I have a few friends that have older softails with 80inch evos both have a cam and a drop of head work. When we are out riding they just kill and I mean kill everyone I ride with including myself that rides a twin cam from light to light. I tryed taking him off a 2 gear roll i had the jump on him too and he just took off like I was not even trying

 

My 99 EVO with cams was a slow pig compared to my 07 Heritage.

 

really wow ok

 

Older bike and long time owners can be a real headache sometimes can't we ? Remember the longer we have one the more time we've had to tweak them out , my shovel would make you want to sell a stock 103" after we play the stoplight game or a nice game of catch me if you can in the twisties .

 

Could be a gearing advantage. The older EVO bikes had a 3.37 final gearing (up until the mid '90's). Newer bikes have taller gearing. Most of the TC88 bikes had 3.15 gearing, which worked pretty well. The newer TC96 and 103 bikes have 2.87 final gearing. My 07 FL had 2.79, which is ridiculous. The taller gearing is part of the moco's EPA strategy. Taller gearing means lower rpms at cruise, and lower tailpipe emissions. Smog exhaust, smog cams, smog gearing. That's why the newer bikes are slower than they should be.

 

Maybe that's it

 

Evos are just a better design. Not hard to get noticeable performance improvement while maintaining reliability and rideability. Most performance work is relatively easy DIY, and can be tuned and dialed in at home. Twin cams have to be taken to the dealer for re-map and dyno ($$$) with every significant change. A friend of mine (who is actually a better mechanic than most dealer techs) is constantly trying to massage horsepower out of his twin cam. It still can't beat my Evo with 90,000+ miles on it, and it's been apart for major rework 3 times because the performance work caused some longevity issues.
Every generation of harley engine has a life cycle that averages 15 years. In the 13 years that the twin cam has been out, it has been changed (hint, hint) 3 times (88", 96", 103"). HD changed to this engine because they weren't making any money in the secondary market (as in...Stage I, II, III BS) with the bulletproof Evo.
The taller gearing is a knee-jerk attempt at reducing RPM in order to reduce heat from the increased cubic inches, which essentially gives them the MPG and HP they were already getting with the Evo. This design has hit a wall, and I believe I'll let this generation of engine go on by. Maybe when they come up with something that doesn't increase the amount of moving parts, heat, and is more user-friendly.....
In the meantime....Heh,heh,heh.

 

You make me miss my '97 fxdwg... this TC runs ****in hot!! Still love it though, don't get me wrong

 

Wow I miss my style evolution too

 

If they have Cams, head work etc... they've tweaked the engine, cams and head work is a HUGE advantage over a handful of CI's. Take a look at any Dyno chart with an engine (any engine) with Cams, intake, headwork done etc...