When I first bought my bike, my bud had a 88ci fatboy. As they sat stock, the meanie would barely pull ahead of him. He did the air kit, pipes, and rejet of the carb at the same time I did the big 3. That weekend, we went to a bike show on the other side of town and decided to line 'em up to see the difference. I kicked his @ss no problem...it was a huge difference. After that he upgraded the cams and after changing cams the bikes were almost identical in acceleration, but after about 70mph, he would slowly pull away from me.Got the pipes and PCIII, intake will be after the Holidays (promised the wife no more mods till then). I am sure the factory air set up sucks from what I saw after pulling the tank and poking around, but is the intake going to make that much difference? I am getting pulled hard by my buddy's 88ci Harley with pipes, cams and hypercharger.... That shouldnt be happening!
Probably the stock 1500 cams...I thought I read somewhere that when you buy a big bore kit from thunder for the Meanie they suggest you keep using the stock cams because they already have more lift.
I'd do a stage one upgrade first.
That sounds like Muzzy's bad advice. I think DreamStreak went thru this. Thunder sells the WebCam grind as part of their big bore "kit". The 1600 MeanStreak cam is the same cam a 1600 Classic or Nomad has. It has no place in a "performance" motor. Like Troop referred to, the 1500 MeanStreak cam would make a nice "drop in" for a 1600. It has more duration, shorter lobe seperation, should gain 5+ hp and make a nicer, more free revving motor while being compatable with stock compression.I thought I read somewhere that when you buy a big bore kit from thunder for the Meanie they suggest you keep using the stock cams because they already have more lift.
I'd go with 1500 MeanStreak cams in the 1600. The cams MUST be for a 1500 MeanStreak, not "any" 1500. I think a 1600 with intake, PCIII (or other) and 1500 cams would be a nice upgrade and an "un-fussy" package. The 1500's are a much nicer more free revving motor.So for a relatively "cheap" upgrade, after the intake, I should look for a set of the 1500 cams?
That was Muzzy's kit and I did that already. It isn't a bad set up, but you end up with killer low end torque and not enough upper rpm power. Changing the cams made the peak torque go up about 800rpm's and gave a much nicer/flatter torque curve over the entire rpm band. Also, lift doesn't mean much when talking about how a cam will perform. Valve timing is the most important spec and duration (time in crankshaft degrees that a valve stays open) is the next most important. Long story short, you can have 2 cams with the same lift, duration, and lobe separation and they will act differently from how smooth or rough it idles to making different peak power numbers at different rpm, etc.I thought I read somewhere that when you buy a big bore kit from thunder for the Meanie they suggest you keep using the stock cams because they already have more lift.
I'd do a stage one upgrade first.