Had some work done to the bike last week. Was previously a 95 w/ cast flat tops and 203 cams. Supporting parts are T-header, Sert and a Ness Big Sucker. New parts are SE MCR heads ported and polished locally with all the stuff that goes along with that, valve job, combustion chambers cc'd and shaved from 78cc to 75cc. SE 257's, SE cam plate and tensioner upgrade, adj pushrods, all the normal stuff. Canned tune loaded in it so it's not perfect, still a little rough around the edges but it'll do till the budget recovers and I can get a good map in it.

First impressions are how much easier it starts, almost as soon as the button depresses it's lit and idling. Idle is hectic sounding, kinda like alcohol motors. Real raspy and rolling sounding. Compression helps in that dept too. Free revving is quick and fast from idle to 4k and the motor returns to it's idle speed very quickly, no long unwind back to idle. I've heard many times the 257's are soft down low..and I see where that comes from. Under about 2300 on my bike it feels no different than my 203's maybe a little softer but from 2400 till the limiter it's a whole 'nother animal. The tire starts hazing about 2500-2600 in first gear and will continue it's path of destruction until a missed or lazy upshift or if I stay on it, it'll settle down somewhere in the top of 3rd.

Bike is louder overall through the pipe and at freeway speeds it's alot louder. Not terrible, just noticeable. Downshifting is unneccessary on the highway and even if I was a little low on revs a little side step of the clutch and it's right back on the move and back up to...well 65mph of course. No noticeable slow speed lugging or bucking as I've heard before on these cams but I didn't have much stoplight time. Here's one of the biggest differences I noted. With my old setup the motor temps were always pretty elevated..no guage, just literal seat of the pants testing as by how hot my legs and crotch gets while riding. This new setup is considerable cooler. Case in point when I got home I had to install my front heat shield on my pipe. Parked and let it sit for the customary hour or so I usually wait. Even then the bike would be quite warm, but manageable. This time after an hour the bike was cool...very cool everywhere, pipe, cases, heads. This isn't scientific of course but days before I did the same ride in very similar temps and conditions and the bike was sizzling..So take it for what it's worth.

Overall in just my short time so far with this setup I love it. Put about 100mi on it yesterday and smiled the whole time. No dyno #'s yet but I'll post em up good or bad when I get em. I know there are about a hundred "better" cams out there for this setup and I'll likely be trying one or more of them out someday but for now I like these. Questions, comments, hate mail, feel free.

p.s this write up was simply because when I searched for insight on these parts nothing substantial popped up. So maybe some other dude has a similar build and it'll help decide yes or no.

 

Thanks for the writeup! I'm doing pretty much the same build on my 00 road king. I'm glad I won't be disappointed :-) Not first out of the hole... I have you a head start :-)