What's actually involved in changing to Yoshi cams?

[VladTepes]

Aside from the cost of the cams themselves what work (in simple English) and associated expenses are involved in fitting them?

Is the result worth the investment?

At this point a theoretical exercise but you never know...

I have a PC3 so post fitting dyno tune and fuelling adjustment can be accommodated for, which would obviously be necessary.

Yes I know about: http://gsx1400owners.org/forum/index.php?topic=238.0 but that's detail - I'm after an overview and the cost/benefit thing.

eg how many hours worth of labour would a workshop charge for this work? Barmy said he spent 5 hours doing his. Maybe an experienced workshop might be able to do it in 4?

[KiwiCol]

Hmmmm, without detail it'd be, bung 'em in, get a new tune & go faster.     Now I suppose ya want more detail

[VladTepes]

Oh and I suppose I should also ask whether these are even still available?

edit: The answer appears to be yes they are but at a price around AUD $750 !  OUCH !
By the time labour is added that would make for an expensive mod!

But it still begs the question - Is the result worth the investment?

[seth]

I'd recommend to anyone .
I've seen them over recently for around £450 for a set.
Fitting them gives more power top end (as does fitting re-ground standard cams)that not really useable but where the standard bike runs out of steam around 4500rpm with the yoshi cams it pulls like i think it should have always done to 7000rpm while also giving the bike a massive midrange boost(that re-ground cams dont) .
Fitting and reshiming will need yo be done as will fitting a power commander and setting it up.
I'd say here in the uk your looking at about £1000 all in .
Is it worth it if your keeping the bike a very long time yes. If your only going to use it now and then or just having it for having one before moving to something else no.
I'm a total convert on my b/w bike I've done over 35000 miles with the yoshi cams still love it every time I ride it .

[northern]

• most likely you would need new cams ships, because new clearance have to be adjusted
• I recommend to replace cover gasket, cause it's literally old, if you haven't change it lately

Is it worth it?
This will make bike more rapid (acceleration on higher rev's), so if you want it it's worth it for sure

[gsxbarmy]

Personally I think they are a waste of money (which is why I never fitted them to mine) unless you constantly use above 3,500 rpm as there is absolutely no difference in performance below that number of revs. I rode a couple of 14's with Yoshi cams and also put my 14 (separately) against 2 other 14's which had cams and a Yoshi/Akra (Lucky13 and Gnome's) and it wasn't until we got to about 80mph (private road officer) that the 14 with the cams and yoshi started to pull away from me.  Until then we were pretty much neck and neck. The cams + exhaust will give you the power at high revs at the expense of torque. Depends what you want.

So IMO if you use high revs all the time, then they are worthwhile as they improve the top end (full power realised only when used in conjunction with an Akra or Cyclone system), but if you are not one of those who gives it max beans off the line all the time or use above 3,500 revs all the time, then to my mind there is absolutely no benefit at all, certainly not worth £1,000 of spend just for cams and fitting.

Best investment is an Akra or Cyclone to give you that little bit more performance.

No doubt I'll get shot down, but if you want a bike with more performance, then buy one with more performance. This is a big heavy naked bike FFS, not a sports bike, nor is it intended to be.

[KiwiCol]

I can hear the click of magazines Dave, . .   better duck! 

[Tony Nitrous]

Can't argue that they work. Would I fit them? No. There's much better bikes to add horsepower too or to go quick on.

Maybe I'd be more interested if they were the only restriction on a 14 and not it's injectors / small inlets etc too.

If the 14 is your pride and joy and you like what they do to the bike then fair enough, they may be ideal for you.

[grog]

have been thru the yoshi thing many times in my mind. not sure how you say 4500 is end of revs. mine goes very well to 7k. even in 6th gear. standard down pipes, guts cut out of collector, all smoothed out insde, biggest link pipe and can inside diameter i could find. no other mods. best price for st1 is around $900, pc maybe 400, dyno on top but yoshi cyclone another $2000. adds up to around $3700 with me doing work. just not worth it for me, would love but so lucky iff you have.

[seth]

You'd need to ride one with the cams done to see the difference but it us amazing.
The graph on the dyno is much steeper and straighter with the yoshi cams
The standard graph goes up shallower and even less after 5000 rpm but still goes up.
With the cams the bike feels so much more than it does standard.
Hard to explain but it's just more when you need it mid range onwards.

[seth]

Not my graph but shows the difference only with a yoshi exhaust system rather than an akroprovic.

[Andre]

The graph shows no significant difference in the range I ride 99% of the time. Putting down the money for cam, exhaust system, PC, and dyno is not worth it to me to gain that extra power for more fun moments. To each his own though. Nothing wrong to modify anything on the bike to meet your wants 

[grog]

Agree Andre. Mine goes good enough, yoshi stuff a dream id like to do but far too expensive. For those bucks id rather sell and make up a naked Busa, ala Tony. if all about power that is. im quite happy with mine, a keeper. Fast enough for my old bones.

[seth]

Thats very true @Andre
The cams starts to come in around 4500rpm and is fully on by 6000rpm
You never really use above 7000rpm in top gear.

The thing is you get this graph in all gears so if  riding on a good road in 3rd-4th gears it give the bike a massive midrange punch.

I had a bking a couple of years ago so had the mega power bike in the past but I couldn't get on with it for what I use my bikes for.

I grew up in the 70's so like a muscle bike to look like a muscle bike from then but with modern handling and brakes.

My gsx1400 is not much more powerful than my gs1000 was but wow is it so much a better bike.

Tuning isn't for everyone I was lucky I got my cams at a very good price and the other tuning parts have cam via the org's over the years.

I want my gsx1400 to be the most I can be .
Next is a gas flowed head and 36mm throttlebodies.
So will have around 150 rearwheel bhp .

[grog]

Seth, a great ambition. stick with it.