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Seems like Booster Plug/Accelrator Module aren't "snake oil" after all.

joespeedfast said:
If you've never spent the night with Sofia Vergarra, you might think that you're not missing much... :party
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Picts or it never happened.:laughing

I remember reading on a F650 forum a few years ago that Der Korp made the EFI mapping so that the end use could not alter it. That true or changed or...?
 
I run a fatDuc EFI manipulator on my Multi 1100. Basically same thing. It enriches the fuel mixture in closed loop operation (up to 5,000rpm, I think) with a simple variable resistor against the O2 sensor. Not too sophisticated but it works well with significantly smoother throttle response and eliminated popping on decel.

FWIW, I'm running it in the leanest setting and that's enough... from reading it seems like lot of people think more I always better and run it way rich, killing their gas mileage and I'm sure causing all kinds of problems.
 
Well... I'm on the fence with this one. I've got an '05 F650GS Dakar - Twin Spark model. After riding it up in the Sierra's fully laden at altitude I was a bit disappointed with the power. There's not much of anything in the market available that addresses this. At least I haven't found anything. There are "some" products that address the single spark model, but again, not the twin spark.

I emailed BoosterPlug yesterday after reading this thread asking if their product does in fact support a twin spark application. Jens, the creator, emailed me back this morning indicating yes. I may go ahead and pop for one. $150 is noise level.

Side note: After my Sierra observations I did make one change. I pitched the stock exhaust in favor of a Staintune. I've tested the bike using two different sized exhaust restrictors and no exhaust restrictor at all. The best set up is with no restrictor at all, which pisses me off because I hate loud bikes.
 
DReg350 said:
I've got an '05 F650GS Dakar - Twin Spark model. After riding it up in the Sierra's fully laden at altitude I was a bit disappointed with the power. There's not much of anything in the market available that addresses this.
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Sure there is—bigger bike/engine.

(I've got a Dakar too. :teeth)

As noted earlier in this thread, I've also got an R1200R with a Booster Plug in it. It smoothed it out, but it's not a real power booster. I don't think a Booster Plug is going to solve the power inadequacy of the 650. If it does, let me know and I'll put one in my Dakar too.
 
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monkeyneck said:
Sure there is—bigger bike/engine.

(I've got a Dakar too. :teeth)

As noted earlier in this thread, I've also got an R1200R with a Booster Plug in it. It smoothed it out, but it's not a real power booster. I don't think a Booster Plug is going to solve the power inadequacy of the 650. If it does, let me know and I'll put one in my Dakar too.
Click to expand...

To use a phrase reviled by BARF; It is what it is. I don't expect anything can improve power more than an HP or two. Opening up the exhaust certainly did help without impacting fuel mileage. I've read reviews of some products, and this may include the BoosterPlug too, that adversely impact mileage. That's a non starter for me.

Another bike? The Dakar is set up for ADV and touring the way I like it. Bought all my farkles used off ADVrider; often less than half of retail. It's not everyone's taste, but it works for me. The place where more power would be fun would be sweepers and lonely straight Highways and Freeways, but I try and avoid those anyway.

Currently planning a nine day July or August "14 trip to Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Canada, ect. with a buddy. Combo bike camping and motel trip. Ride all day every day. Did this two summers ago (Olympic, Victoria, San Juan Island, Cascades) and the bike set up worked well with the exceptions noted above. Epic trip.

If I pop for a BoosterPlug I'll let you know what I learn.
 
joespeedfast said:
A full, proper tune with PC on a dyno by a real expert? PRICELESS! Yeah.

If you've never spent the night with Sofia Vergarra, you might think that you're not missing much... :party
Click to expand...

Obviously there's no substitute for a pro tune, but we're not talking about someone who wants a proper tune, we're talking about someone who wants performance at a low cost. Most people would never fully realize the performance gain on their daily rider anyway.
 
DReg350 said:
To use a phrase reviled by BARF; It is what it is. I don't expect anything can improve power more than an HP or two. Opening up the exhaust certainly did help without impacting fuel mileage. I've read reviews of some products, and this may include the BoosterPlug too, that adversely impact mileage. That's a non starter for me.

