I’ve owned my V7 850 Centenario for a few years, and the single, most
frustrating shortcoming has been the fuel-mapping. It has a distinct gap or
hesitation in the 3-4000rpm area, mainly in 3rd when cold and tooling
through town to get out onto the open road. Once warmed up, it’s barely
detectable – but I can still feel it! Even in 5th and 6th it’s apparent when the
revs drop down. Seems worse in summer. Something to do with the Euro 5
requirements.
The Beetle map on my Breva 1100 made a big difference to its mapping
problem. Unfortunately, it seems that a Beetle map is not possible for the
V7 850. But rescue is at hand from UpMap in Parma, Italy.
I couldn’t find an Australian outlet so I bought online directly from UpMap,
which had a discount over Christmas (which covered the pricey freight cost).
It cost me $550 (plus $25 international transaction fee!). That’s a lot of
money but I was fed up with the “hesitation” issue.
I watched a few Youtube videos of bods using UpMap on their Aprilias. Thus
fortified, I ordered it on the 5th January and the package arrived one week
later, on Tuesday 13th. That’s very quick in my experience. Additionally,
their sales manager, Simone Di Grande, responded immediately (with the
10-hour time difference) to my queries. The package included the T800
UpMap device and the appropriate cable for the V7. With the UpMap app
downloaded to my phone from Playstore, the T800 can be accessed by
Bluetooth and the bike’s ECU can be reconfigured.
So I got stuck in. The whole process worked smoothly, following prompts on
the app. It recognises the bike, lists the maps that could be used and their
prices -the other maps are for various exhaust and racing options. The map
I bought in the original transaction is listed as free. Press a few prompts and
she’s uploaded!
It was too hot to take her for a test run. But I started her up and
immediately it was apparent that the idle was smoother.
I took her for a blat the next morning. Beautiful, smooth acceleration, no
hesitation through the whole rev range even when I dropped the revs down
and rode in high gear. It was so pleasing to achieve such an outcome. A bit
expensive but worth it.
Motoguzzimackers' Moto Guzzi Diaries 