I've got my rear wheel off and it will be handed over to powdercoat tomorrow. Its time to decide if I want to change the chain and sprockets or just keep them stock. Here's my dilemma:

I'm setting my F4i up for comfort/fun/improved handling, yes you can have all those at once. I want to use it as a long range day tripper bike so highway rpm's are going to be important. From my calculations going -1 on the front sprocket would be going from a 2.88 ratio to a 3.07 ratio which would be a 6.7% increase. If that's translated over to rpm's my normal 6500rpm flying down the highway would be just over 6900rpm, which to me is a considerable increase in engine speed, long term wear & tear, gas consumption, etc.

Can anybody give me some advice on their experience with highway rpm change from a -1 or even a -1/+1 or a stock front/+2 rear?

 

i'd stay stock, less wear and tear, better gas mileage, no need for a speedohealer, and if they aren't worn out you can reuse your current sprockets and chain

 

I should have said that I would like to have more acceleration and I would like the bike to wheelie easier but I am open to the possibility that spending the money for a minor gear reduction would not pickup performance enough to notice while still dropping my mpg's.

BTW, not to overshadow my original question but if I choose to stay stock the stock chain should go right back on and tighten up with no problems, right? The chain just pulled right off after removing the rear axle and sliding the wheel up a little bit. It should slip right back into place ready to be retightened right?

 

Yep everything should go together again. Just make sure your have your wheel aligned the same on both sides of the wheel.

 

Hey Strike,

I've got a -1 in the front, so I can give you lots of details. I've got a speedohealer installed, so take that into consideration as I would recommend getting one if you want accurate speed measurements (odometer will read a little low because of the difference in stock odo accuracy vs speedo accuracy).

I have found my 6th gear speed to be calculated as (RPM/1000) x 11. So 55 at 5000 RPM, 66 at 6000 RPM, 77 at 7000 RPM, etc. Does that make sense? I'm not sure what it was stock, but go 77 on your bike and see what RPMs your at.

That being said, depending on my riding stye, I usually average 35-38mpg, which with my odometer being 10% off is pretty close to 40mpg.

I didn't do any wheelies with my stock sprocket setup, but the bike comes up pretty easy in first with a an off-on of the throttle. Probably even easier if I knew how to wheelie lol.

Sprocketcenter.com has good kits. A grinder might be needed to cut some links and a master link riveting tool is required.

Let me know if you want any more info.

 

i'm interested in a -1/+2. apparently it's a 10% reduction in top speed. i guess it would kinda make the bike ****ty for long term rides and gas mileage. arg. economic trade-offs.

 

I am -1/+2 and am using a speedo healer. I find that my RPMs pretty well match my speed. 65 mph is pretty close to 6500 rpm and so on. I love the snap in acceleration. The only annoyance I have is that I am always thinking I need to shift again. Could be remedied witha gear indicator, but I think that would look cheesy.

 

what about a shift light? what kind of mileage do you get anyways?

 

I might do a -1 in the front. Definitely not more than -1/+1. My bike is probably 2 months away from running again with my winter rebuild still going on. I'll check the rpms and compare it to yours above. I know that what works out mathematically on paper for rpm's doesn't always prove to be true in the real world when you factor in all the other variables that exist when I bike is moving down the highway, so I'll probably have to spend some dough and find out.

 

http://www.gearingcommander.com/
I have always found this web site very helpful for most of my gearing ?'s