I have an 04 f4i and I am very happy with the bike so far but I was curious about gearing it down a little bit to get some more power out of it. I usually cruise the highway around 75-80 so I didn't know what a good(safe) cruising rpm was and how far I should gear down if any.

 

-1/+2 is the most common gearing change for 600's.
It will throw the speedo off about 15% and you might los maybe 25mph top end but gain lots of low and mid-range power

 

Cool thanks. Well at 80 that 15% would make my speedo read 92 so I guess I just need to see what my rpm is at 92 and that should get me an idea. What is a safe cruising rpm for these bikes? It just feels bad saying I cruise on the freeway at 7k haha because I'm more used to cars and they redline around that.

 

get a speedohealer, its necessary not only for the speedometer but also the ODOMETER. It will throw off the milage for the next owner or for yourself. and cruising at 9grand will eat up gas and you will lose mpg's

 

Yeah well red line starts at 14k for our bikes so get used to it

Really, you feel bad because you're barely halfway thru the rpm range? So you want to gear it down so you can keep the same speed but at a lower rpm? Because you're used to cars???

@7k I'm barely entering the powerband. Most dyno runs show the f4is start pulling hardest around 10k-11k. The rpms our bikes are capable of safely cruising at will break the speed limit... IN EVERY GEAR

These aren't Hardleys and definitely ain't a Prius. You bought a Sport Bike

25 MPG on Ororo is still better gas mileage than I get with the Ford Edge. And $15 to fill up Ororo compared to $50 on the Edge. I'll take that everyday and have a lot more fun too

 

Yeah well thanks...None of that was any help now was it?

I'm sure you feel better after that long nonesense, BUT I was simply was asking what a safe cruising rpm for the highway was so I could gear my bike DOWN(as in lower gearing that would give me a higher rpm on the freeway).

Excluding the quoted post thanks for the help guys and I will look into the speedo correction.

 

I'm thinking about doing the th -1 +2 swap, it's almost makes 5th like 6th.
So just ride in 5th on your normal ride and see if it will bug you. Doesn't
seem to bad to me.

 

www.gearingcommander.com

That site will help find rpms vs speed for gearing changes, top speed etc.

 

So what your asking is IF you should geard down from stock, instead of up? never heard of any one doing that. And a speedohealer is a must if you do any kind of gearing.

 

He wants gear down to change the final drive ratio to improve acceleration and is asking what sprocket combination to go with, and was worried about higher rpms having a negative effect on the engine.

I had a 15 tooth front sprocket so I had a ~7% increase in rpms. The acceleration was nice and the rpms were alittle higher so the gas mileage decreased slightly, as jeffjones said with -1, +2 sprockets will be the acceleration and increase in rpms will be more drastic.

I was happy with 15 tooth, but I went back to stock because I like gas mileage and the front wheel comes up easy enough with a stock final drive.

A -1, +2 will put a big smile on your face but your ears might hurt depending on your exhaust, -1 in front is subtle but helps acceleration.

Your engine will be fine. As Kuro said the redline is at 14k they are made for high revs. With a -1 +2 you're probably looking at 70mph @ ~6500rpms