Topic: i heart megacycle

[Spikeybike]

i just wanted to say to anyone with a stock bore cb550, that is concidering a megacycle 12-600 mild cam.

DO IT

man want a differance, and i didn't even degree it in, bike pulls like nobodys bisness
i'd still be on it if hadn't started to rain

well worth the 300 bucks 

[Hush]

What is a "megacycle " cam and what improvements did you notice, will it cause your motor to wear quickly or is it a benign addition.

[paulages]

i just wanted to say to anyone with a stock bore cb550, that is concidering a megacycle 12-601 mild cam.

DO IT

man want a differance, and i didn't even degree it in, bike pulls like nobodys bisness
i'd still be on it if hadn't started to rain

well worth the 300 bucks 

i can't wait to feel what the 126-20 feels like then... 

[MRieck]

 I'm still trying to figure out the title of this thread.

[neil young]

I'm still trying to figure out the title of this thread.

Spikeys way of saying....i love Megacycle

[MRieck]

I'm still trying to figure out the title of this thread.

Spikeys way of saying....i love Megacycle

Thanks bro....I was confused.

[Terry in Australia]

There was this engineer called Mike.

One day, Mike was walking thru the park when an attractive woman rode up to him on her bicycle, tore off all her clothes and said, "Mike the engineer, I find you very attractive. You can have anything, anything you want!"

Mike assessed the situation, and deciding that none of her clothes would fit, rode off on her bicycle.............. 

[rachet]

Hey Spikey,

Would you mind posting a link to where you ordered it from?  Is there a Part number or anything?

Thanks!

Rachet~

[Spikeybike]

Hey Spikey,

Would you mind posting a link to where you ordered it from?  Is there a Part number or anything?

Thanks!

Rachet~

http://megacyclecams.com/catalog/catalog.pdf

12600 is the one i have

[Spikeybike]

i had to dig up this thread be cause i finally got the bike all tuned and wanted to post my results

75 CB550f
12600 cam (set at stock marks, not degreed)
K&N pods
Mac 4-1
stock carbs: 110mains, stock idle jets, needle in stock position, screws 1 1\2 turns out (i'm at or around sea level)


120 MPH at 8000 RPM !!!!!



i looked down at the speedo and didn't believe my eyes

[Pinhead]

You must have some tall gears... Even my 650 is closer to 9500 at 115...

[Terry in Australia]

Or a buggared speedo............... 

[Burke]

There was this engineer called Mike.

One day, Mike was walking thru the park when an attractive woman rode up to him on her bicycle, tore off all her clothes and said, "Mike the engineer, I find you very attractive. You can have anything, anything you want!"

Mike assessed the situation, and deciding that none of her clothes would fit, rode off on her bicycle.............. 

 

Or better yet.... A beautiful woman whispers in your ear, "Ill do anything you want", You excitedly whisper back."Paint my house".

[mrbreeze]

There was this engineer called Mike.

One day, Mike was walking thru the park when an attractive woman rode up to him on her bicycle, tore off all her clothes and said, "Mike the engineer, I find you very attractive. You can have anything, anything you want!"

Mike assessed the situation, and deciding that none of her clothes would fit, rode off on her bicycle.............. 

 

Or better yet.... A beautiful woman whispers in your ear, "Ill do anything you want", You excitedly whisper back."Paint my house".

....thats what I'm talking about!!!

[Spikeybike]

Or a buggared speedo............... 

i'm not counting that out as a possibility  ,

i think it was closer to 8500 ,but the speedo needle was definitely buried (stops at 120) as soon as i looked down and saw that i backed off , and the needle slowly went down (not bouncy)

if it wasn't 120 ... i don't care it was "f"ing fast.  and for anyone else with a similar set up 110s is the money spot.    ....i gave the bike a hug 

[Tower]

Never mind the details, fellas, can't you see this man is EXCITED!

Way to go spikeybike!  Nice find and thanks for sharing...just don't do anything rash with that bike, if you know what I mean

[Terry in Australia]

Must be something to do with 550 speedo's, I remember Tom ("El Cheapo") proclaiming a top speed of 150 MPH on his 550, which received several pages of discussion, ranging from mild teasing, some friendly ragging, to out and out accusations of some heavy duty bull#$%*ting, some name calling, and Tom disappearing for a while.

In Spikeys case, 120 MPH is probably close to the truth with a little inbuilt OEM speedo inaccuracy. I'd be interested to see how much faster it will go if you dial that cam in mate, it's quite possible that your engine is producing less horsepower than OEM with it set on standard settings, so get yourself a slotted cam sprocket, a degree wheel and a dial indicator, and get that puppy timed! Cheers, Terry.    