Another bike? The Dakar is set up for ADV and touring the way I like it. Bought all my farkles used off ADVrider; often less than half of retail. It's not everyone's taste, but it works for me. The place where more power would be fun would be sweepers and lonely straight Highways and Freeways, but I try and avoid those anyway.
Click to expand...

I've heard mixed reviews on mileage from other R riders with the Booster Plug. I don't track mine closely enough to know whether it made a significant difference, but I haven't noticed any real changes in range.

I was just teasing about the other bike thing, by the way. The Dakar is a great bike. Mine is really well set up now too, probably a lot like yours—I have a Staintune on mine too.—Haven't really ridden it without the restrictor. Like you said, it's just too loud.
 
monkeyneck said:
... The Dakar is a great bike. Mine is really well set up now too, probably a lot like yours—I have a Staintune on mine too.—Haven't really ridden it without the restrictor. Like you said, it's just too loud.
Click to expand...

So I'm blasting up 5 the morning of day two of my nine day ride. We're just outside of Cottage Grove, OR when the ENTIRE back half of the muffler casing flies off. Fatigue crack formed all the way around the circumference of the pipe starting just aft of the rear bracket. Bike got stupid loud, I look back through the mirror and see the shiny ex-bit of my bike spinning across the freeway. :wtf

Found a bike shop in town (Yamaha), called every BMW dealer between there and Canada trying to source something... anything... nothing. Settled on a Yamaha Raptor performance pipe the shop I was standing in had because it was the only pipe that had a stainless rear casing that could be welded to what was left of my old muffler's header pipe joint. Counter girl's husband owned a fab shop in Eugene. Rode up there and spent the next six hours gettin' customized. Talk about stupid loud. Oh. My. God. Up hill, under load was, that Raptor pipe was DEFINING. An unrestricted Staintune is a whisper compared to that Raptor exhaust. :laughing The funniest part was watching how hard this good 'ol boy fabrication wizard was laughing while putting off-road Yamaha parts on a BMW. :rofl One of the most memorable parts of the trip. Wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

Still managed to log 500 miles that same day. I still have that pipe if you want to customize your bike. :thumbup
 
DReg350 said:
To use a phrase reviled by BARF; It is what it is. I don't expect anything can improve power more than an HP or two. Opening up the exhaust certainly did help without impacting fuel mileage. I've read reviews of some products, and this may include the BoosterPlug too, that adversely impact mileage. That's a non starter for me.

Another bike? The Dakar is set up for ADV and touring the way I like it. Bought all my farkles used off ADVrider; often less than half of retail. It's not everyone's taste, but it works for me. The place where more power would be fun would be sweepers and lonely straight Highways and Freeways, but I try and avoid those anyway.

Currently planning a nine day July or August "14 trip to Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Canada, ect. with a buddy. Combo bike camping and motel trip. Ride all day every day. Did this two summers ago (Olympic, Victoria, San Juan Island, Cascades) and the bike set up worked well with the exceptions noted above. Epic trip.

If I pop for a BoosterPlug I'll let you know what I learn.
Click to expand...

MCN got about 10% better mileage with the $150 Booster Plug and the $70 Accelerator Module...both performed identically in their tests.
 
DReg350 said:
So I'm blasting up 5 the morning of day two of my nine day ride. We're just outside of Cottage Grove, OR when the ENTIRE back half of the muffler casing flies off. Fatigue crack formed all the way around the circumference of the pipe starting just aft of the rear bracket. Bike got stupid loud, I look back through the mirror and see the shiny ex-bit of my bike spinning across the freeway. :wtf

