Hi all, thought about putting this in the BBK thread that is going on but decided to do it here since this bike also has other mods that added to the performance.
I am sure more then a few members here have seen Lazy Dog Productions vids on all of his R&D on the CT. He has also posted some pretty detailed info in the BBK thread here.
For a little background, the wife and I have 2 new 2022 CT's...each has about 500 kilometers on them now, so not even at the first oil change yet. We relocated from southern central Thailand (mostly flat terrain) to northern Thailand (not so flat terrain) so I knew we might need to make some adjustments to the bikes to give them a little better performance on the hills.
Thinking I would go for the BBK, I got in touch with Eddie (Lazy Dog) to get his guidance. As it turns out, his place is just down the road 15 minutes from my house. Called him up last Sunday when out on a ride and he invited us over to check out this CT aka El Diablo. After about a minute, Eddie took a quick look at our bikes (as in about a 2 second look lol) and said our bikes were not 2022 bikes, they were the 2023 bikes....at least the engines were the new engines in the 2023 models. A bit puzzling since the dealer here in Thailand sold (and titled them) as 2022 models. Not sure if this is specific just to Thailand or not. Of course, this meant no BBK options right now. Bummer, but the fun was just starting.
We headed out for a ride....somehow my wife got the first crack at El Diablo! Eddie jumped on her CT and we headed out. Great ride through the Thai countryside, a quick lunch and then a run up some pretty steep hills to a temple. I could tell she was a little reserved on Eddie's bike...though she kept saying over the helmet comm's she couldn't believe it was the same model as ours. After I got a chance to ride it, I think it was just the load of additional power his bike has that kept her easy on the throttle.
We switched bikes and I took a run up the hills...and I can say the work he has done has transformed the little CT into the beast it should be. Climbing steep hills in 3rd gear with a bunch of throttle to spare was a hell of a surprise. Overall, I probably rode with the throttle cracked maybe a quarter of the way open vs. 75% on my bike in any kind of hills. In all conditions we rode in, his bike had ample pull through all gears. Like real pull that is normal on bigger bikes. In 4th gear cruising along at 65 KM's per hour, rolling on the throttle had noticeable acceleration....not a sensation I am used to in 4th gear on my CT lol. At any point, I could have blown past Eddie and my wife on stock CT's without a problem....and on a hill of any major elevation they would get left far behind. Had I not actually ridden his bike myself, I would be a very tough sell that the CT would capable of that level of performance bump without a ton of custom / specialized / expensive engine work and other mods.
I don't think his mission was try and turn it into a different bike...he loves the CT for what it is but wishes Honda would have done a bit more with the stock bike since all of his mods are pretty straight forward i.e. no splitting the case or swapping out the engine. The BBK, a new muffler, at 42T rear sprocket and some, head ported and remapping, etc. All stuff other members here are discussing or are doing. He has about 10,000 kilo's on his bike so reliability is there. But the results of all of the trial and error he has gone through to find the right "tune" for the CT are pretty impressive. They make a fun bike even more fun for sure. And he has detailed all of it on his channel which is a bonus. I would be surprised if Honda doesn't at least know about Eddie's channel...if they don't they need to. He is the CT whisperer.
For our bikes, with no BBK available yet, we are going to do change out to a 42T rear sprocket, new mufflers and a remap of ECU (at least I think I heard him say something about that) to try and get a decent performance bump for the hills. Will post an update when we get the work done.
I am sure more then a few members here have seen Lazy Dog Productions vids on all of his R&D on the CT. He has also posted some pretty detailed info in the BBK thread here.
For a little background, the wife and I have 2 new 2022 CT's...each has about 500 kilometers on them now, so not even at the first oil change yet. We relocated from southern central Thailand (mostly flat terrain) to northern Thailand (not so flat terrain) so I knew we might need to make some adjustments to the bikes to give them a little better performance on the hills.
Thinking I would go for the BBK, I got in touch with Eddie (Lazy Dog) to get his guidance. As it turns out, his place is just down the road 15 minutes from my house. Called him up last Sunday when out on a ride and he invited us over to check out this CT aka El Diablo. After about a minute, Eddie took a quick look at our bikes (as in about a 2 second look lol) and said our bikes were not 2022 bikes, they were the 2023 bikes....at least the engines were the new engines in the 2023 models. A bit puzzling since the dealer here in Thailand sold (and titled them) as 2022 models. Not sure if this is specific just to Thailand or not. Of course, this meant no BBK options right now. Bummer, but the fun was just starting.
We headed out for a ride....somehow my wife got the first crack at El Diablo! Eddie jumped on her CT and we headed out. Great ride through the Thai countryside, a quick lunch and then a run up some pretty steep hills to a temple. I could tell she was a little reserved on Eddie's bike...though she kept saying over the helmet comm's she couldn't believe it was the same model as ours. After I got a chance to ride it, I think it was just the load of additional power his bike has that kept her easy on the throttle.
We switched bikes and I took a run up the hills...and I can say the work he has done has transformed the little CT into the beast it should be. Climbing steep hills in 3rd gear with a bunch of throttle to spare was a hell of a surprise. Overall, I probably rode with the throttle cracked maybe a quarter of the way open vs. 75% on my bike in any kind of hills. In all conditions we rode in, his bike had ample pull through all gears. Like real pull that is normal on bigger bikes. In 4th gear cruising along at 65 KM's per hour, rolling on the throttle had noticeable acceleration....not a sensation I am used to in 4th gear on my CT lol. At any point, I could have blown past Eddie and my wife on stock CT's without a problem....and on a hill of any major elevation they would get left far behind. Had I not actually ridden his bike myself, I would be a very tough sell that the CT would capable of that level of performance bump without a ton of custom / specialized / expensive engine work and other mods.
I don't think his mission was try and turn it into a different bike...he loves the CT for what it is but wishes Honda would have done a bit more with the stock bike since all of his mods are pretty straight forward i.e. no splitting the case or swapping out the engine. The BBK, a new muffler, at 42T rear sprocket and some, head ported and remapping, etc. All stuff other members here are discussing or are doing. He has about 10,000 kilo's on his bike so reliability is there. But the results of all of the trial and error he has gone through to find the right "tune" for the CT are pretty impressive. They make a fun bike even more fun for sure. And he has detailed all of it on his channel which is a bonus. I would be surprised if Honda doesn't at least know about Eddie's channel...if they don't they need to. He is the CT whisperer.
For our bikes, with no BBK available yet, we are going to do change out to a 42T rear sprocket, new mufflers and a remap of ECU (at least I think I heard him say something about that) to try and get a decent performance bump for the hills. Will post an update when we get the work done.
I just havent tried it.
