The type of engine and the modifications that we have made to it (if we have an engine with a lot of torque simply because it is too big we can sacrifice a little torque without hardly noticing it, if the engine rises to a lot of RPM we can choose a suitable shaft for work in this range.

Our type of driving (relaxed, aggressive, 'biting' at traffic lights or towing a trailer) The main use of the motorcycle (sports, city, loaded trip.

The same thing happens with camshafts, we have to choose the right one taking into account several factors: When I have to explain which is the best camshaft for a given engine, I compare it with the gearbox, which everyone understands: it is not 'better' for the engine to circulate in one gear or another, the ideal gear will depend on the gear. These shafts rotate in solidarity with the crankshaft, at half speed, and have an oval-shaped part that pushes the rod which in turn opens and closes the valve. The camshaft consists of 1 shaft on Big Twin Evolution models, 2 shafts on TwinCam models This element is responsible for opening and closing the valves at the right time for the 4-stroke engine to occur: intake, compression, explosion and exhaust.Īlthough in theory the valves remain in the positions in the image, in reality and because the air has mass and inertia, the valves open a little earlier and close a little after their respective times, hence for the same motorcycle there may be different camshafts, with different characteristics, that will change the way the engine 'breathes'. We are going to explain the basic points about its operation so that with the appropriate information you can decide if you are interested in changing your original camshaft for a high-performance one. The camshaft is not an element that is usually replaced when improving the engine of custom motorcycles, probably due to the lack of knowledge of the real changes in the behavior of the engine after its replacement. On numerous occasions we hear about this internal element of the engine, which is one of the great unknown in terms of its characteristics.

How harley twin cam works