@kavinsp This guy's delivery and how he simplifies the topics makes it easy for this old man to understand. I've watched dozens of his vidoes on motorcycles. Well done !!
I agree the back sprocket can be harder to change for some, however be careful going with a smaller front sproket cause most bikes will chew up the rubber chain slider and dig into the spingarn causing some expensive repairs.
This channel is such a double-edged sword. The information is so good and concisely put, that I spend hours scouring the internet for deals on parts that I don't really need and modifications that don't really need to be done. But it's winter here in Michigan, and I don't really have shit else to do. Lol. Do I really need to put $5000 of parts into a $4400 motorcycle? Don't answer that. Please.
On my 2004 Kawasaki ZX-10R (17-39 stock sprockets), I went with -2, +11 (15-50 sprockets) and not only did those look cool, it made the bike MUCH more fun at lower speeds since I could get at the power MUCH quicker without having to go at license losing speeds. When not riding aggressively, I could easily shortshift all 6 gears at legal speeds but when I wanted to hammer it, I had all 6 gears in the speed range of the stock first 4 gears. The bike just "ate up" each gear quickly but still had a theoretical top speed of close to 150 MPH. Lots of fun. The 15-50 sprocket combo is a 3.33 final drive ratio so to get that with the stock 17 tooth front, I would need 57 teeth (3.35) which would have made it look like a stunt bike sprocket. Reducing the # of teeth on the front sprocket somewhat "hides" that it is geared down but a rear sprocket change is kinda obvious.
I replaced the stock 16t front sprocket on my 07 GS500F with a 14t sprocket and it makes a big difference in how the bike accelerates. I love this setup because I do more sporty riding than highway riding
I dropped a tooth on the front sprocket of my little R3 and it completely changed the characteristic of the bike. And since I do a lot of canyon carving and street riding with it, I much prefer this set-up.
Pepsi Boy42 the OEM is 14 front 43 rear and I just swapped for a 13T takasago front sprocket and left the stock chain and rear sprocket since it all fits. However the speedo is rather enthusiastic reading 100kph when in reality its running about 93kph give or take. But doesn't really bother me since the speed limits in our island are more "guidelines" than actual rules to follow lol.
Yeah did 2 down and three up on my 2005 Triumph Daytona 650... It now is an insanely quick bike.. Yeah I can only do 156-158 top end... BUT I don't ever hit those speeds on the street... I can keep up with my buddies stock ZX14 from a standstill to about 130MPH... SO I am just fine with that...
It's good to keep in mind that shorter gearing mainly helps off the line, as you can just be in a lower gear when up to speed, and you'll have the same acceleration at a given rpm and mph. If you're always going slow then shorter gears can help you stay in the power band, though. And if you have a sport bike that's geared ridiculously tall, and can go 90+ mph while lugging the engine, then there's no downside to going shorter.
I have a versys 1000 and torn on whatd be better. 1st gear zip seems fine, its more I hate loss of grunt in 6th gear going 60-100mph. Like feels like a bigger change 5-6th than between other gears. So making passes on highway I find myself wanting to go to 5th. Loss of mpg would be sad but feels like wasted gearing when im not running it up to 150mph and even doing 80/90 im only at like 3500/4000 rpm Though as a new rider I may just be scared of keeping it in higher revs. Other than moments of flooring it. Even going fast fron a stop Im enjoying fast up shifts with barely a release rowing up thru the gears at 4500-6000 rpm. Seems better than hitting second and reving it up to 8k hitting 60 then shifting up 4 gears in one go.
Thank you! I'm new into riding. Didn't grow up with a mechanical dad to teach me the ropes. So many vloggers and forum talk just throw out terms like everyone knows them.
Another factor to consider when changing the front sprocket is chain life. Going taller in the front extends chain life significantly. Going shorter in the front decreases chain life significantly.
Well I went 2 down on the front and 3 up on the rear... OF my 2005 Triumph Daytona 650 about 20k miles ago... Chain and teeth are still just fine, yes the chain is getting near the point I will want to change it (measured the "stretch"), however it is still well within safe limits. I don't do any sort of wheelies... I do ride aggressively, and I purchased to spec parts. SO while I agree it does put added wear on the chain to do what I did, it's NOT going to wear it out that much faster then if you didn't do it. OR at least in my case (I take really good care of my stuff), it has not really effected the longevity of the life of the chain.
