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How much does a Microsquirt system cost?
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The MicroSquirt is just the EFI controller (a box full of electronics), not a complete kit. You have to build/configure your own fuel injection system like I did.
I've got the original MicroSquirt in my project, but the makers (Bowling & Grippo) have just redesigned it to improve it and also to make it more durable (including making it weatherproof).
The original version that I have is "weather resistant" but not "weather proof." This never mattered to me because I've got it mounted up in bike's tail section (inside the rear fairing section behind the seat, mounted just in front of the tail light housing) and that area never gets wet, even in huge rainstorms or when I wash the bike.
But the main reason I mentioned the redesign of the MicroSquirt is that I don't know if you can even order one right now because they've stopped selling the old version and the new ones aren't available yet. Over at diyautotune.com (a really good source for do-it-yourself fuel injection stuff, nice guys, very helpful) they're showing August 2011 for soonest availability.
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I was able to score a set of throttle bodies from a 09 Ninja 250R in europe but stilll waiting for them to delivered
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I used the FI throttlebody from a 2008 European FI EX-250. It's great to have the OEM part in my system. Fits perfectly and is easy to adjust.
I had to buy the two throttle cables (pull and rerturn) from a 2008 Kawasaki Ninja 650R (which, of course, is fuel injected) because the European fuel injected EX-250's throttlebody has the throttle pull-and-return connection on the opposite side (left side of bike) than the carb version EX-250 (right side of the bike on my 2005 model).
They installed easily into the existing (stock) handlebar throttle assembly on my 2005 EX-250 project bike. Because these new Ninja 650R cables had to cross over to the left-hand side of the bike to reach the pull-and-return on the FI throttle bodyI had to figure out a different routing for the cables to follow through the bike.
I also removed the secondary butterfly assembly and permanently plugged the holes it left behind. The secondary butterfly is servo-motor controlled by the ECU in the OEM installation. There are no programming support or provisions in any of the aftermarket ECUs (the MicroSquirt included) for secondary butterfly actuation.
Its okay to ditch the secondary butterfly assembly on our EX-250 because the throttle body isn't oversized for the engine. It has 28mm throttle body bores which is nearly identical to the carbs its replacing. The reason ECU-controlled secondary butterfly systems were introduced is because it allows motorcycle engineers to use oversized throttlebody bores which allow them to make huge horsepower at high RPMs on supersport bikes.
For example: most supersport 600s use 38mm throttle body bores. That's a 38mm bore on each 150cc cylinder which is
way too big. If it wasn't for the ECU-controlled secondary butterfly system none of those supersports would idle worth a crap and would have very marginal off-idle throttle response characteristics.
By comparison you can see how much more reasonably paired our EX-250 is with its 125cc cylinders and 28mm throttle body bores. All of which may lead you to ask, "then why does the Euro FI EX-250 throttle body even have secondary butterflys at all?" The only reason I can give you, after doing a bit of research and talking to some motorcycle and automobile engineering types, is that they (Kawasaki) just don't build FI systems without secondary butterflys even if the application doesn't really need them.
In this picture you can't see the secondary butterflys because you're looking at the primary butterflys. But you can see the black plastic box that contains the ECU controlled servo actuator for the secondary butterflys with its wiring pig-tail coming out the bottom.
My throttlebody looks smaller than this picture because the servo box is gone and I even cut off the big metal flange (on the bottom of the throttlebody casting) that it mounts on. Getting rid of the flange made removing and replacing the throttlebody much easier.
