[Tony Bones]

The stars have aligned, I found a four leaf clover in my salad, and the machine shop is finally getting going on my Panhead.

Is their value in shaving a little weight off my wheels? If so, how much? Nothing trick or special for internals...8 to 1, Andrews AB cam, cleaned up heads, a good balancing.

Or is this a recipe for disaster?

 

[creep]

on a bike i dont know but on cars it is good and bad it will make your engine rev up faster so it can cause damage faster etc. i am assuming a bike is the same.

 

[Larry T]

Up side- revs quicker.
Down side-not as smooth, peaker feeling(more shifting).

 

[yard man]

From what i hear if not done right its not hard to have a rod or two go on an adventure into the outside world....

 

[BobCusChop]

heavy flywheels rule... And the higher compression the better for me... How about polishing those rods? since you have them apart.. Looks real cherry when you tear that motor apart and see polished rods...

 

[Faust]

My brother lost some weight off the flywheels in his Shovel, he said he definately noticed a loss in torque. It runs like a mofo on the top end though.
I would imagine kickstarting would be harder with lightened flywheels.

 

[caffeine]

polish rods, knife edge and polish the crank.

if anything, it looks cool!

i posted a thread on all this a little while back, ill see if i can find it.

not panhead, but look how pretty

http://www.arielmotorcycles.com/engine1.htm

 

[oldspeed]

The stars have aligned, I found a four leaf clover in my salad, and the machine shop is finally getting going on my Panhead.

Is their value in shaving a little weight off my wheels? If so, how much? Nothing trick or special for internals...8 to 1, Andrews AB cam, cleaned up heads, a good balancing.

Or is this a recipe for disaster?

I built some Harleys with light flywheels, If you look at stroker wheels from Truett and Osborne I think you will notice they (at least use to) give you the equivilent of 2 right hand wheels. I have noticed a loss of low end grunt but as some folks have said quicker revs on the top end. Interesting a friend of mine once put 80 inch flat head wheels in a pan, now normally what you did was weld plates to the inside of the case to act as scrapers for oil control. He had steel hoops made that fit over the flywheels to build then larger in Diameter. Never saw a smoother running stroker, had gobs of low end power and that additional weight on the flyweels made that bike run like a train down the road. I wouldn't bother with light wheels for the street, if I was building a drag motor I would. A CH I built had light chromed wheels in it at one time reved like a basterd, but hit it at 50 in top gear and nothing, once you down shifted watch out. I think careful detail to putting it together and as some said polish what you can to keep the oil from clinging to the rotating parts, is the best way to go.

 

[caffeine]

my father has 80" wheels in his 39 knuck.

 

[Rythemean]

I have lightened flywheels in my EVO stroker. Noticble loss of bottom end, but that could be attributed to the 44mm carb. Top end is a wonder. Hit the throttle at 3000RPM and it goes like a rocket. Below that, it pulls ok, but I'd back away from flywheel gouging in the future. Fast is fun but torque throughout the RPM range is much better.

 

[BobCusChop]

Caffeine's stuff looks the tits... Man, nothing says you know what your doing when you polish those rods and look how cool that crank looks... Oh yea, there are benefits to polishing that stuff... so do it already..

How about that post?

 

[Tony Bones]

I think I'll stick w/ my stock set-up and polish stuff. The bike will live on the street and I want it to be stop and go, city-friendly.

Thanks for the info.