Lightning Cam Pics?

In my last post I featured a Leineweber # 5 Knuckle cam. This elicited a response from a reader, Jim Franco, saying that he has a cam that recently came out of a Knucklehead hillclimber with lobes that looked quite similar. He was kind enough to send me some pictures of the cam, which I have posted here. The holes in the drive gear immediately bring to mind the legendary Knucklehead "Lightning" cam. Contrary to what seems to be popular opinion, I do not believe that the Lightning cam was the only factory cam to have these holes.

As can be seen in the above picture, the lobes do have the radical shape similar to the Leineweber #5. I have heard the Lightning cam referred to as the "banana lobe cam." I am not sure if this was a common slang term for it or not, but one can certainly see where the name came from.

I ran a factory Knuckle cam which had holes like this in my street bike for a few seasons. The lobes did not visually appear any different from any other stock Knuck cam, and it did not perform noticeably better. I also do not remember a keyway, like the one seen in the above picture.

Barring someone with more knowledge of the elusive Knucklehead Lightning speaking up, I am very inclined to conclude that Jim has himself a genuine one here!