Hi everyone. Let me start by apologizing for a question that I'm sure many of you can dig the answer up to without even trying. Unfortunately, I've tried and can't find anything definitive.

Here's what's going on. I have a 130 mile commute each day for work on my F2. Kinda sucks. I'd love to throw a 17 tooth sprocket on the front to smooth out the freeway a little bit but can't find any 1st hand testimony of this fitting. Can anyone tell me for certain if I can fit a larger front sprocket on my bike without clearance issues and if so, how big? I currently have stock gearing 15/43.

Thanks,
Mark

 

It's rare that anyone goes up in tooth-count up front, so whether or not there would be any clearance issues, I cannot say.

I would think you could go up maybe one tooth in the front, and retain your sprocket cover, but what I can't remember, is how far recessed the front sprocket/chain would be in the casing portion, in other words: would the chain end up rubbing on the radiused flange of the casing up front?

Anyway, like I said, I would think you could add maybe one tooth, and then of course you could drop to a 41 in the rear, which is roughly the same as +1 in the front... for that matter, if there are 39 tooth rear sprockets available, then you could accomplish the same thing without trying a larger front sprocket, and this would be the option that would shed the most weight, which would aid in efficiency as well.

 

my suggestion is to get a smaller rear sprocket. in my opinion they are easier to change just in case it doesnt suit you.

i think jns is correct on the sprocket cover. i dont believe it will fit. i could be wrong though. i never tried it on any of my f3's.

 

Mark, before you replace any sprockets go to the Gearing Commander website, load your bike's factory data from the drop-down menu and then experiment with different sprocket combinations to see how they affect the rpms at a given speed. It's a pretty nice online utility.

 

Thanks for the responses. I agree that it looks too tight to squeeze more than one more tooth up front. I'll look more into swapping out the rear sprocket instead. And yeah, I've been using Gearing Commander from the start. Can't imagine not using it. Thanks again guys.