If you’ve got a modern motorcycle chances are it has an on-board diagnostic system. While it’s not as common as in cars, some manufacturers have opted to include such a system in their bikes for purposes of monitoring and troubleshooting. Such systems are usually based on CAN bus or similar communication protocols and can be accessed via an OBD port which is normally located underneath the vehicle’s dashboard.

obd2 motorcycle stands for On-board Diagnostics and is a standard that’s designed to make it easier for the mechanic to diagnose problems in vehicles by giving them access to error codes (or DTCs) generated by the car’s onboard computer. A scanner or other device can then use these error codes to determine what’s wrong with the car and where to look for the problem.

Riding Smarter: The Essentials of OBD2 for Motorcycles

Most motorcycles don’t have an OBD2 system, but there are several devices available for motorcycles that do support it. For example, the CAN BUS Master Adapter by OBDLink ($120) is one such device that allows you to read values from your bike’s multiple sensors, even though it doesn’t work with every motorcycle.

A more expensive option is a full-featured OBD scanner such as TuneECU ($250), which can also be used for remapping ECUs and may be required to unlock less restrictive exhausts. However, it requires a laptop PC in addition to an OBD2 BT adapter interface cable.