Hey all. Im looking at doing a cam upgrade on my 2022 Streetglide 117 st. Tossing up between the S&S 475 or CycleRama 480mt. Has anyone had experience with either and pros and cons of each. I am looking at low to midrange torque as i do long distance touring through the northen Australia and after some extra punch to get past Trucks and Nomads

https://hdforums.com.au/Thread/677446/1#773421

Hi mate you have a big choice with the M8 cams nowadays- S&S, Cyclerama, Feuling, Woods, Star-racing, Zippers, Redshift, plus many more that I can't think of at the moment, personally with my 117 LRS I went with the Wood's 22XE cam which I think would work well in a tourer- my result 123hp @5600rpm and 136ftlb's of torque @ 3270rpm, this really pulls down low, The Star Racing 30/30 is also i good cam for a tourer, the Redshift 468 is very popular also, Cyclerama cams are awesome too, along with the 480 there is a 483 and a 485 cam also depending on where you want the power eg down low, mid or up top in the power range, Apparently the S&S 475 cam can be a little harder to tune and you need the right exhaust or it may be a little soft down low (according to Jamie @ Fuelmoto), I used Fuelmoto USA for the Wood's 22xe cam kit(google 22xe cam) and the were brilliant very helpful, they also supplied the base map for my dyno tuner, here's a link to some of theirs dyno charts to give you an idea of different cams and there different power characteristics-   https://university.fuelmotousa.com/dyno-charts/

Barking up the wrong tree with the 475 for what you're after. 

Ha, I just saw this post from Speedzter, note he has a good exhaust. I would say over 65% of folk who come in with a Harley for me to tune have a less than Ideal exhaust for the job at hand. It is a very important part of the whole deal. My face aches from 30 years of trying to convince people to get a decent pipe instead of something that makes noise and fire with no power..........  When you are looking at every website which highlights different cams, make sure they are compared with good pipes, or ideally comparisons done with the same pipe. Some cams are also good for 1/4 mile and not so good for taking the bride for a cruise in the countryside etc. There are lots of variables.  Speedzters bike made good numbers, but I had to work at the tune, for sure, he has ended up with a 2 into 1 with no real classic "2 into 1 torque dip" . Hope it rides well mate. Cheers.   

Sorry, I didn't realise you weren't Dave. All the other comments I stand by 🙂. Yes we still know what a carby is. Thanks for sending him in. That was a tourer pipe, they work well. 

What works better for high performance Lushy, stepped headers or no?

Stepped headers or tapered, work well if the dimensions are correct. With two into ones n Harley, the collector design is very important. Looking at some brands, they are not a true merge collector. This hurts, power, range of power and as a result, torque. 

Speedzter, carbie tune. This man walks every morning before tackling us quizzing. yeah, course is carbie fiddler. Love a 120 TC in my dreams man.

Hi John was that the cyclerama 480MT you mean which looks like a great cam for a tourer or for those looking for more low down power, this guy didn't like his 475 cam- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Oz7lAXh54

Been doing some reading on steps and pulses, I'm sorta lost that most of the stepped headers you can buy off the shelf are one size fits all but that just doesn't seem right, I see how it's advantageous to have the low pressure wave arrive back at the exhaust port as the intake opens but cams have way varying specs,  ideally the distance to the first step from the exhaust port would need to be X for a given intake opening to get the pulse back at the right time or is it a case of close enough being better nothing rather than tuned for ideal?

I don't believe stepped headers have any real advantage for a street HD.

Well that's it isn't it, how much testing in the road environment, flat out down the strip is one thing, we need a broader compromise.

Mmm. D&D pipes always work well. Freedom pipes work better than other brands which look the same. They both have stepped headers. Here's an oil argument coming on. An Acrapovic pipe which is tapered all the way down the header, works better than a similar pipe with straight headers. Having said that, a good set of headers on a mild street Harley work fine. They only do six and a half thousand revs.

No oil thread Lushy, just trying to understand, your opinion carries plenty of weight given what you do for a living, I guess I'm just overthinking it, but when the manufacturer claims things about waves arriving at a given time I struggle to see how a set of pipes can be right for two cams with way different intake opening events, still, you tune them so you see what works and what doesn't.

I don't know of the inlet open theory you mention. I've also designed pipes for various applications. LSR, road race etc. The first one I did myself was in 2002/3. It was good.The way , basically, it was explained to me, is hot gas travels faster, the further from the engine the gas gets, the cooler it gets, so we need to give it less restriction to maintain flow. On a Harley,  TC anyway, the stock motor will run well on pretty much any exhaust. It is also easy as pie, to increase the output of the engine by 25%. Now you need to look harder at the exhaust. Eg I can get 125-127hp from a 120R with stock headers. Many after market pipes are worse, because they are made for looks and noise. That 125hp will turn into 133-136hp with a good exhaust with stepped headers and correct collector. Hope this is in some way helpful.