From a dull memory... with my large carbs and polydine cam in my A series Frogeye, the issue was that it climed up on the cam at circa 4k rpm to the rev limit at 6k, and not having the benefit of a close ratio gearbox, in changing up to the next gear, you dropped right out of the rev band and back into a very dead zone, which was very embarrising when the old dear in the Hillman Imp would leave you for dead in the traffic light GP..!!!
The thing about tuning would seem to be that out of the box vehicles have a broad power band to cover all types of driving, the same goes for suspension steering brakes and all that makes up a standard machine, be that a delivery van or a sports car, as soon as you change one thing in the package it can have a knock-on effect on other aspects of all important balance of the machine`s initial design strategy, and imbalance tends to be less than ideal..as in the case of my Frogeye.... but I did see 100mph on the clock...once...honest..(-:
The thing about tuning it can totally spoil a machines overall usability, and I suspect there is many a Morgan out there running poorly as the result of "tuning" sold on and it`s new owner trying to get it to run reasonably with by the book ignition timing spark plug choices that may not suit the high compression pistons fitted some time in it`s past or the race cam etc.etc.etc.
A well tuned engine for road performance will hopefully retain a degree well of balance and still be reasonably comfortable in heavy traffic and as such may still idle reasonably given the care and expence of fitting the upgrades, were the same engine taken to full race spec it drivability and fuel consumption would alter, and if it is highly tuned perhaps the race clutch might be a real pain to live with in traffic the engine also overheating in the same situation,,,etc. etc. etc. Having been there and done that more than once (sigh), is one of the reasons my +8 engine is standard, and has served me well having never overheated even while touring in a very hot southern Europe.... touching wood..!!!
Peter your tale of your friend on the two stroke race bike caused me to laugh and brought back memories of a full race two smoke Kawasaki 750 triple that would fire on this and that or the other cylinder as and when it chose, and all H*ll would brake loose when it fired on all three without any warning, the rider was a very nervous guy who regularly dissappeared off track and into the weeds as the result of it`s foibles. It is one thing to have the two stroke riders nervous clutch pinky, but when that thing fired up fully everybody got outa the way... (-:
