Power Commander VS. Bazzazz VS. RapidBike

I am leaning toward the RapidBike 2 any comments experience with these, have never seen any mention of these on here.

What makes one better than the other?

Which one is best?

Welcome to Power Commander Motorcycle Fuel Injection Tuning Module

Models : Honda VFR800 '02-10

RapidBike USA - Rapid Bike 2 Kit for the Honda VFR 800 Vtec 2002-2006

 

Never heard of the Rapid Bike thing.

Power Commander - been around forever and well-known.

Bazzaz - Ammar Bazzaz is an absolute genius when it comes to EFI programming and engineering. He is rightly credited with helping Mat Mladin win his first three AMA Superbike titles.
I was the first person in Australia to install the Bazzaz Z-Fi on a VFR and I can tell you it was fairly easy to do (the instruction sheet supplied is a bit small and a poor print but you can find a larger copy on the Bazzaz site) and it definitely made a difference to the bike. I had more midrange power and it completely eliminated the surging/stumbling issues in low speed + low rpm situations.
The Z-Fi also works all four injectors rather than just two, as some aftermarket EFI management systems do.

Ultimately, I'm sure you'll be happy with either the Z-Fi or the PC. (I would go for the former of those two.)

 

To be fair - I think you will struggle to find any genuine side by side comparisons to help resolve your questions.

I guess within VFRWorld there is a fair chance that you may find at least one person with experience of one or other system, but unless/until someone sets up genuine side by side installs on the same bike (not similar bikes as there can be noticeable differences on "identical" bikes fresh out the factory) then there is really no honest way to tell you which is best, as there are a whole heap of variables, not least price and availability. Add in things like ease of installation, technical resources/cost required to set each up to match whatever use you want, and of course reliability and you already have a hideously complicated spread-sheet of data to mess with, before you even start fitting any of them!

I suggest you just do a Google trawl. If that does not throw up loads of negative input about a system then its probably a runner. Remember people tend to post up lots if something is a real lemon, on the other hand plaudits are quite rare.

Its critical you understand the whole package - its not just buying a box and plugging a few things in and you suddenly own a rocket-ship. Race teams spend hundreds of hours (and dollars) chewing the data and endlessly tweaking, and testing maps to extract the last hp, but I am assuming you don't have free access to the sort of dynos etc needed to get anywhere near the optimum from any of this sort of kit, and are just planning to load somebody else's stock map, and rely on whatever customer support is bundled with the sale.

At the end of the day, just do some homework on the "official specs" and costs and take it from there.

In the States I am fairly sure Power Commander installs are fairly common. Indeed you might want to create a new thread to see if there is someone based around Kansas with any of these add-ons on their VFR who you could meet up with and possibly let you take it for a test run. I suspect you will do well to find anyone nearby with a VFR sporting either of the others but its always worth asking.

Finally I am not sure how things stand in the US, but over here in Europe, if you install mods like that on your bike, it can nullify your insurance cover if you don't tell the insurer precisely what you have done. Sadly every time you notify them of a modification they usually see it as excuse to apply a price hike! So that's probably another item to factor in.

Take care - ATTGATT:vtr2:




SkiMad

 

Yeah wasn't looking for a genuine side by side, just throwing them all out there to see what kind of feedback ensued.

I know that it is predominantly Power Commander around here or so it seems...

Thank you for your feedback skimad

As far as insurance goes all I have is liability, so they don't give a crap what you do to the bike.