Installation of Neville Lush Racing "Street" cam shafts - coda

Joesmoe

IMOKUR2
Joined
Aug 3, 2014
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Location
Fairfax, Virginia
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Triumph: 2014 Rocket III Touring
To Whom it May Concern:

I went to the tuner today, and 100 miles later, I am ecstatic.

For anyone considering a performance upgrade, who would like to obtain 90% of the fun (my imagination, to be sure) for 20% of the money, I highly recommend this performance upgrade. And I understand @Neville Lush has several sets of these well-designed cams ready to ship.

With much assistance, I installed a pair of subject cams, and I am most happy with how the bike has turned out.

Many have followed my saga of changing the cams -- and that story is how a person of mediocre mechanical skills, with much support (particular shout out to @warp9.9 ), can manage this job. All of the challenges I encountered would have been present had I been only changing out the cam shafts for OEM replacements -- all the challenges encountered had nothing to do with the excellent work produced by Neville Lush Racing. I'm sure the second time would go much more quickly and confidently. I am much more knowledgeable about the bike now.

Installation of Neville Lush Racing "street" cams in 2014 Rocket III Touring

Nev has a well-deserved reputation for an under appreciated skill set, called systems engineering, with a remarkable ability to combine that with effective learning and application of his arts to motorcycles, including oh so fortunately our beloved Rockets.

So let me set the stage.

What is real ?

Liars figure, and figures lie, and what follows I assert is as honest, and real, as is available.

I went looking for a Rocket in 2014.

The sound bite from Triumph at the time was: Roadster: 150 horsepower/ 100 ft-lb torque -- Touring: 100 horsepower/ 150 ft-lb torque.

Actual measured data at the rear wheel for multiple stock bikes yields:

Roadster/Classic 122 horsepower

Touring 103 horsepower

Against that backdrop, I completed my ECU map session today, at MRP Motorsports with owner Kenny Martin at the controls, and much input from Neville Lush.

In round numbers, I'm looking at a broad torque curve of 147 ft-lb at 2,700 rpm, to 152 ft-lb peak at 4,200 rpm, falling off to 110 ft-lb at 7,000 rpm.

Power has seen a significant increase, to 115 hp at 4,000 rpm, 129 hp at 4,500 rpm, 142 hp at 5,000 rpm, 150 hp at 5,500 rpm, 154 hp peak at 6,200 rpm, 153 hp at 6,500 rpm, and 148 hp at 7,000 rpm.

The dynamometer run is accompanied by weather or ambient atmosphere data, because with normally aspirated engines this matters, and at 94ºF in the booth today, the bike is under performing by five to seven horsepower.

Many of you know I enjoyed running with a "derestricted" map from @HansO for several years -- still a viable option (under "Resources") [dyno sheet posted previously].

Another data point here, is that my current setup achieves more torque at 60% throttle that I did flat out with the Hans map.

I am also told that the Rocket exhaust is its biggest limitation, and that will be my next project.
 
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@Joesmoe can you clarify what your current exhaust setup is?

Thats a very very broad power band sounds great! It definitely carries power up high a little better it sounds like, 6 hp range from 5,500 to 7,000 is quite good!
 
Just to offer something up:

Your bike may not be under performing at all and may, in fact, be spot on.

Dynojet software upgrades in 2017 caused a 3% reduction in power reading on their machines. Going from version 7 to version 8 software causes it, and they acknowledge this makes tuners jobs harder because the same bike now shows lower for no reason besides an algorithm, they don’t care.

I verified this on my bike using a V7 and V8 dyno about a week after the software was released.

V8 = 187whp
V7 = 192whp

2.6% difference, so very close to the claimed 3% shift.
 
Paul has gained 18hp by fitting the cams and tuning to suit. Whatever else is on the bike was on it when he baseline ran it. I will let him post up any data he feels like sharing. Looking through his data, he now has the same torque at 60% throttle that he had at WOT before. Hope this is not out of order,commenting.
 
@Neville Lush , I don't have the ability to post it.

Please post what you feel appropriate.

As stated, I'm ecstatic over the bike.

So much in life is based on expectations.

As a young person, I saw airplanes, space launches (anyone remember the dual launch of Gemini 5 and 6 - remembering that 6 launched before 5?), trains, hydrofoils, race cars, Star Trek, the movie Grand Prix, and I wanted to GO.

Over the years, it became clear I would never command the resources to have a truly fast car, so the undeniable power to weight ratio of a motorcycle was where, if ever, I would experience personally, viscerally, that kind of performance.

Enter the Rocket. Later in life perhaps -- full of tempered expectations.

Devouring all the wonderful posts on this site, seeing what is possible, where my time and resources fit, the initial @HansO tune woke up the bike. When the dyno is posted, the "before" - already far better than stock, is the bike with the HansO-modified Tripp "derestricting", fuel-rich map (available on this site, under the "Resources" tab).

The after, showing still more gains -- as well it should with better cams (with which the Rocket arguably should have been fitted from the factory, and lawyers or someone intervened) and a specific dynamometer based re-map -- has me smiling ear to ear whenever I think about it.

If this is for you, it is a highly doable path, requiring few compromises, for a much more fun bike -- and after all, why do we have these extreme machines, really ?
 
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