TrailTech Vapor user comments

Installation: Simple, but does take a couple of hours. Pull the seat, tank and shrouds, drain coolant, pull spark plug lead, and headlight/number plate. For now, I wired directly to battery, but there may be an available fused connector. The manual says to wrap 10 turns around the spark plug lead; I got only 5 or 6 and the tach works fine - so make sure you route the wire reasonably short so there is enough wire to do the wrapping. The coolant temp sensor mounts in the large tube that runs from the front of the motor up to the top of the left radiator. The speedo sensor gets screwed into a 1/8" hole you drill into the aluminum caliper adapter bracket. The installation photo for the Endurance computer at Trailtech's website gives a clue about where to mount it. I sighted mine in and picked my own "optimum" location.

Operation: I gave my Vapor the acid test in the rough, whooped-out, tight woods at Rampart Range (it was very dusty, then it rained - it functioned properly all the time). The rpm bar graph can be seen periferally while riding, but that's about all except for the warning lights. But who stares at the speedo while riding? The coolant temp works great. It's interesting to see how fast it goes up while idling or climbing slow steep hills. It peaked at 267F when my bike was blowing major steam when I got stuck on a nasty pitch.

Complaints: (1) ambient temp gauge response is too slow and essentially useless. If bike was out in sun and gauge reads 112 when it really 85, then start riding, it takes like 20 minutes to creep down anywhere near the right temp. If it is even partly cloudy, it still reads too hot by 10-20F. The sensor must be buried too deep inside. (2) I think water temp is more important than ambient temp and should be shown on screen 1 with the tripmeter where both can be seen continuously. It is on screen 2 with digital rpm, which seems of little value since the rpm graph is already on both screens anyway and there is no practical way (or reason) to read digital rpm while riding. It is easy to toggle screens, but it would be nice to have the most important info on one screen.

Other than the ambient temperature, it functions well and provides a lot of info.

Thanks for sharing your review - nice to see a thorough, honest evaluation

I just installed a Trailtech Vapor. Having trouble with the tach. Ive tried wrapping the plug cap under the boot as described, also tried wraping the orange wire lead that can be tapped for an inductive tach. The best action I get is zero's. Where did you wrap the red wire on yours as there isnt really a spark plug wire?

Make sure that you have it wrapped around the wire with the extra insulation sleeve removed, that is to say that there is the insulated wire itself and then a rubbery cover over most of the length of the wire. I put mine up near the plug boot but on the wire still. It has to have as little rubber or insulation in the way as possible. I also wrapped it 12 times (just did this like 3 days ago).

Make sure you reset it to get it to see the temp sensor. I thought mine was not working till I re-read the manual.

05 wr450f has an orange and black wires that lead to the hard plastic plug cap that encases a small coil that attaches to the sparkplug. Ive tried wrapping the hard plastic cap under the boot as shown, and wrapping the orange wire as if using an inductive tachometer for timing adjustments w/o success. I think I'm going to test the wire and see if its a good wire. ?

thx for sharing

Thanks for the review! I was hoping to get mine before the weekend so I could install it. Did anyone here mount it in one of those protectors,or use the bar mount? Is it a tight fit?

Thanks, Mark

I used the cheasy looking little plastic bar mount that comes with the unit. It is very stable, but I am concerned about the location it leaves the display in. Looks like it could be taken out by a rock if the bike were to flip over. I plan to make my own mount later to move it further in behind the headlight shroud and drop it down into the more protected area behind the headlight. I have been very happy with mine.

Josh

(Didn't see you had a newer bike, my bad.) I have a seperate coil and wire, that's what I was alluding to.

I bought the mount but couldn't figure out where to use it with my Fatbars so I made my own mounts. It has to be removable to get to the oil fill so I had some aluminum millled then welded into the little mount I wasted $40 on to get it to work.

Thanks for the review! I was hoping to get mine before the weekend so I could install it. Did anyone here mount it in one of those protectors,or use the bar mount? Is it a tight fit?

Thanks, Mark

I removed my stock odometer and flipped the bracket over (raises it up some) and mounted to that. I still had to fab a little inverted U bracket to raise it as high as I wanted it to be.

Complaints: (2) I think water temp is more important than ambient temp and should be shown on screen 1 with the tripmeter where both can be seen continuously. It is on screen 2 with digital rpm, which seems of little value since the rpm graph is already on both screens anyway and there is no practical way (or reason) to read digital rpm while riding. It is easy to toggle screens, but it would be nice to have the most important info on one screen.

I'll second that comment. One of the main reasons I bought it was because of the temp gauge. But I also like to have my trip odometer visible all the time too.

And the TT (stopwatch). You can't seem to reset it without resetting all the other things (ride time, trip odometer, max temp, RPM, etc). If you are running laps, it would be nice to be able to reset each time, and leave everything else alone.

Would this Vapor unit be any good on a WR426 that has no battery? Or would it be better to just go with regular Trailtech Panorama? If I don't have D/C to tap into I dont get the full benefit of the Vapor unit right?

Would this Vapor unit be any good on a WR426 that has no battery? Or would it be better to just go with regular Trailtech Panorama? If I don't have D/C to tap into I dont get the full benefit of the Vapor unit right?

I was able to justify it for my WR on the premise of the temperature sensor alone, which works great...all of the other features are just a bonus at this point...that being said, I'm not exactly sure if any features are sacrificed...it seems to function as intended to me...

Does the backlit lcd stay on if you only use a battery or does it just go on for a short period?

So you're saying not having a battery still allows full use of the Vapor?

Is the stock mount any good or do you recommend the billet case?

Does the backlit lcd stay on if you only use a battery or does it just go on for a short period?

So you're saying not having a battery still allows full use of the Vapor?

Is the stock mount any good or do you recommend the billet case?

You are correct, the backlight will only stay on for a few seconds at a time without an external power source to the unit. (That little flat watch type battery would be dead in no time trying to run the light.) But all the features of the unit still work fine.

The stock mount is crap IMHO. I guess the billet case provides some protection but I don't think it comes with any different mounting hardware. (But I could be wrong about that, I didn't buy one.) You probably have some material laying around your garage to fab some sort of decent mount. I did that and it came out nice. (And I'm not particularly handy.)

Would this Vapor unit be any good on a WR426 that has no battery? Or would it be better to just go with regular Trailtech Panorama? If I don't have D/C to tap into I dont get the full benefit of the Vapor unit right?

I am running one on my 02wr426. The Vapor will run off of AC or DC power, I just tapped into my lighting circuit and the backlight is on any time the bike is running. No problems noted, the unit has performed flawlessly for me so far. Hope this helps.

Josh

Runs off a/c to huh? didnt know that. Thanks, deal sealed.

What are you guys setting your shift and max rev limits at?

Personally, I left mine off. I know when to shift and when to let off of the throttle so as to not detonate my bike. Just my 2c.

Josh

I loved this thing until it just stopped working last month. It all the sudden lights up every light on the screen and stays that way???&%$#@!. I have mine in the billet mount and spent alot of money on it for it to just stop working. Im pretty unset. Ive always ran the trailtech comp. and being a return customer it unsets me even more that a product I thought was good quality in fact in my case isnt???

Okay I have to revise the reply here. I called trailtech and he has asked me to replace the internal battery because it doesent work until the bike is running and the internal batterey should let it do so............... So he said that if that doesent work, he will warranty the unit and replace it for free!!!!!!! WOW, Im a huge customer service believer and if any company is willing to stand behind their products like trailtech is doing, ill buy it. Kodos to trailtech for the support and standing behing their products!!!