@@yessure5291 Well I only do street riding, so the top end is not important. It really improved the response at speed and the way the bike leaves the line. With everything done to the bike, I am putting about 120hp to the wheel. So the bike is a rocket at street speeds.
you really picked the best bike for this example, as a former owner of a versys, I always thought the gear ration was too low. is too aggressive especially in the city. great video, would have been nice to see real-life results in the versys to see the top end speed change gain in sacrifice to a bit of torque ( which in my opinion there is plenty in that bike)
Changing my final drive from 2.14 to 2.1333 repeating is improving my fuel economy, increasing top speed and since my rear sprocket is bigger my acceleration shouldn't be hurt so much
Changing the front is the easiest and best. YOU DON'T NEED MUCH. One tooth is a lot. My SV1000 was too tall so I DROPPED a tooth up front; my old Bandit 1200 was too SHORT (it's a 5- speed), so I went UP a tooth. Both brought the bikes in-line with how I ride. Be careful though! 1) make sure you have enough physical ROOM to increase front sprocket size... and 2) watch your chain slack on the swingarm marks. You could easily make your chain too short or long. PS - I never worked on a bike where you could "easily" swap front sprockets without at LEAST removing the rear wheel.
Please explain about fork oils and which oil we use for better usability according to the ride style. Right now I am having problems with my suspension setup.
Great video as usual Ari. Would have been nice to show some stats of the differences going up/down teeth on that Versys. Eg. we went up two teeth on the rear and top end dropped from 133 mph down to 1xx mph, but the 1/4 mile time improved from xx seconds to xx seconds. And maybe some fuel consumption figures. Get Zack to do a commute on the standard size sprocket and then change it (up or down in teeth) and do the commute again and see how much it affects consumption. Keep the MC Garage vids coming, I'm always learning something new from them!
Great video as always. I eliminated two teeth on the rear sprocket of my Wee and it was nice having the RPM go down on the highway but climbing hills sucked
Another thing to think about is rebound inertia. Similar to the power loss of a piston having to travel in the opposite direction before more power can be created by it. Think about your chain having to whip around a tiny front sprocket vs being able to more slowly/efficiently roll around it. So having a bigger front sprocket and also a bigger rear sprocket may be worth trying. Also at the same time you may, depending on how big you go on either, will equate more sprocket and chain weight (if you need more chain links) and more rotating mass, unless you are running aluminum vs stock steel. Without a crap ton of math making it a perfect science it's another consideration of gear changes to think about/play with. Especially for the rider who has three or four fronts and eight or ten rears. I've gone back and forth with a few of these myself on dirt and street with interesting results. Lemme know if anyone tries it and how it works out for you.
The easy way to change the final drive ration on a shaft drive is to change the aspect ration of your rear tire. Say you have a 190/50/17 on the rear and you want to get a taller final drive, switch to a 190/55/17 and you get a similar effect as changing a rear sprocket by one or two teeth.
The problem with that is the increased weight of the bigger tire, as well as little availability of different motorcycle tire sizes. The number of tire sizes for motorcycles is miniscule compared to car tires. Plus the cost of a new tire easily surpasses different sprockets, unless you needed a tire anyway..
gearing is one of my strongest expertise, gearing choice in road race kart racing is key. on my Vulcan 650, i swapped the motor sprocket to one more tooth, since im light weight and the motor revvs high, this was super beneficial. adding a tooth to the motor was a bigger difference than taking away a tooth from the axle.
actually did this last week. I wanted taller gearing on my R3 as its always revving its tits off. so I worked out I got 8% higher top speed / loss of torque. So to combat that I got myself a high end X ring chain that recovered said lost torque. Win fricking win!
On my 2016 Yamaha TTR 230 I went down 6 teeth in the rear after jetting the carburetor and installing a K&N air filter. I had to remove two links out of my chain but it was totally worth it. Stock it was geared too low and with the mods that had to have been done.
I literally did not know you could do this. Very informative. Would have been great on my old FZS600. Great video(s). Keep it up! PS can you do a video on like dealing with electrical issues and how to examine wiring harnesses?
I run 2.63 sprocket ratios on my commuter r6. That’s a 16 and a 42. Cruzin on the highway to work at 75mph only turns 5200 rpms. Still plenty of power.
I'm now thinking about a thing. When getting a higher ratio, it's less expensive and easier to change the front sprocket. But, by changing rear sprocket, is there a gain with lowering the rotating mass and diameter ? Wich can result on same gain that front sprocket but with little acceleration gain (and again more mileage) ? Or is that negligeable ?
Not quite, in certain scenarios where you're riding a smaller displacement motorcycle on tighter roads, shorter gearing can actually improve gas mileage. Running with 14/36(stock) sprockets on my 220cc motorcycle I'd open the throttle more at lower gears to maintain a decent speed and prevent knocking whereas now with a 14/40 setup all is well and I roughly do half the RPM's and throttle input to maintain the same speeds.
Great video but it's worth adding that you'll need to be careful not to go too small as it can cause clearance issues with chain cutting into the swing arm.
As usual very informative and interesting video, my query is --> Does alteration in final drive is simple in motorbikes with IMU and cornering ABS. I mean can I just go for it for 2018 Kawasaki Z10000sx or there is a Software complication from IMU
One of the factors that influences anti-squat in a motorcycle is the angle between the chain and the swingarm. When you place a smaller countershaft sprocket and a larger rear sprocket this angle increases. This way the motorcycle gets more anti-squat. It works the other way around too, so when you place a larger countershaft sprocket and smaller rear sprocket the bike tends to squat more under acceleration.
