PFWiz
30+ Posts
I am the proud owner of a 2018 CVO Limited that I bought new. It features a complete Fullsac exhaust, a Harley power cam, and has been converted into a trike with a Roadsmith kit.
The trike ran great. My wife and I rode to Branson, New Orleans, Gettysburg, and more—all while pulling a trailer—without a single issue. Well, there was one small issue. Coming into Branson from the north, there’s a series of large, steep hills. So steep, in fact, that my heavily loaded trike couldn’t maintain 80 mph uphill. I actually had to downshift into 5th and slow down to 70!
Now, this may not sound like a big deal, but it got under my skin—slowly eating away at my happiness. (Talk about your first-world problems!) So, last fall, I gave in to my lust for power and decided to go for a full Stage 2 upgrade, centered around a Cycle Rama 408 MT cam.
The only problem was that my trusted independent shop of 20+ years didn’t want to do the work because their dyno couldn’t accommodate my trike. I offered to install a ThunderMax and handle the tuning myself (I’ve owned a ThunderMax before and was pleased with the results), but they still declined—afraid I wouldn’t be happy with the outcome.
Eventually, I found another local independent shop with a DynoJet 250 dyno capable of handling my trike. He seemed to know all the right keywords and phrases, so I gave him the job. I had nearly everything you could imagine thrown into this Stage 2 build.
I guess I should’ve known better than to trust someone I’d never used before for such an important project. It took him all winter, and I had to call him back several times to fix things that weren’t right.
When I finally got to ride my trike, I immediately noticed a problem: I had to rev the throttle excessively to avoid stalling when pulling away from a stop. My "butt dyno" was not impressed (and I still haven’t received an actual dyno chart). The bike guzzled fuel and left a strong gas smell when parked indoors.
The tuner wanted me to bring it back so he could re-dyno it—but I refused. No way was I ever taking my trike back to him.
But all was not lost. I had a GOTH plan—my Go-To-Hell Plan.
When your plan fails, and your backup plan fails, that’s when you reach for the GOTH plan. Mine was Fuel Moto. I joined their map buy-in program, gave them a full list of the parts and mods the second indy had installed, and the next day—I had a map!
But the bike wouldn’t start. It cranked, sputtered, and died within seconds.
So I messaged Lucas at Fuel Moto (the remote tuning king), explaining what happened. He asked for the dyno tune file the second indy had provided. The next day, Lucas emailed me, saying that according to the tune, I had a 124" engine—without the new injectors I had supposedly paid for (another story for another time). Based on that, he created a new tune using his best guess for what I actually had.
The difference was night and day.
The bike started and idled smoothly. When I hit the throttle in second or third gear, I was thrown back in the saddle. The trike accelerated with authority. I can’t express how happy this made me—and my wife.
A person at a company actually did exactly what they promised!
If you're getting major performance work done and you don’t have 100% confidence in your dyno tuner, get your tune from Fuel Moto. You’ll not only get the map, but also the expertise of Lucas and access to their massive tune library. I believe there are few—if any—hardware combinations they haven’t dealt with. They’ll work with you until you’re truly satisfied.
Thank you, Lucas.
Thank you, Fuel Moto, for giving me my trike back.
