I have an 01 Road King that I do not want to put a ton of money in. But I would like to get a little more torque/low-mid performance out of it. Would it be a waste to add a gear drive cam (26g) to this bike which is now a 1450cc with a big sucker air filter, Mikuni 42, and Fat Cat 2-into-1 exhaust? If there is someone out there that has just added only a cam and not heads and bigger displacement too, I would appreciate your opinion. Was it noticeable enough? Were you happy?

 

says....

With a just a cam change you'd probably see an increase of about 7 to 10 more HP and TQ, with plenty of low end to mid range grunt. Going with a gear drive cam will take away the worry and possibility of cam chain/tensioners failure. My preference for cams would be either an S&S 510G or HQ0034G, but the 26G is also a good cam. Do the research.

 

Well, it's pretty close to just the cam.

I have about 400 miles on the S&S 510G setup....but I also added the feuling oil pump (no big deal there...just was in the vicinity doing the cams), the Twin Tec Fuel ECU and Rinehart True Duals. The valve train is quiet and solid now and the overall performance has been fine everywhere but off idle. Low end torque vanished. Took the Rineharts off and the bottom end came back. No back pressure and the Rineharts are just too freakin loud! It's like having a drummer sitting behind you with mallets whacking away at the back of your head. I couldn't get through a full tank of gas without getting a headache....not to mention annoying the crap out of just about anyone riding with me.

Anyway, I digress. The S&S gear drive cams are easy to install, run quiet and the 510 cam is not far off of stock. Stock pushrods can be used and I did the initial run around the block on an unmodified Delphi ECU and it ran just fine. (I wouldn't recommend running that way) So, you really can't do "just a cam" because you have to modify the carb or ECU....and you can't get stock cams in gear drive.

 

26's would be good. THey "come on" a bit lower (RPM'wise) than the 510's and are desigend to work best w/stock compression ratio, where as 510's are best when you bump it up to 9.7:1... As mentioned above, gear drive is a good option too....