I’ve been riding my 2007 KLR 650 with stock gearing for years. I decided to go down a tooth on the counter sprocket this spring and boy oh boy, it’s pretty damn nice. While taking it on the highway now is fucking terrible, taking it around town is pretty awesome.… And that’s from just one tooth on the front. It’s not a super major change but it’s pretty noticeable. I’d love to try to get more torque-y next year. That being said, it’s performance at highway speed is so irritating that I would suggest swapping the sprocket back out if you’re going on a significantly long ride for a few days. In fact, I’m going on a multi-day ride soon and I bought a new stock counter sprocket to put in. If you don’t take your bike out on the highway very much but you commute, I would consider doing what I did.
Hey Arai, love your easy and simple to understand videos. Though would like to know how to judge as to what no.of teeth we can increase or decrease on a certain bike?
Noob question : Does changing gearing affect where the powerband is? Like if you gear a sportbike down for more torque and less top end is it effectively moving the power band down the rev range? Or does it apply increased acceleration across the whole rev range and not effect the power band specifically?
No, powerband is to do with the engine itself and how it makes power. Gearing just affects how that power is put down. Easy to think of if you use a bicycle. When in a high gear (ie low gear ratio) its hard to get the bike to accelerate quick, but in a low gear it is super easy and you can even wheelie if you are not careful. The powerband (ie your legs) never changes, just how quickly youre in it and what affect it has on turning the wheels. So in effect, shorter gearing will make the bike feel more torquey, but you will go through the gear a lot quicker and ultimately have less top speed. hope that helps!
Love the videos guys, great work. I have a new bike (KTM Duke 790) with more performance than I've had before (Duke 390) & am now starting to get my confidence & ride more spiritedly, I have had headshake a few times when coming out of corners, I'm not worried about this but should I be & when does a headshake turn into a tank slapper?
There is a very fine line between headshake and a tankslapper, and it can quickly get out of control. Make sure the steering head bearings are not loose or worn out. Try to ease onto the throttle instead of being violent with it, as that could initiate a wheelie and turn into headshake when the wheel comes down again. My four cylinder CBR 250R would self-initiate a headshake above 30 mph if I took both hands off the handlebars. When I got a new front tire the headshake stopped! Consider installing a steering damper if your bike does not have one already(pretty sure it doesn't). Those can be lifesaving, especially at higher speeds.
Very informative! Have you done one on compression ratios and what they mean,? Also bore and stroke,? Kindly Share the link if there's one of each. Keep it up!
TWO questions 1)What if you drop a tooth in the front and go up teeth in the rear. Will anything change? 2) and is there any benefit on going higher in the front vs lower in the rear?
Great video. I have a 2009 CBF1000A and I need to replace my chain and sprocket soon. I am considering different sized sprockets if they would increase the acceleration from start off because the CBF1000A's first and second gears range are so low they really hinder a good take off. I have ridden some other bikes which effortlessly accelerate from zero to say 60km/hr in first gear. How much of a high end speed reduction is there by going with a shorter gearing? Can you provide some examples?
I just bought a 2024 Kawasaki Eliminator and I love the bike. But I;ve been riding V-Tqins since the 1990's and I am use to a lower RPM at highway speeds. I am thinking about changing my front spocket from a 14 tooth to a 16 tooth but I worry that moght be too much. I don't care about the quickness of the bike but I know if I go too big on the front spocket the bike will labor hard when in the higher gears So my question, is going from a 14t to a 16t front spocket too much? Should I just go one tooth larger to a 15 tooth and be happy with that?
By going 2 teeths more in the back , do i need to change chain ? What about adding that speedo helper , would the mileage difference be noticeable or nothing to worry ? Thank you so much
Only really matters on a race track or if you are doing lots of motorway miles. For everything else simply knock it down a couple of gears for better acceleration or knock it up a couple for a quieter cruise around the streets.
Do not throw your money away changing the sockets. This will only make 2 results: 1. this will improve starting off (launching) 2. this will increase your RPM in top gear at highway speeds. Changing the sprockets is changing the final gearing on your cycle. Changing the final gearing means nothing. What really matters is overall gearing. Overall gearing is everything from the engine to the rear tire. Overall gearing is a affected by these areas: 1. Primary drive ratio between crankshaft and transmission. 2. Manual Transmission 3. Drive sprockets (final gearing) It is a very common misunderstanding that changing the sprockets will mean you'll always have lower gearing. That is not true. You have a manual transmission. That allows you to have what ever gear ratio you want. If you like the power of low gearing then don't shift until redline for all I care. Shifting at redline is not what you really want unless you are drag racing. My point is you can decide how high you want your RPM to go before shifting. If you like low RPM for fuel efficiency shift early and keep your RPMs low. Once you get in top gear you can't shift up any more. That's why I say changing the sprockets will affect the RPM on the highway.
