L5 cam characteristics

[Galligaskins]

After I bought my Strada a year ago, I noticed it had an S stamped on the crankcase which led me to check the cam timing and pistons to see if was a sport engine or just the cases. Long story short, it turns out it has 366 (375) Sport pistons and an L5 cam. Also has the NLM ignition setup.
What I'd like to know is what tangible difference this would make over a standard Sport. All I've seen is that it would "make a useful performance increase" which means what? I had a 3½ Sport back in 1980/81 but have had many other bikes in the intervening years so it's impossible to make a direct comparison. The bike goes very well but I'm wondering what might be reasonable to expect.

Thanks
Howard

[Morini Jen]

If you type L5 cam 375 into the search box at the top of the page, it will give you 69 matches. Plenty to read there.

Forum member 72 degrees has a great deal of experience with these things. The thread about his Forgotten Era Hill Climb bike runs to thirteen pages...

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3812

[Galligaskins]

Thanks Jen,

I have previously searched the forum and the wider web for info. There are lots of references to the L5 on the forum but very little about the effect the cam has.

To pull what I've found together:
72 degrees has observed that his L5/375 has significantly more urge in the midrange and that it would rev to 9000 (redline on the 250 tacho that's fitted), Meanwhile 123Morini found it lost power at around 8000 and Smotorboy found peak power at 7800 with power falling off fast after 8000.

It seems strange that the L5 is widely held in high regard yet there is so little mention of what it actually does in terms of on the road performance.

Mine does seem to mirror the above though. Outright top speed seems a little down, but it gets there quickly and holds it despite headwinds or gradients.

[norbert]

There are the L5 and the L5 II ! The last one is a bit more lively (mounted in the First Camel 501 I think). I have that one in Rocinante (motor early 501 Camel original). Dulcinea wears a 501 bild up from diferent Motors ( Camel and Excalibur parts) I guess it has a normal L5.
Allthoug the Motor of Dulcina was lightend: clutch, primario, con rods, pistones, rockers and it weights 30 kg less, Rocinante raise easier the revs and it is faster
The top speed surely is dued to the half fairing she wears but the behavier of the motor, I gues is an issue of the cam, allthough it's dificult to now because of diferent air Filter and escape Systems...

[norbert]

Rocinante with her original 350S motor gave me 120 km/h at 6000 revs. Witth the the 501/L5II and the same lying Veglias it shows almost 140 km/h at 6000 revs!