motorcycle’s engine control unit can substantially enhance the performance
of the sensors and the timing, therefore improving the overall ride. Tuning your ECU is
also known as “flashing,” and the process of this flashing is a procedure where the
software is updated to run your motorcycle more smoothly and more in precision with
your riding style.
Essentially, flashing or tuning your engine control unit is a remapping of the settings
within the software. It is the bike engine equivalent of cleaning out, rebooting, and
updating your computer, because the chip of your engine control unit is based on
erasable or modifiable programmed that can be re-tuned. The same way your
technology will work faster and more smoothly when taken care of in this way, your
motorcycle will run at more optimal performance when you flash the ECU.

How Does It Work

Considering your ECU governs over so many different aspects of your bike’s engine,
various aspects of the sensors will be tuned when you flash your ECU. Tuning your
engine control unit is similar to the idea of turning a few screws to modify the way
specific components of your motorcycle’s engine run. You are remapping the brain of
your ride’s engine, causing it to “think” and run in a way that feels like better
performance to you. The ignition is just one of the parts of this tune in process.

Data and Tweaks That Can Be Made

With your ignition, the cylinder for your piston fills with a combination of air and fuel
during your motorcycle’s compression stroke. Spark plugs must wait for the timing to be
fired at the crucial moments.
When spark plugs fire too quickly, they go against what the engine is attempting to do. If
they go to late, vital energy can be wasted. Tuning the fuel ignition can prevent your
engine from knocking, which can destroy it more quickly than you would like if you care
about your bike at all. This adjustment, when flashing, can get the timing of the fuel
injection into a prime spot to prevent engine damage and maximize the energy created
by your engine.
As in automobiles, tuning your ECU can also improve your air and fuel ratio, in order
words, your boost, governed in the engine. Reprogramming the air and fuel ratio can
help maximize power as well as thermal efficiency. Your fuel economy is generally more
of a concern in vehicles than motorcycles, as motorcycles tend to get good gas mileage.
However, to some extent, part of your horsepower can be sacrificed to make for better
fuel economy on a motorized vehicle. Remapping this portion of your engine control unit
can increase power, believe it or not.
The boost on an engine can also be increased with flashing the engine control unit.
Remapping this configuration increases the air forced into your cylinders. With more air
comes more fuel. The downside of this is that it can add heat in your motorcycle
cylinders. This piles on some overall stress to the engine, which can shorten its life.
When flashing your ECU, consider balancing the amount of boost with preserving your
engine.
One controversial area of flashing your engine control unit is that of RPM cutoffs. The
top speed of your motorcycle is somewhat digitally controlled, and this can be reset to
some extent with tuning. Before you jump to doing this, it’s worth considering why these
parameters are set in the first place, beyond the apparent reason of safety for yourself
and those around you and keeping those insurance rates low by avoiding accidents.
There are other parts of your engine, such as the valve train that potentially will fall
behind the required airflow at faster speeds. This can put stress on your engine,
wearing it out faster. The tires on your motorcycle also have a speed rating and can
only handle safely caring you up to a certain speed. Unfortunately, at higher speeds,
any of the slightest imperfections in a tire can be substantially more dangerous than at
slower paces. It may be fun to go fast, but your bike is likely able to carry you that fast
enough speeds with its initial design without adding to the risk of fatal crashes or your
engine wearing out more rapidly than necessary.

How to Flash a Motorcycle ECU

Flashing an engine control unit on a motorcycle requires a kit that installs into your
OEM, and downloading the necessary software. Before connecting the equipment to the
engine control unit, within the file manager, the model of bike is selected and the type of
flashing desired. Following the instructions on the kit is necessary. The device should
not be connected to the ECU until instructed to do so. The bike is then run on a
stationary, stable platform to do the remapping.
There is much more that goes into flashing an engine control unit than just plugging in a
kit and downloading software, though. Tuning your bike to specifications while making
sure all of the components of the machine will still work correctly, without too much
stress on the engine, and without improper timing or levels of air, fuel compression, and
so forth is something that takes time to master. It is not recommended to flash your own
ECU if you have never done so before and do not have an expert helping you perform
the task correctly.

Why Perform ECU Tuning on a Motorcycle

Factory standard engine control units are designed the way many things to please the
majority of people are—it will run well, handle the typical conditions expected to ride in,
and the way most people drive their motorcycle. Will that catch-all programming suit
each and every person and perform at its peak for all riders? No. Just as every niche
design conforms to specific consumer’s needs more precisely, tuning or flashing your
engine control unit will be like tailoring a suit. It will fit your riding style and your needs
more precisely.
Another reason to tune your engine control unit is to reset error codes and improve
issues such as a twitchy throttle

Cost of ECU Tuning

As most things with motorcycles go, engine control unit flashing can have wild swings in
price. Price gaps don’t just exist between a new $30,000 Ducati and the
used motorcycle values of 10-years-old Yamaha. New tires, repairs, and yes, even ECU
tuning vary in cost, too.
On the extreme low end, an ECU flashing could cost around $300, but it can go as high
as $3,000.
Flashing kits are available for a few hundred dollars, and some people do ECU tuning
as a sort of hobby or side business. Be wary about getting your remapping done by
someone who is new to the process, or does it very part-time. Ask about their
credentials and experience, because the life of your motorcycle’s engine depends on it.
Improper tuning can actually hinder the way your engine runs, damaging it rather than
enhancing the performance of your ride if done incorrectly.
Having your engine control unit flashes may cost a lot, but it is because the people who
know how to do so correctly have to spend a lot of time researching, often through trial
and error of their own, how to perfect the tuning process. There is software encryption
to deal with, diagnostics, and tweaking the engine for specific performance. Tuning or
flashing your ECU is a bit of an art and science mixed into one, so it can be worth
paying the price for an expert to do the job the right way.

Is ECU Flashing for You?

Regardless of whether you ride a sports bike, a cruiser, an adventure touring hog, or a 3
wheel motorcycle, flashing your engine control unit can increase the performance of
your bike. Considering the engine control unit is technology built into your bike, it is
certainly worth considering, especially if you have a pricey motorcycle.
Just as taking care of an expensive laptop makes sense more than throwing it in the
trash or selling it the moment it acts up, tuning your ride is the same idea. If you have
slight knocking in the engine and no other engine problems are the cause, or your
throttle or acceleration could use a boost, flashing your motorcycle ECU could be a
worthwhile endeavor.
On the other hand, if you have a bike in decent or mint condition and it works well for
you, tuning your engine control unit could be an unnecessary expense, at least for now.
If it never even occurred to you to add more horsepower—most bikes have plenty for
their purpose after all—and everything is running smoothly, it could be best to save your
money and hold off on having your ECU flashed.
Tuning the engine control unit is always something you can do later if necessary, and if
you don’t want to spend a lot of money to have an expert perform the flashing, you
could actually end up damaging a perfectly good engine if done incorrectly.