Great videos. Thank you very much. What do you think about husqvarna 701, would love to have something in between speed and acceleration, maybe a little bit to the acceleration side. I was thinking about 15/45. What is you opinion, thank you very much. Greetings from Croatia
I like the MC Garage vids, but sometimes I feel he "cuts corners' -2 front and +3 rear ... isnt that already quite a BIG change?? should mention that... I did -1 front and +2 rear and that made my 2nd gear almost be a first gear??? he says changing the front sprocket is easiest cause less to remove, but that aint (always) true. And those sprockets tend to sit TIGHT, on my dads GSX1200, I could've removed the rear wheel and sprocket 10 times before we got the front one loose. We needed a 2m pipe to get enough leverage to get it loose. And those thin bolts holding the sprocketcover and cluthcablelever are easy to overtighten and break by someone with less experience (my dad did) also, the front spocket is the one that wears fastest and the less teeth, the faster it goes. also, sometimes you cant even go less teeth or max -1 tooth front, cause of chain hitting the frame/swingarm and smaller front sprocket reduces chainlife quite a big amoutn and going up in teeth in the rear can cause your chain to be too short or even tire coming too much forward, hitting the swingarm
Very good video. I just got a 88 GSX1100F that my wife and I hope to tour around on and for me anyhow it feels like there should be a 6th gear because 4000 rpm at 100 kph just seems too high. It's not like it doesn't have enough power to change things up so it is maybe at 3500 rpm at the same speed.
How about adding 5-10 miles to a (small displacement engine) bike's top speed, at the expense of acceleration. The easiest way would be adding 1 (or 2) teeth to the front sprocket, correct?! And are there any other things (positive or negative) I should consider, i.e. higher/lower mog, etc? Thanks for your feedback! 😉👍
Great vid....BUT, I gotta say that getting the front sprocket off is infinitely harder then the rear. At least with hand tools....a good impact wrench and you can get that front off no problem. The rear requires more steps, but is easily done if you have a rear stand and some basic tools.
Is there a difference in changing the gear ratio on the front or on the back, other than budget, when you get the same result? Let's say 16-48 or 15-45, which gives me 3.00 Gear ratio on both. What will result in better performance? Subtract 1 on the front (because engine speed) or add 3 on the back. (ok, I am thinking in weight savings if I go for a 48 aluminum) or it does not make a difference. Thank you
Hello friend i really appreciate the way you explain things ,can you please make some videos about the installation of a oil cooler (not liquid cooler) in non oil cooled motorcycles.I reside at Lucknow India and i own a TVS Apache 160 about 10 years old and 1.65.000 Kms on the odo,i want to install an oil cooler to my machine.Hope you reply soon
Question. I just bought a 2019 Kawasaki Z400 and the speedo is off by 3 mph. Dealer said it's something I'll have to deal with as all sport bike speedos are off to some degree. When my speedo reads 60 mph, I'm actually going 57 mph per GPS reading. What changes to the front and or rear sprocket would I need to make to correct this and get it close to reading true??? After watching this vid, I thought about going bigger with the front for gas mileage but I'm already getting just shy of 60 mpg's but more is always better, especially since I have about a 30 mile ride to work lol. I'm assuming going bigger in the front would slow the counter shaft, so would that fix my speedo since it's reading fast and would 1 tooth be enough or would it take a 2 tooth upgrade??
In some cases, it is necessary to reduce the # of teeth of the front sprocket cuz increasing the # of teeth on the rear is not practical (too expensive) or possible (mainly for clearance issues). Also, increasing the # of teeth of the rear sprocket drastically may also wear out the chain faster cuz it increases chain speed for a given road speed. For example, if the stock rear sprocket was 40 teeth but it was changed to 50 teeth, at any given speed (50 MPH, 100 MPH, 200 KPH...), the chain would be moving 25% faster. This may increase wear since there are more times the chain and teeth "mesh" with each other.
Nope that's not the way it works. If you increase the number of teeth on the rear and maintain the same RPM you will just slow the bike down. To speed back up you will have to speed up the engine which will make the FRONT sprocket spin faster just to keep the back sprocket turning at your original number of turns.
Its a very good video to explain everything i just have one question im currantly a semi new rider im riding a 250cc scrambler and its running a 428-16t in the front anf a 50-428 in the rear witch sprocet do i replace because i need to replace my rear and chain pls help me?
Hi, I just want to ask. If i change the sprocket size of my YZFR15 V2 from 15/47 to 14/49 does it have a affect or change in reading on the speed meter?
Yes...and that deals only directly with the front sprocket change as chances are with it being directly connected with the transmission shaft, the speed sensor in which is being read deals directly with that. Thus without a Speedohealer or another similar product, the faster you go, the higher the actual difference in real world speed you're doing versus what that stock speedometer in your stock cluster gauge will read One tooth count going UP on my cb 500x 2019 from 15 to 16 tooth = 10% differences in speed readings in stock speedometer in my gauge cluster versus actual gps real world mph at 55 on the speedometer but 60 on the gps in 6th gear. You can adjust the rear sprocket to almost any size that you can find without it messing with the speedometer's reading accuracy. In your exact example would mean your stock speedo will show you're going faster at speeds 40mph and above ( bigger the speed..the bigger the difference), than you're actually doing given you're going down one in the front and up two in the rear...thus that will give you slightly faster acceleration at teh cost of higher rpms needed for the same original whatever speeds above a certain speed range such as 30 or more mph.
