diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 8ff761bc..02e131a5 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2011-09-15  Joerg Wunsch <j.gnu@uriah.heep.sax.de>
+
+	* main.c: Restrict the cyclecounter readout to those cases where
+	it has been explicitly requested (by -y or -Y), rather than always
+	attempting to read the last EEPROM bytes.
+
 2011-09-15  Joerg Wunsch <j.gnu@uriah.heep.sax.de>
 
 	* stk500v2.c (stk600_xprog_paged_load, stk600_xprog_paged_write):
diff --git a/main.c b/main.c
index 5de2bd25..80bae00c 100644
--- a/main.c
+++ b/main.c
@@ -1005,8 +1005,7 @@ int main(int argc, char * argv [])
    *
    * The cycle count will be displayed anytime it will be changed later.
    */
-  if (init_ok && !(p->flags & AVRPART_AVR32) && 
-      (set_cycles == -1) && ((erase == 0) || (do_cycles == 0))) {
+  if (init_ok && !(p->flags & AVRPART_AVR32) && do_cycles) {
     /*
      * see if the cycle count in the last four bytes of eeprom seems
      * reasonable
@@ -1015,9 +1014,8 @@ int main(int argc, char * argv [])
     if (quell_progress < 2) {
       if ((rc >= 0) && (cycles != 0)) {
         fprintf(stderr,
-              "%s: current erase-rewrite cycle count is %d%s\n",
-              progname, cycles,
-              do_cycles ? "" : " (if being tracked)");
+              "%s: current erase-rewrite cycle count is %d\n",
+              progname, cycles);
       }
     }
   }