can someone explain the deal with losing/gaining a tooth in the front and rear sprockets and all that. what will i be looking to lose/gain in terms of torque and high end. anything else i should know about changing sprockets would help too, thanks.

 

Do you know how pulleys work?

Basically, the smaller you make the front sprocket as compared to the rear sprocket the easier it is for the bike to move along the road. The cost is that to go the same speed the engine has to rev higher.

Going the opposite way, you can reduce your RPMS (nice for highway use and good gas milage) but you loose some acceleration.

If you look in my photo gallery you'll see some charts of different sprocket combinations on and F4. You'll notice more extreme combinations reduce top speed more. My bike right now is about 14% lower geared than stock - it goes like a bat out of hell, however, tops out well before the stock bike.

This means if we were in a straight line race the stock bike would kick my bikes a$$... however on a twisty road with lots of short straights I'd have an advantage. Being that I'm not a straight line racer, this works for me.

So to recap:

Going shorter:
- lower top speed
- higher highway cruising rpm
- stronger acceleration
- worse gas milage generally

Going taller
- higher top speed
- lower highway crusing rpm
- weaker acceleration
- better gas milage

 

exactly.

 

go ride a mountain bike with gears, that is how it works. Wear all your gear, it is a jungle out there.

 

thanks that really helps 'woot'