The only sad thing about these videos are the fact that they end
Auto blipper nobody cares about you and your shitty opinion
Auto blipper get lost you are just a device which is used to blip the throttle while downshifting!
How dare are you to speak bad about a human?
Auto blipper both of you guys sound like 12 year olds💀
@kavinsp
This guy's delivery and how he simplifies the topics makes it easy for this old man to understand.
I've watched dozens of his vidoes on motorcycles.
Well done !!
I agree the back sprocket can be harder to change for some, however be careful going with a smaller front sproket cause most bikes will chew up the rubber chain slider and dig into the spingarn causing some expensive repairs.
Yup, great point.
I want my bike to ride at 1200 rpm in 6th at 100 mph.
u need a 2200cc engine for that,
U need about a dying stars power for that
This channel is such a double-edged sword. The information is so good and concisely put, that I spend hours scouring the internet for deals on parts that I don't really need and modifications that don't really need to be done. But it's winter here in Michigan, and I don't really have shit else to do. Lol. Do I really need to put $5000 of parts into a $4400 motorcycle? Don't answer that. Please.
Noo u shouldn't
@@Rohit-ij6eh soooo…you’re saying maybe? 😂
On my 2004 Kawasaki ZX-10R (17-39 stock sprockets), I went with -2, +11 (15-50 sprockets) and not only did those look cool, it made the bike MUCH more fun at lower speeds since I could get at the power MUCH quicker without having to go at license losing speeds. When not riding aggressively, I could easily shortshift all 6 gears at legal speeds but when I wanted to hammer it, I had all 6 gears in the speed range of the stock first 4 gears. The bike just "ate up" each gear quickly but still had a theoretical top speed of close to 150 MPH. Lots of fun. The 15-50 sprocket combo is a 3.33 final drive ratio so to get that with the stock 17 tooth front, I would need 57 teeth (3.35) which would have made it look like a stunt bike sprocket. Reducing the # of teeth on the front sprocket somewhat "hides" that it is geared down but a rear sprocket change is kinda obvious.
I can't even imagine the wheelie machine you created. Those are massive changes.
Bruh all this "legal speeds" talk shut your dirty little mouth
Great video. Can you do a tutorial on how to make my biceps look like Ari’s?
Grom curls.
John Capozzi Ah ok. That makes sense.
That's on Athleanx's channel.
Dude is doing roids! Cant you tell he is so angry all the time! Hair fell out a few years back. I mean all the signs are there.
lol
I knew all this already, but i still watch these videos, just because they are damn good. :-)
I replaced the stock 16t front sprocket on my 07 GS500F with a 14t sprocket and it makes a big difference in how the bike accelerates. I love this setup because I do more sporty riding than highway riding
Finally, I now know what those "taller" and "shorter" gearing you guys mention in your On Two Wheels videos.
I dropped a tooth on the front sprocket of my little R3 and it completely changed the characteristic of the bike. And since I do a lot of canyon carving and street riding with it, I much prefer this set-up.
FPSPhilippines i believe front sprocket is 15? So you drop one tooth its now 14? And rear sprocket 45?
Pepsi Boy42 the OEM is 14 front 43 rear and I just swapped for a 13T takasago front sprocket and left the stock chain and rear sprocket since it all fits. However the speedo is rather enthusiastic reading 100kph when in reality its running about 93kph give or take. But doesn't really bother me since the speed limits in our island are more "guidelines" than actual rules to follow lol.
ride safe paps ... nice info na din ..
does changing the front sprocket affects the speedo?? please reply im quite interesting especially in small cc bikes
Yeah did 2 down and three up on my 2005 Triumph Daytona 650... It now is an insanely quick bike.. Yeah I can only do 156-158 top end... BUT I don't ever hit those speeds on the street... I can keep up with my buddies stock ZX14 from a standstill to about 130MPH... SO I am just fine with that...
It's good to keep in mind that shorter gearing mainly helps off the line, as you can just be in a lower gear when up to speed, and you'll have the same acceleration at a given rpm and mph. If you're always going slow then shorter gears can help you stay in the power band, though. And if you have a sport bike that's geared ridiculously tall, and can go 90+ mph while lugging the engine, then there's no downside to going shorter.
A good tool for doing the math is gearingcommander,com. if you want to know how big of a change it will be.
