Thinkin outloud? LOL. Been a great summer riding with wife by my side Dawg! Thanks!

 

LOL yeh I guess so- sometimes when I type it all out it makes a bit more sense. Plus it's always good to post up some discussion on cam upgrades / schools of thought.

We all put in a lot of last minute upgrade work before the weather got good- it's nice to be out riding and enjoying our efforts

 

Great to have you here to guide and inspire us Dawg. Thanks!

 

^^ Yeh or baffle and confuse everyone - heh

 

Or a little of both:

So how is a normal person supposed to figure out the differences between the different cam offerings and how they will perform? I get the duration and lift differences, and know that I don't need absolute top end performance in my life anymore and just want grunt in the meat of the power band.

I'm looking at the Andrews 48H, Woods 333, and the SE 204's. I know that S&S also makes cams but for some reason they don't seem widely used. So will the cams I listed all pretty much ride the same?

I'm doing the 30/70 upgrade before the cams, but it seems like there are great deals on the cam sets at the moment and figure that's a great with the project.

 

Well, I can vouch for this. My brother has a '14 CVO breakout. 2-2 big radius with SEPT. I have a '14 breakout, short-shots, SE-AC, FP3 and 204 cams. Rolling start at about 60 mph, he pulls away slowly at first. But, when I get farther into the RPMs I walk past him. 204s give me more hp-tq through most of the RPMs. The 255s he has are all low RPM tq.

With that being said, get cams for how you ride. I love my 204s because they work great at cruising speed, even 2-up for me and give me great performance if I want to open her up. It's the best of both worlds.

Consider 555s or even 777s if you go with Woods too. A lot of people have put 204s on breakouts and love them.

 

Yep, thats just how the 204's work. I've got em in my 2014 BO too. I'm new to all this cam business and not very savvy. Maybe thats why I can't get my head around all this high torque at low revs business on a cruising machine. Isn't it better to preserve torque at high revs where you also get added HP ?

"Seems to work for me".

 

Depends on how you like to ride. Some people just want to roll on the throttle in 6th gear and have the power right there. Therefore, they will want high tq at low RPM (~2000 RPM).

I think most people that come from a background of 4-wheeler/dirt bike/sport bike riding will prefer the tq/hp in the mid-high RPM range. Mostly because that type of riding style uses a lot of shifting. I don't mind shifting gears. Then again, I'm just used to it. This is why you hear "get the cam for your riding style" when people ask about cam choices.

 

hah- well yeh don't get overwhelmed. with our stock motors, if you only want to drop in cams, you have some reasonable choices that will all ride about the same. the SE204, the MR103, Andrews 57H, 37H, 48H cams (and a couple others but those are the usual suspects). If you are a town rider go with the lower end TQ cam like the SE204, MR103 or 48H. 57H and 37H is good as long as your stock compression is a bit on the higher side. mine was not. plus a lot of guys are rocking the SE204 cams here so you would have a very good source of tuning help and advice.

But honestly- no BS here - just do the 30/70 pulley upgrade, tune your bike with a good timing table and fuel map, and I don't think you'll care about spending the money on cams right now. Pulley upgrade = big difference, mild cam upgrade = small difference. your next big difference would be cams combined with headwork, raise compression, increase CC to 107, etc.

All I'm sayin is keep it simple and one step at a time- there will always be deals on cams floating around- do the pulleys and a good tune- go ride - see where you are at. you'll be stoked.

 

I have to agree. The pulley swap makes an immediate, very substnaital change in the performance of the bike, well beyond what a mild cam by itself will get you. This is especially notable at low rpm, where the gearing change effect is VERY noticeable.

Jim G