Lucky Phil

I agree and as I said was very skeptical. The only reason I can think of is the timing chain drives the ignition pickup wheel on the back of the cam gear which obviously is used by the ignition pickup to time the ignition event. Does cam chain slack affect the position slightly of the wheel and its triggering cutout to mess with the ignition timing occasionally? I still think its unlikely thats why I was wondering if a bike like doccs with quite a lot of miles up has the hiccup. I emailed Joe to let him know how satisfied I was with the gear conversion and he did mention without me translating to him of my running experiences that people that have converted to gear drive report the engine is sharper in response with the gears so my feelings were confirmed. So carbed bikes also suffer from the hiccup as well? If so then thats definitely an ignition issue. Ciao

This one docc is at around 2800-3000 rpm under just a wiff of throttle but in 3rd gear, not lugging it at all. It will just cough and miss a beat every klm or so under those conditions. Ciao Resolved with the timing gears? It appears so docc. I read years ago of the theory from many that experienced the same and couldnt tune it out that it was down to timing chain slack affecting the ignition pickup. I was skeptical so was wondering does yours do it seeing it has a quite a few miles up? Ciao

This one docc is at around 2800-3000 rpm under just a wiff of throttle but in 3rd gear, not lugging it at all. It will just cough and miss a beat every klm or so under those conditions. Ciao

Well spent a whole ride today trying my very best to induce a cough or hiccup but it just wouldn't do it. Maybe it is timing chain slack that is the reason. doccs got a lot of miles up and I assume his has some chain slack by now, wonder if his does it?....docc? Ciao

Hammmmmer.................................. Ciao

You forgot to thank me docc for NOT getting involved Ciao

Well got it done and dusted. While It was up on the stand with the tank off I pulled the airbox and fitted the gearbox support as well so that's another job off the list. The bike started right up with oil pressure even before it fired which was nice considering I had drained the oil cooler. The gears are almost silent, I can hear them hot and cold but I'm listening for them. When its hot you can just hear the sound of meshing gears whirring around which sounds rather cool to me. Couple of things, the idle went up by a few hundred rpm. I have my idle set fairly high at just under 1200 rpm on the Vaguelia and after the install I had around 1400-1500 rpm indicated. No loose hoses or any other obvious issues so I took it down on the idle screw. The bike ran fine and I'm trying my best to be objective here but it was maybe a little bit more responsive. It seems to respond to the throttle a little sharper, not night and day but it seems sharper. I had read a long time ago ( with some skepticism I might add) the theory that the old floating throttle hiccup was caused by timing chain slack so I was interested to see how this went. My bike has always done this at or around 3200 rpm while cruising on the flat with just a whiff of throttle, maybe 2-3%, just off the stop. It would cough once every klm or so. I don't ride in the hiccup zone much so I wasn't bothered to chase it down. On the test ride I tried my hardest to make it hiccup and cough but without any success. The jury is still out on this I'll see how it goes in different atmospheric conditions. Ciao

Not sure what they will sound like to be honest. My RC-30 Honda and my VFR750 both had gear driven cams but you need to remember those systems used a spring loaded backlash gear arrangement to make them quiet for road use. In 1988 I was at the Aussie round of the WSB at Oran park chatting to the late Robert Dunlop in the pits about his RC-30 WSB and he mentioned his had the backlash gears removed. When he fired it up I could immediately tell even over the race exhaust. I personally thought it was a nice clatter, bit like a muted Ducati dry clutch rattle so the gears in the V11 wouldnt bother me even if they are a little noisy/clattery. I'm hoping for a nice little bit of whine when cold and quiet when hot. Watch this space..... Ciao

Less inertia in a gear system. Gears are just "cleaner", no tensioner, no chain wizzing around changing direction and wearing out. A quality cam gear drive will outlast the engine easily, give more accurate timing and make your shirts whiter than white. A chains major benefit is its cheap and easy to manufacture, its quieter, its easier to adapt to a design than a gear driven system. There's a reason the vast majority of manufactures dont use gear driven cams......its just to damn expensive and when we are living in a world where the modern engine designer even eliminates key ways cut into cam drive sprockets cams and cranks to save a machining operation and the cost of a key whats the chances of them making bespoke cam gears. Ciao

Hey, buddy.. that got a blower on it?? No Chuck, but my car does:) Ciao

Elegance, engineering purity? You may as well ask Ducati why they bothered with that lovely bevel drive system on their old twins, or their continued adoption of Desmo valve gear or MV Agusta on why they bothered with silly gear driven cams on their road and race bikes or Honda on their VFR series or Rolls Royce for using shaft driven bevel gears on a Merlin engine. If you need to ask then you probably wont understand the answer Always found chains are best left for the bedroom activities Ciao

Welcome back, life does that sometimes, make that all the time. Ciao

Images added to original post. Ciao