Has been over a week since I got back from the Dragon and the best time I ever had at the Dragon. Tuskeegee hotel was an awesome place to stay, the total lack of cell phone coverage and internet a blessing. 

By far the best thing that could have happened to this years Dragon VMax Warrior Fest was the Deals Gap Rock Slide earlier this year. Sounds weird but the fact that the road was closed for a couple weeks, reopened just a week before we go there - but only partial (the rock slide in Tennessee is still there), made for an awesome experience. During the week the Dragon was open from 8am - 8pm with 2 troopers present at most times. No less and no more.

Bikes and cars were super rare, no traffic and once you knew about the location of the smokey bears, it was great fun - always keeping it safe of course!

Today I finally got a chance to hit the dyno room again. On the stand a 2010 VMax that just finished it's initial break-in. Safe to hit it hard on the dyno.

We brought several K&N filters to the test to see if there are any gains to be made just from swapping filters. In our recent filter writeup we discussed several options from K&N that fit the new VMax more or less perfect. 

Several hours later and an entire tank and then some used for testing we gathered well over 100 runs with tons of data about the filters and various airbox modifications. With and without restrictor, with and without rear top cover, stock filter, three different K&N filter - all on an otherwise stock 2010 VMax.

Finally found some time to compile the article about K&N filter options for the 2010/2009 VMax. The choices are great, the CM-9908 is my absolute favorite. True K&N - not a blue Made-In-China knockoff. 

If you have to keep the stock airbox (mainly for noise reasons) this filter should be for you. You can find them all over eBay and the Internet.

Power gains with all drop in filter options are limited, but in return you keep the stock airbox.

Time to look under the cover of tuning a Big Air system. Beginning of the year 2009, shortely after the 2009 VMax had arrived we tested various kinds of Big Air configurations to find the one worthy for the VMax. 

Now that we have access to the new leader in exhausts: Akrapovic - we re-ran a handful of tests - some 150 runs - to re-validate if the exhaust would have a significant impact on the Big Air Design. Long story short - The Monster Big Air still trumps all other designs we did by a significant margin. 

After being able to test the Akrapovic exhaust systems on the 2009 VMax, I had to come up with a bolder look for the setup. The baffles definitely had to go, not only for performance reason.

The black end-caps are a little to mild for the look of a wild VMax. 

Here is one of the designs that I came up with that leverages a separate base and invisible mounting screws. 

Tonight was a wiring & soldering evening. Finally found the time to remove the PCIII USB that I still had on board together with most of its extra gear like Hub and extra electronics.

Now that I have been running the PCV for quite some time now, it was time to de-dupe the setup and cleanup the wiring. Trimmed away all excess wiring, re-routed the cables, and put pretty much all of them in black plastic mesh, with heat shrink tubing at all ends.

Wiring in the Map Selector switch and the Quick Shifter into the PCV and removed all extra connectors that I had installed for the PCIII. 

What a weekend. First Jesse James throws out a killer short video about the VMax. Bets rolling burnout I have seen to date on the new VMax. He sure is having fun. Bike and rider look like a great team. We all sure hope to see more of him in the near future.

If you have not seen the article with the video check it out here: Jesse James Rides the the Star VMax Video

The very next day Jay Leno's Custom VMax hits the auction block and fetched a sky high $120,000 in a wild auction battle at Barrett-Jackson's auction in Las Vegas.

Finally a really busy work week is coming to its end. Long work days and nights for the past 3 weeks have kept me up late most every night.

Luckily last weekend was a very productive dyno tuning weekend. As reported before we finally broke the 200 rwhps (SAE) barrier on two independent bikes. With 202.46 (SAE) rwhps being the current new record, both bikes came in within 0.5 hps of each other.

What is so phenomenal about it is, that the second bike did not get a custom tuning session, but got the map developed for the first one downloaded without changes. Within 3 runs, that bike too broke the 200 rwhps barrier, finally topping out at a touch of 202 (SAE) rwhps. 

If you are in the western half of the US or willing to travel this might be for you:

Sunday October 25th 2009
First Star VMax Drag Day!

We are renting one of the fastest tracks in the country for an entire day: Sacramento Raceway!

All VMax & Warrior years are welcome to join in! (Other Yamaha bike too - though spots might be limited).

We also have Dale Walker confirmed for the day. Not only will he show us a couple fast passes on a nicely tuned VMax, he is also going to offer a free Drag School day for all that attend and want to learn more about drag racing.

Theory session in the morning, followed by individual ride sessions and tips from the pro.

This is a great opportunity for all that want to try it out themselves.

We will have prizes ready for the fastest non-professionals and are also working on a few more attendees for the event.  

We are still working on the sponsorship for the event. Depending on attendance the current estimate is $75 per person to join in for the day. If we get extra sponsor dollars for the event or more local folks that will attend, this could be lower.

The regular track and NHRA rules apply (please see the Sacramento Raceway webpage for details:www.sacramentoraceway.com/ )

Hope to see you there!

In case you are interested see our forum thread here: Click Here

A very common question I have been asked many times over the years is whether there is a need to adjust fuel maps for elevation.

My answer to this question is very specific to Yamaha's late model FI ECUs on bikes like the VMax, R1, R6, Warrior, Liner or Raider.

We have tested the following bikes with maps done at sea level (in the bay area) and taken them up to about 11,000 ft elevation - enough to see what happens: