OddBike Tech - How to Tune Ducati Motorcycle Fuel Injection

This week on the OddBike YouTube Channel I'm presenting the first installment of a new series called OddBike Tech.

OddBike Tech will be a showcase of the sort of in-depth technical information OddBike has become known for. No dumbing it down for the masses here. The appeal will certainly be limited, but the knowledge we can share will be invaluable to those who desire to learn.

For our first installment of OddBike Tech I'll be covering a topic that I'm intimately familiar with, but isn't well documented online: tuning Ducati fuel injection. 

Specifically I'll be covering the basics of tuning the EPROM-based Magneti-Marelli Alpha-N systems used in the 851, 888, 916, 996, 748, ST2, and ST4 in the form of the P7, P8 and 1.6M ECUs. These procedures also apply to similar systems used in mid-to-late 1990s Moto Guzzi and MV Agusta models.

Useful links: 

TunerPro Software
Moates Burn 2 Harware
GuzziDiag programs and XDF definition files for various Italian motorcycles Speedzilla Forum thread on tuning Ducati ECUs
Innovate MTX-L wideband AFR gauge
Brad Black Ducati Tuning Reports, a wealth of information for anyone tuning Ducatis 

Millepercento Moto Guzzis - Filling the Void

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Moto Guzzi has lost its way.

The boys at Mandello del Lario represent the oldest continuously operating brand in Europe in spite of operating in a near-constant state of flux due to catastrophic insolvency and unstable sales. Over the years the products emblazoned with the eagle crest have attempted to fill nearly every conceivable niche - sometimes successfully, more often not. Despite their attempts to crack into various categories with sometimes ill-advised oddball machines, Guzzis of old channelled a certain spirit that made them appealing to a certain type of rider who lusted for something peculiar. They were sporting machines, but not sportbikes. They were a bit rough and charmingly unpretentious, but refined enough to be pleasant. They were unique, but somehow familiar, and backed up by decades of heritage – passionate machines with antiquated guts. Moto Guzzi excelled at building the prototypical gentleman’s sports machine, exemplified by iconic models like the Le Mans, the V11, and the Daytona. They were not the fastest, or the most agile, or the most useable – but they were some of the most charming.

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But it was not to last. With their finances in shambles and profits needed to keep the lights on, a new strategy would be needed. It was a boring solution, with practicality and rationality taking precedence over passion. When the Piaggio Group took over Moto Guzzi in 2004, the company gradually phased out the true heirs to the company’s heritage in favour of dull, safe products that would appeal to the masses. Thus we ended up with wallflower machines like an asthmatic retro throwback, a chrome-addled American-esque cruiser, and a Teutonic-aping capital-A “Adventure Tourer”. Guzzi weathered their near-demise to fight another day, but at the cost of all that made them interesting.