I have a versys 1000 and torn on whatd be better. 1st gear zip seems fine, its more I hate loss of grunt in 6th gear going 60-100mph. Like feels like a bigger change 5-6th than between other gears. So making passes on highway I find myself wanting to go to 5th. Loss of mpg would be sad but feels like wasted gearing when im not running it up to 150mph and even doing 80/90 im only at like 3500/4000 rpm
Though as a new rider I may just be scared of keeping it in higher revs. Other than moments of flooring it. Even going fast fron a stop Im enjoying fast up shifts with barely a release rowing up thru the gears at 4500-6000 rpm. Seems better than hitting second and reving it up to 8k hitting 60 then shifting up 4 gears in one go.
5 year old video and still taught me something, awesome explination!
Thank you! I'm new into riding. Didn't grow up with a mechanical dad to teach me the ropes. So many vloggers and forum talk just throw out terms like everyone knows them.
That's why we are here Sandy!
How about a video on suspension? I don't get when people say their bike has too soft of suspension. How do you know what is good for the rider? Etc
Another factor to consider when changing the front sprocket is chain life. Going taller in the front extends chain life significantly. Going shorter in the front decreases chain life significantly.
Jay _ yes that's why you always increase in the rear vs decreasing in front, even though ari recommended the opposite
Well I went 2 down on the front and 3 up on the rear... OF my 2005 Triumph Daytona 650 about 20k miles ago... Chain and teeth are still just fine, yes the chain is getting near the point I will want to change it (measured the "stretch"), however it is still well within safe limits. I don't do any sort of wheelies... I do ride aggressively, and I purchased to spec parts. SO while I agree it does put added wear on the chain to do what I did, it's NOT going to wear it out that much faster then if you didn't do it. OR at least in my case (I take really good care of my stuff), it has not really effected the longevity of the life of the chain.
@@JJ_ExMachina Wow that is a drastic change.
@@yessure5291 Well I only do street riding, so the top end is not important. It really improved the response at speed and the way the bike leaves the line. With everything done to the bike, I am putting about 120hp to the wheel. So the bike is a rocket at street speeds.
@@JJ_ExMachina Take it easy - speeding tickets are easy to get and costly in fines and insurance increases. ;)
you really picked the best bike for this example, as a former owner of a versys, I always thought the gear ration was too low. is too aggressive especially in the city. great video, would have been nice to see real-life results in the versys to see the top end speed change gain in sacrifice to a bit of torque ( which in my opinion there is plenty in that bike)
Changing my final drive from 2.14 to 2.1333 repeating is improving my fuel economy, increasing top speed and since my rear sprocket is bigger my acceleration shouldn't be hurt so much
Changing the front is the easiest and best. YOU DON'T NEED MUCH. One tooth is a lot. My SV1000 was too tall so I DROPPED a tooth up front; my old Bandit 1200 was too SHORT (it's a 5- speed), so I went UP a tooth. Both brought the bikes in-line with how I ride. Be careful though! 1) make sure you have enough physical ROOM to increase front sprocket size... and 2) watch your chain slack on the swingarm marks. You could easily make your chain too short or long. PS - I never worked on a bike where you could "easily" swap front sprockets without at LEAST removing the rear wheel.
Please explain about fork oils and which oil we use for better usability according to the ride style. Right now I am having problems with my suspension setup.
This dude is amazing. Clear and concise.
I put 15 T sprocket on my 300 Ninja and love it. Makes those highway rides much smoother.
Great video as usual Ari. Would have been nice to show some stats of the differences going up/down teeth on that Versys. Eg. we went up two teeth on the rear and top end dropped from 133 mph down to 1xx mph, but the 1/4 mile time improved from xx seconds to xx seconds. And maybe some fuel consumption figures. Get Zack to do a commute on the standard size sprocket and then change it (up or down in teeth) and do the commute again and see how much it affects consumption. Keep the MC Garage vids coming, I'm always learning something new from them!
Looking for stats:www.gearingcommander.com
Nice link, thanks!
1 tooth biggger front = about 3.5 teeth smallest rear
depends on the bike and gears, some bikes 1:2.5, some 1:3, not always 1:3.5
Great video as always. I eliminated two teeth on the rear sprocket of my Wee and it was nice having the RPM go down on the highway but climbing hills sucked
Hi Carlos-I'm in a similar situation. How much did your RPM go down in highway? That is my main objective. Are you happy with the change? Thanks, -DJ
Another thing to think about is rebound inertia. Similar to the power loss of a piston having to travel in the opposite direction before more power can be created by it. Think about your chain having to whip around a tiny front sprocket vs being able to more slowly/efficiently roll around it. So having a bigger front sprocket and also a bigger rear sprocket may be worth trying. Also at the same time you may, depending on how big you go on either, will equate more sprocket and chain weight (if you need more chain links) and more rotating mass, unless you are running aluminum vs stock steel. Without a crap ton of math making it a perfect science it's another consideration of gear changes to think about/play with. Especially for the rider who has three or four fronts and eight or ten rears. I've gone back and forth with a few of these myself on dirt and street with interesting results. Lemme know if anyone tries it and how it works out for you.
Thanks mate👍....i did this to my GSXR1100 yrs ago and its off the line acceleration was awesome.
