Called Patrick Racing today, had a long chat with the bossman Nigel Patrick. He was very patient and pleasant, and made a good argument for the new Sprintex supercharger without badmouthing anyone elses product.
I called him because I had a lot of questions, which some here might like the answers to...so here it goes, from what i remember:
Q: What has Sprintex changed since the previous model?
A: From the v&h kit, the redesigned sc has new gears which are 40% stronger than the previous setup. Also; improved seals & clearances and an improved one piece piggyback ECU. The 3rd nozzle temp compensation and mixture compensation has also been reworked.
Q: How have you tested the kit since you started selling it?
A: We put the kit on a totally stock 08 DX, which had 500mi on it previous to the installation. Our dyno, which is pretty conservative, measured the bike at 105 rwhp previous to the installation, and 153 rwhp after. We have since made more than 40 dyno passes around the country. This has confirmed that our dyno is indeed conservative, as we have measured from 5-7 more horses on other people's dynos.
Q: I have tuned my bike to perfection so that it fits my aftermarket exhaust. Why do you require me to flash the ECU back to stock if I buy the supercharger, even though I plan on keeping the same exhaust as was on the bike when it was naturally aspirated? Surely, that would mean at least some bikes are not tuned optimally?
A: (OK: take this with a pinch of salt, this is from memory, and although I got the jist of it, some terminology might be misquoted) The supercharger controls the backpressure to a certain degree, so the different kinds of exhaust becomes less of a variation. A set of pipes which - wiht the right tuning- might give you 6-7 horses, will only give you 2-3 horses on a supercharged bike. We have tested bikes with stock pipes, CFR, TABs (etc) and the variations have been smaller than they usually would. All pipes we have tested, work well with a stock ECU and the Sprintex piggyback ECU, unless the ECU has been reprogrammed.
Q: Performance is always a factor considered when people buy a power adder. Is there any way to turn up boost or make the SC yield more effect than it does today?
A: In theory, yes. But in the interest of longevity and dependability, Sprintex have chosen to not take it further than 150-155 rwhp. You could always tinker around with a different standalone ECU or change the physical attributes of the SC, but this is not something we or Sprintex would recommend. 150-155 HP in a straight and even powerband is very adequate and at the same time, not too stressful on the motor. There are no plans of releasing a higher HP SC in the forseeable future. But remember, the peak HP is at 9100RPM; if you adjust the rev limit the SC just keeps on giving power. So you could gain a couple of peak horses just by adjusting the rpm limit.
Q: V&H had their problems with the previous incarnation of the SC, how many and what kind of problems have you experienced with the current configuration?
A: We've had two. One, there was an installation error by the customer which was rectified after he spoke with us, the other was a dead piggyback ECU. That's all.
Q: What does the kit cost?
A: $5450. We've adjusted the price quite a bit from the V&H days, every one of the kits we have sold this year have been at that price. I think that price makes us very competitive in the power adder market.
Awright guys...I hope this helped answer some questions, it sure did for me. I would really recommend giving Patrick Racing a call for everything this little post does not cover, he seems like a no BS kind of guy to me. Living in a country where coppers are on bikers ALL the time (making the Trask plumbing an easy target for getting my liscence plates confiscated on site), this talk has definitely made me more positive towards the SC route.
I called him because I had a lot of questions, which some here might like the answers to...so here it goes, from what i remember:
Q: What has Sprintex changed since the previous model?
A: From the v&h kit, the redesigned sc has new gears which are 40% stronger than the previous setup. Also; improved seals & clearances and an improved one piece piggyback ECU. The 3rd nozzle temp compensation and mixture compensation has also been reworked.
Q: How have you tested the kit since you started selling it?
A: We put the kit on a totally stock 08 DX, which had 500mi on it previous to the installation. Our dyno, which is pretty conservative, measured the bike at 105 rwhp previous to the installation, and 153 rwhp after. We have since made more than 40 dyno passes around the country. This has confirmed that our dyno is indeed conservative, as we have measured from 5-7 more horses on other people's dynos.
Q: I have tuned my bike to perfection so that it fits my aftermarket exhaust. Why do you require me to flash the ECU back to stock if I buy the supercharger, even though I plan on keeping the same exhaust as was on the bike when it was naturally aspirated? Surely, that would mean at least some bikes are not tuned optimally?
A: (OK: take this with a pinch of salt, this is from memory, and although I got the jist of it, some terminology might be misquoted) The supercharger controls the backpressure to a certain degree, so the different kinds of exhaust becomes less of a variation. A set of pipes which - wiht the right tuning- might give you 6-7 horses, will only give you 2-3 horses on a supercharged bike. We have tested bikes with stock pipes, CFR, TABs (etc) and the variations have been smaller than they usually would. All pipes we have tested, work well with a stock ECU and the Sprintex piggyback ECU, unless the ECU has been reprogrammed.
Q: Performance is always a factor considered when people buy a power adder. Is there any way to turn up boost or make the SC yield more effect than it does today?
A: In theory, yes. But in the interest of longevity and dependability, Sprintex have chosen to not take it further than 150-155 rwhp. You could always tinker around with a different standalone ECU or change the physical attributes of the SC, but this is not something we or Sprintex would recommend. 150-155 HP in a straight and even powerband is very adequate and at the same time, not too stressful on the motor. There are no plans of releasing a higher HP SC in the forseeable future. But remember, the peak HP is at 9100RPM; if you adjust the rev limit the SC just keeps on giving power. So you could gain a couple of peak horses just by adjusting the rpm limit.
Q: V&H had their problems with the previous incarnation of the SC, how many and what kind of problems have you experienced with the current configuration?
A: We've had two. One, there was an installation error by the customer which was rectified after he spoke with us, the other was a dead piggyback ECU. That's all.
Q: What does the kit cost?
A: $5450. We've adjusted the price quite a bit from the V&H days, every one of the kits we have sold this year have been at that price. I think that price makes us very competitive in the power adder market.
Awright guys...I hope this helped answer some questions, it sure did for me. I would really recommend giving Patrick Racing a call for everything this little post does not cover, he seems like a no BS kind of guy to me. Living in a country where coppers are on bikers ALL the time (making the Trask plumbing an easy target for getting my liscence plates confiscated on site), this talk has definitely made me more positive towards the SC route.
opcorn