Found a bike shop in town (Yamaha), called every BMW dealer between there and Canada trying to source something... anything... nothing. Settled on a Yamaha Raptor performance pipe the shop I was standing in had because it was the only pipe that had a stainless rear casing that could be welded to what was left of my old muffler's header pipe joint. Counter girl's husband owned a fab shop in Eugene. Rode up there and spent the next six hours gettin' customized. Talk about stupid loud. Oh. My. God. Up hill, under load was, that Raptor pipe was DEFINING. An unrestricted Staintune is a whisper compared to that Raptor exhaust. :laughing The funniest part was watching how hard this good 'ol boy fabrication wizard was laughing while putting off-road Yamaha parts on a BMW. :rofl One of the most memorable parts of the trip. Wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

Still managed to log 500 miles that same day. I still have that pipe if you want to customize your bike. :thumbup
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Hah! Awesome—full custom exhaust!
 
So after reading this thread and the article I figured I'd give it a shot. I ordered the Accelerator Plug, without the external temp probe, and selected "with catalytic converter" for my bike.

I plugged it in the other morning, spending all of 2 minutes to do it and here are some notes after about 100 miles:

Throttle response is better. There used to be a small stumble from cruising to fairly large open throttle positions and it is mostly gone. Additionally, the transition from closed to open and open to closed throttle is much smoother.

There was a pop (just one) in my exhaust when transitioning from very small throttle openings to closed that is completely and 100% gone. I could not make the bike do it after installing the plug, when previously I could not make the bike not do it.

I am not going to comment on power because frankly, I don't care. This bike is an older model and has a lot of miles. I didn't buy it for power, never ran it on a dyno and never will. However, I keep detailed records of it's service and gas consumption, so I will be able to report back on gas mileage numbers, giving us a true idea of how much additional fuel it is causing to be injected. On top of that, I'm running full time in whichever loop doesn't include the O2 sensor. I D/C'd the O2 sensor some time back to see if I could eliminate the dreaded surge at small throttle cruising. I couldn't. And it didn't hurt my gas mileage so I haven't hooked it back up. the surge is still there and I've not been able to tune it out no matter how much time I've spent adjusting valves and syncing throttle bodies. I didn't get a chance to test the plug for this yet, but I will. I am also curious how it will affect the bike in the summer months when it's hot out.

More to follow when I've run a few tanks of gas through the bike.
 
Booster plug worked wonders on my R1200GSA...
The problem is that it was a $20K bike that shouldn't have been fueled so shitty from the factory. GERMAN GARBAGE
 
donoman said:
The problem is that it was a $20K bike that shouldn't have been fueled so shitty from the factory. GERMAN GARBAGE
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Wrong. The current emissions standards make it difficult to tune a performance engine to run smoothly and still pollute less. On top of that, with the recent competition to produce the most powerful bike in the segment (or keep up with the pack anyway) with an air cooled engine makes for an interesting situation. It is why BMW (and Harley) are now producing bikes with water cooled heads- so they can run leaner (hotter) and meet the standards without causing damage.
 
And if all it takes is to spend $150 dollars to fix it, then the dealers are going to be asked to sell them as accessories.
 
That's a load of BS. These oil heads have been running shitty with choppy on-off throttle response from the beginning 90 years ago :twofinger
 
donoman said:
That's a load of BS. These oil heads have been running shitty with choppy on-off throttle response from the beginning 90 years ago :twofinger
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I think it's a conspiracy for the dealers to be guaranteed an accessory sale with every bike purchase.

"Sure, we'll knock a couple hundred off the price of the bike, but we'll charge you retail for the plug and an hour of shop time to install it." :laughing
 
Shitty fueling from the factory is certainly not limited to BMWs, in case you haven't noticed. :laughing

Although it has gotten better in recent years.
 
The following worked for me:
-Removed cat.
-Removed CCP.
-Installed IICE Air (similar to Boosterplug product).
-Staintune with baffle installed.
-Lennies Rocket Sprockets (advanced cam timing 9 degrees).

Results:
-Better off idle.
-More resposive.
-Less weight.
-More pull in the lower revs (moved torque curve down about 800 rpm).
-About the same mileage.

You just aren't going to get a lot more power out of these bikes (without a shitpot of money). You can put the existing power more where you are likely to use it though.
 
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