The easy way to change the final drive ration on a shaft drive is to change the aspect ration of your rear tire. Say you have a 190/50/17 on the rear and you want to get a taller final drive, switch to a 190/55/17 and you get a similar effect as changing a rear sprocket by one or two teeth.
The problem with that is the increased weight of the bigger tire, as well as little availability of different motorcycle tire sizes. The number of tire sizes for motorcycles is miniscule compared to car tires. Plus the cost of a new tire easily surpasses different sprockets, unless you needed a tire anyway..
gearing is one of my strongest expertise, gearing choice in road race kart racing is key. on my Vulcan 650, i swapped the motor sprocket to one more tooth, since im light weight and the motor revvs high, this was super beneficial. adding a tooth to the motor was a bigger difference than taking away a tooth from the axle.
@Ride Deficit I have the Vulcan S (2016) and i am thinking of changing the front sprocket to one more tooth (to a 16) will it fit?
@@SamOnABikeSweden i have a write up on this gearing change. search it in the vulcan 650 forums
actually did this last week.
I wanted taller gearing on my R3 as its always revving its tits off. so I worked out I got 8% higher top speed / loss of torque. So to combat that I got myself a high end X ring chain that recovered said lost torque. Win fricking win!
On my 2016 Yamaha TTR 230 I went down 6 teeth in the rear after jetting the carburetor and installing a K&N air filter. I had to remove two links out of my chain but it was totally worth it. Stock it was geared too low and with the mods that had to have been done.
I literally did not know you could do this. Very informative. Would have been great on my old FZS600.
Great video(s). Keep it up!
PS can you do a video on like dealing with electrical issues and how to examine wiring harnesses?
*Sooooooo…*
Does adding teeth make each gear rev out slower but also for longer *??*
I run 2.63 sprocket ratios on my commuter r6. That’s a 16 and a 42. Cruzin on the highway to work at 75mph only turns 5200 rpms. Still plenty of power.
so you have longer gears?
I'm now thinking about a thing.
When getting a higher ratio, it's less expensive and easier to change the front sprocket. But, by changing rear sprocket, is there a gain with lowering the rotating mass and diameter ?
Wich can result on same gain that front sprocket but with little acceleration gain (and again more mileage) ?
Or is that negligeable ?
Nice video guys. Maybe the next MC Garage can be on "how to know when to replace your clutch plates, clutch cable, etc"?
Not quite, in certain scenarios where you're riding a smaller displacement motorcycle on tighter roads, shorter gearing can actually improve gas mileage. Running with 14/36(stock) sprockets on my 220cc motorcycle I'd open the throttle more at lower gears to maintain a decent speed and prevent knocking whereas now with a 14/40 setup all is well and I roughly do half the RPM's and throttle input to maintain the same speeds.
Amazing, simple solution for a big problem
i wonder if he answers questions, anyway here we go, does a lighter chain help all around performance on a bike because of less rotational mass?
Great video but it's worth adding that you'll need to be careful not to go too small as it can cause clearance issues with chain cutting into the swing arm.
Already liked the video while the add was playing lol. I know its gonna be good.
As usual very informative and interesting video, my query is --> Does alteration in final drive is simple in motorbikes with IMU and cornering ABS. I mean can I just go for it for 2018 Kawasaki Z10000sx or there is a Software complication from IMU
Changing the sprockets also affects the anti-squat characteristics of the bike. This is something to keep in mind with this modification.
say more, im not familiar
One of the factors that influences anti-squat in a motorcycle is the angle between the chain and the swingarm. When you place a smaller countershaft sprocket and a larger rear sprocket this angle increases. This way the motorcycle gets more anti-squat. It works the other way around too, so when you place a larger countershaft sprocket and smaller rear sprocket the bike tends to squat more under acceleration.
Makes perfect sense and I learned it today. Thank you.
I now feel better equipped to talk bikes at the pub! Cheers 🍺 Great explanations for wannabe great bikers.
I’ve been riding my 2007 KLR 650 with stock gearing for years. I decided to go down a tooth on the counter sprocket this spring and boy oh boy, it’s pretty damn nice. While taking it on the highway now is fucking terrible, taking it around town is pretty awesome.… And that’s from just one tooth on the front. It’s not a super major change but it’s pretty noticeable. I’d love to try to get more torque-y next year. That being said, it’s performance at highway speed is so irritating that I would suggest swapping the sprocket back out if you’re going on a significantly long ride for a few days. In fact, I’m going on a multi-day ride soon and I bought a new stock counter sprocket to put in. If you don’t take your bike out on the highway very much but you commute, I would consider doing what I did.
Great video. Explaining it to the simplest form!
Quality content as always 💪🏼
Please make a video to clean fuel injectors & fuel pumps, your videos are neat & short & crisp. Thanks.
I went down to a 43 tooth rear on my Versys 650. Speedometer is spot on and cruising RPM's are much more tolerable.
