Will bumping up 1 in compression make a noticable difference

[gryphon]

Okay so, the general consensus among those experienced with changing comp ratios was that by dropping one complete point from 9.5 to 8.5 would have caused a consideral drop in perceived performance and would have been a travisty. On the flip side, by increasing 1/2 point to as much as a full point would there be any really noticable increase. I'm gonna have my heads off pretty soon and after talking with S&S they say that the heads can safely be shaved by .060 giving me an increase of 1 full percentage point.  I realize that cam, etc also play into the equasion.

[96dynabagger]

I shaved mine a similar amount and am very pleased with the result.   

[14Frisco]

Gryphon,
I think you already know the story of my 1994 EVO but in any case...
My OEM heads were cleaned up by Hannan's back in 1995 and I ran Sifton Interstate 143 cams until 2005.  In 2005 I went back to Hannan's for a valve job and he said I would be happy if I bumped up the compression a little.  I needed new pistons anyway (5 thou overbore) so rather than shaving the heads he suggested I go with the SE popup pistons.  They are advertised as 10:1 but he said they are not really 10:1, more like 9:1.
So, that's what I did, went with the 22192-98 pistons (SE 10:1, .005" oversize).  And a V-Thunder 3030 with that.

The dyno is at http://harleytechtalk.net/htt/index.php?topic=1749.0 and approx. 83 ft-lbs and 87 hp.  That was done in April 2007 and I have put 20,000 miles on the bike since the dyno tune, across the country, up into Canada, down in the Southwest.  It's going real good, runs at 85-90 mph all day out in the wilderness.  I am a happy camper and have had no reliability issues.  But, I will soon replace the lifters and cam bearing for preventative reasons - they have over 30K on them now.

The only issue I had was a rattling noice from the front exhaust pushrod.  Initially I thought it might have been the lifter but it turned out to be the pushrod hitting the tube.

Unfortunately, I didn't have it dyno tuned when I was using the Sifton cam and before bumping up the compression so I don't have any real hard numbers to compare.

[Buddy WMC]

Gryphon,
Is there a possibility that different thickness base and head gaskets are available from S&S? If so, you might not have to take as much off the deck surface.