There is a lot of debate about this...I keep hearing and reading about this chain v. gear drive debate...the chain drive is a wear worry issue but the gear drive cams come with their own set of issues...six of one, half-dozen of the other...

 

I like it! Way to bring an 8 year old thread back from the dead. Welcome to the forum!
I put over 120k on my 99 flht before it gave me any issues, and also with just routine maintenance.

 

Funny I got a 09. But now buying a 99 and looking at the 8/99 problems lol

 

If you're going to change the bearings (which I would probably do), address the tensioners as well (as others have said). Although they sometimes last north of 60,000 miles, my inner shoe was broken in pieces when I opened my cam chest with about 15,000 miles on the clock. You have three options for the tensioners, and they're all good choices. Just depends what you want to do:

• Retain the original cam plate and reassemble with upgraded tensioner shoes from someone like Cyco (which apparently should last a really long time)
  -This is the quickest, easiest, and cheapest option, which keeps everything almost completely stock inside... but not the best if you have further power upgrades planned
  
• Swap the cam plate for a hydraulic design from SE, S&S, Fueling, etc.
  -I did this. It's a great choice if you'll take advantage of a cam upgrade while things are apart
  
• Move to gear-driven cams
  -Arguably the most labor intensive choice (but still not a massive job, and only marginally more work than hydraulic), and the best choice if you're interested in adding power with cams. However, you must measure crank runout before making this decision. If your crank is out of spec, this will be a disaster. The good news is that stock twin cam cranks were at there best '99-'02, and these are often in spec

If it were me, I doubt I would ever disassemble my cam chest and put it back together with the original stock cams... But that's just me. I try to avoid labor and cost without functional improvement...

 

Hey,

That was a great explanation of the 3 options that are available. So, I have a 2000 FXDX and coming up on 20k miles. I'm debating on whether to keep it stock and replace with cyco shoes or switch to cam plate, oil pump, new gears from S&S etc. My main concern is, if I do this, will I have to keep putting performance upgrades throughout the engine? Pistons, heads, etc. I want to keep the bike and just improve, not look for maximum hp or anything.

Just to be completely honest, i'm an average rider, spend my time mostly in the mid range. I enjoy pushing the bike, but it's mainly enjoying the ride. This bike was passed down to me and I don't plan selling it. So, in the long term, what would you think is the best route to go?

Caps

 

Sounds to me like a set of Cyco shoes will do you just fine for the next 20 years or so.