VOLUME 59 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 18, 2022 P113
S TANDOUT FEATURE
Improved engine performance for
your KTM/Husqvarna/GasGas 300
TPI two-stroke
RIDER AN ALYSIS
KTM (and sister brand Husqvarna)
introduced fuel-injected two-stroke
off-road bikes with the 2018 model
year. The TPI, Transfer Port Injec-
tion, models have some benefits to
carbureted bikes including better
adaptation to elevation changes
and a closed-loop system that does
not leak fuel out of the float bowl
when the bike is tilted in awkward
positions. But the fuel/air mixture
is less than ideal, and most people
agree that the TPI bikes don't run
as well as their properly jetted
carbureted predecessors. The TPI
bikes also seem to run a bit lean
and have irritating detonation.
Despite improvements with each
generation since the 2018 models,
the outright power is also not as
strong as the old carbureted KTM's
and alternative brand bikes that still
use carburetors. The factory-backed
hard enduro racers that compete
on the 300 TPI two-strokes have
been testing alternative setups and
the 2023 KTM XC (closed-course
off-road) models have moved away
from the TPI setup to a throttle body
fuel-injection system. The 2023 KTM
XC-W (off-road) models (and equiva-
lent Husqvarna/GasGas models)
power range. The irritating detonation
is gone, and we noticed that the bike
uses more oil, which is better for the
internal engine parts. The improve-
ment was almost too good to be true,
so we had a couple of other riders try
our GasGas and installed it on another
rider's personal KTM 300 XC-W and
had the same results.
If you are one of those people that
likes to tinker with your bike's "jetting"
(fuel/air mixture), you may be disap-
pointed to find that the Coober ECU
is a locked system just like the stock
ECU, but we did not feel any need to
mess with it.
The $650 price point is certainly not
cheap, but we felt that the improve-
ment in performance is well worth it.
Sean Finley
still use TPI, but we expect that will
change for 2024, which suggests
that the KTM Group R&D team is
trying to regain the performance lost
in the transition to TPI.
There are lot of TPI KTM's on the
market and despite the imperfect
fueling, they are great motorcycles so
there are several aftermarket products
available to try to improve the perfor-
mance and one of the best options we
have tried is the Coober ECU.
Swapping to the Coober ECU is a
simple process that takes less than 10
minutes to remove the seat and swap
the ECU (there are a lot of online
videos that show the trick to unplug-
ging the connector). We first tried
the Coober ECU on a 2022 GasGas
EC 300 and were blown away by the
noticeably improved performance.
The bike runs better in every way right
from the bottom and throughout the
HUSQVARNA/
List Price: $649.99
Website: https://cooberecu.com/
LOWDOWN
The Coober ECU will work with
any year/model GasGas, KTM and
Husqvarna TPI motorcycle.