[Spikeybike]

i did have to slot the sprocket a little to set it at the stock mark , i have all the tools (dial indicator, degree wheel, piston stop)     the problem was i couldn't find any info on how to do it on a 550 ,  i found a million walkthroughs for a 750.  but on the 550 the rockers are on the top case . so the valves don't open with the cam exposed

admittedly i didn't dig very deep to find the answer, at the time i had lots of other stuff going on .  so maybe this off season i will find out how its done   

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, do it mate. I installed Yoshimura 1100 pistons and "Road and Track" cams in my Suzuki GS1000S a few years ago, didn't dial the cam in, and even though it'd do 120 MPH in third gear, felt really sluggish off the line.

My cousin (a retired Suzuki mechanic) dialled the cams in for me, and the difference was incredible, if I hit the throttle hard, it'd just about pull my arms outta their sockets! The accelerated rear tyre wear was balaced by the lack of wear on the front tyre, he he..........

I'm no 550 expert, but maybe Paulages or Mike Rieck can give you a "heads up" on timing your 550 cam. Cheers, Terry.

[Spikeybike]

i PMed Mike awhile back, seeking some insight on the matter , ... sadly he never responded, i just assumed he was up to his ears in work as usual

didn't think of Paul ,...i'll ask

[paulages]

just responded to your PM spikey- i think i'll post it here now that i found out where your question was.

the only major difference between the 750 and the smaller fours is the fact that you have to install the entire cam cover every time you remeasure and re-degree it, then remove it to adjust the cam. actually, i found that the math turns out the same if you measure directly off the lobe, but if you want to make sure your open and close numbers are the same as what megacycle quotes (not that there's anything you could do about if they're not) then you need to measure off of the retainer.

shortly though:
1) find TDC accurately (i used a dial indicator in the spark plug hole).

2) set up a wire pointer that points to TDC on your degree wheel, which should be bolted to the end of the crank on the rotor side.

3) set your valves to zero lash
4)set up a dial indicator on one of the valve retainers. zero it with the valve closed
5) turn the engine through, and when the dial indicator measures .040" lift, look where the degree wheel reads. continue turning through until you are back at .040" just before the valve closes.
6) do the math with those numbers: O (open #) + C (closing #) + 180 /2 - S (the smaller of the two numbers.
7) if you're off by a few degrees, imagine what a change in either direction will do on the wheel, then redo the math. note that when one numbers increases, the other decreases, as they are relative to different point of piston travel.
8 ) pull the cam cover, move the cam in the desired direction, reassemble and remeasure. i was only bolting the cover down with 4-5 bolts, and it the process was pretty quick. i do have air ratchets though.

so if O=26 and C= 55 and (O+C+180)/2 -S (i'm pulling these numbers out of my ass) , then you would get: 26+55 +180= 261. 261/2 - 26= 104.5 (ok, maybe they weren't totally out of my ass, because that's what you want for your lobe center). if you wanted to see what one degree advance would do, plug in the numbers O=27 and C=54, and you get (27+54=180)/2= 130.5. 130.5-27= 103.5.

i took bwallers advice (i think that's who is was) and made a steel plate to bolt onto the cover, so the magnetic base of the dial indicator would have something stable to rest on. it helped a lot.

hope this helps!

paul

[Spikeybike]

thank you oh so much paul , that's the answer i was lookin for

you #$%*in rock

wish i would have thought to ask you that a year ago 

well now i got something to do on the off season

[Pinhead]

So if I pull the head to do a gasket replacement and a little porting without changing the cam, is there any way to get the cam degreed without a degree wheel and a dial indicator? Those look expensive....

[Spikeybike]

..................well to do the job you need the tools

dial indicator (without the fancy magnetic base) $20-30 (ballpark, i dont remember what i paid)

degree wheel was 19.99 (motion pro) from my local honda dealer

the piston stop i made, but i think i'm gonna go with pauls method , with the dial indicator in the plug hole, seems it would be more accurate 

[A Grove]

I am completely "engine dumb".... Can I ask you all what member here would be the best one to turn to for advice on tuning my 550?  I know there are tons of reputable names on here... But I am not sure if there is someone in-particular I could talk to who wouldn't mind having to explain damned near everything to.  At the age of 17, engine knowledge is very lacking 

Over the winter, I am going to rebuild my engine completely, but I want to make the bike perform like a bat outa hell!  And I am honestly not sure what steps to take to do so. 

I apollogize for the "thread jacking", but this seemed like a place where lots of knowledgable people would be chiming in on.  Thanks guys !!