I ordered a Vortex -1 front sprocket, and am going home to install it this weekend, and was looking for any tutorials or hints. I tried searching but nothing came up for me. Could just be searching for the wrong thing, but any info or links you could give me would help.

 

Hmmm.... I have done the same to my bike. But didnt take any pics. First you need to get a 27 mm socket to remove the rear wheel. Be sure you have a bike stand, cuz you can't do this unless you have one. Remove the rear brake caliper. Losen the rear bolt then take out the axle. Remove the sprocket from the wheel. Replace with new sprocket. Remove the front sprocket cover, remove bolt. Slide in new sprocket. Thread your new chain into front sprocket. Put your wheel back on, slide in axle, tighten, reset your brake caliper, and adjust your chain for tightness.

 

You don't need a bike stand to do anything on a bike. I've replaced tires, front and rear sprockets, chains, etc... all without one. Just a standard small floor jack and jack stands.

To replace the front sprocket, just loosen the chain, remove the gear cover, I think it's 3 10mm bolts, and then pull the bolt holding the front sprocket on. Put the bike in gear, put the ratchet on it, and use a hammer to give it a good whack so you're not putting steady torque on it. You wanna get it off impact style. One whack should get it loose.

Then put the new one on. It should only take a few minutes.

 

well if you are replacing the front sprocket only you could try something even easier. when i replaced my sprockets and chain i was wondering if this would be possible:

take off the front sprocket cover and take off the bolt holding the front sprocket on. see if there is enough slack in your chain to be able to pull the sprocket off the shaft with everything still in tact. installation is reverse of removal.

it might work, right? just thought you could give it a try before anything else....you will probably have to adjust your chain and lube it anyways so you could just support the rear of it if you want.
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Crete Cooking

 

you need to loosen the rear wheel not take it off run te adjuster in onthe chain side as you are gonna have to re adjust the chain do to the smaller sprocket after running that in its 2 8 mm bolts on the black cover the a 14mm it not good to put the bike in gear you can but its better to use an inpact gun then pull the old one off put the new one in put the cover back on readjust the chain and snug the rear wheel and you are good to go

 

awesome, thanks for all the info. Looks like between all these posts i'l figure out what needs to get done! thanks guys

 

itgbudeev Once you put the -1 sprocket on, give us some feedback if you see a big difference in riding . Specially interested to hear if it's pulling much harder.

Ok, thx.
Philnyc

 

Will do phil... I am going home tomorrow and riding for as long as i can, then changing it on saturday, so i should have a pretyy close comparison. Ill post up what i feel

 

im planning on doing this soon as well, will be good to get some feedback...maybe you could write a how-to?