Oh yeah? That's good to know. The speedo is so off on the Versys, was hoping the 45 we put on there would make it more accurate.
Hey Arai, love your easy and simple to understand videos. Though would like to know how to judge as to what no.of teeth we can increase or decrease on a certain bike?
I asked for it twice a year ago and finally u made it.
Noob question : Does changing gearing affect where the powerband is? Like if you gear a sportbike down for more torque and less top end is it effectively moving the power band down the rev range? Or does it apply increased acceleration across the whole rev range and not effect the power band specifically?
No, powerband is to do with the engine itself and how it makes power. Gearing just affects how that power is put down. Easy to think of if you use a bicycle. When in a high gear (ie low gear ratio) its hard to get the bike to accelerate quick, but in a low gear it is super easy and you can even wheelie if you are not careful. The powerband (ie your legs) never changes, just how quickly youre in it and what affect it has on turning the wheels. So in effect, shorter gearing will make the bike feel more torquey, but you will go through the gear a lot quicker and ultimately have less top speed. hope that helps!
@@hisride Thanks that's helpful, it's kind of what I suspected
@@teagan73191 nice one. Im bout to go one tooth down in the front and 7 up in the rear so im imagining ill struggle to keep the front down lol
@@hisride wow let me know how it goes! I did one down two up on my 636, I love the power delivery now
@@teagan73191 will do, thats awesome!
I have a crf 250. Have to climb a steep slippery trail every day to reach my place. What sprockets are recommended? Thanks
What should I do to increase initial pickup for wheelie?
hello, if you go 1- front and 2+ on a literbike, will it make a difference to the 1st gear, as in make it stall at low revs ? more than usual?
Thanks for this video and thanks for a GREAT magazine. Motorcyclist is one of my favorites, for sure.
15 /45 is exactly what i have w my 00 gsxr 600, had 16/46 2.87 fd to 15/45 3.00 fd n man what a difference
Next is how to service your suspension.
keep distance would be awesome
fellow man*
Agreed.
Thank you mc garage and ari henning...
Love the videos guys, great work. I have a new bike (KTM Duke 790) with more performance than I've had before (Duke 390) & am now starting to get my confidence & ride more spiritedly, I have had headshake a few times when coming out of corners, I'm not worried about this but should I be & when does a headshake turn into a tank slapper?
There is a very fine line between headshake and a tankslapper, and it can quickly get out of control. Make sure the steering head bearings are not loose or worn out. Try to ease onto the throttle instead of being violent with it, as that could initiate a wheelie and turn into headshake when the wheel comes down again.
My four cylinder CBR 250R would self-initiate a headshake above 30 mph if I took both hands off the handlebars. When I got a new front tire the headshake stopped!
Consider installing a steering damper if your bike does not have one already(pretty sure it doesn't). Those can be lifesaving, especially at higher speeds.
Very informative! Have you done one on compression ratios and what they mean,? Also bore and stroke,? Kindly Share the link if there's one of each. Keep it up!
Learned something new today. Thanks!
TWO questions
1)What if you drop a tooth in the front and go up teeth in the rear. Will anything change?
2) and is there any benefit on going higher in the front vs lower in the rear?
Thanks ☺
what about chain size, there are kind of chain size ex : 415, 420, 428, 512.
is this give effect to motorcycle power transfer??
This became my favorite motorcycle channel !!!
We miss you, Ari!
Great video.
I have a 2009 CBF1000A and I need to replace my chain and sprocket soon. I am considering different sized sprockets if they would increase the acceleration from start off because the CBF1000A's first and second gears range are so low they really hinder a good take off. I have ridden some other bikes which effortlessly accelerate from zero to say 60km/hr in first gear.
How much of a high end speed reduction is there by going with a shorter gearing? Can you provide some examples?
Note to the editor: Ari looks warm. Consider adding a gel the main light so it's closer to the background color temp? Great video as usual!
That's because it was 90 degrees in the shop when we filmed ;)
Should you "ride it like you stole it" or follow the manual when breaking in a new motorcycle?
love your videos .it helps me learn a lot about my bike . please make videos often
That was very helpful.. brilliant ..u got almost everything covered !
Ari can you talk about engine braking/downshifting and rev matching?
I just bought a 2024 Kawasaki Eliminator and I love the bike. But I;ve been riding V-Tqins since the 1990's and I am use to a lower RPM at highway speeds. I am thinking about changing my front spocket from a 14 tooth to a 16 tooth but I worry that moght be too much. I don't care about the quickness of the bike but I know if I go too big on the front spocket the bike will labor hard when in the higher gears
So my question, is going from a 14t to a 16t front spocket too much? Should I just go one tooth larger to a 15 tooth and be happy with that?
Can you do a video on boring out cylinders to get a bigger displacement? Benefits / drawbacks, etc
Next video: How do you keep that drivetrain so clean.
We've done that video ;)
Keep the bike in a garage and never let it get rained on.
Soap
Great info. And I need to know about bhp,hp,torque,rpm and how to change these for more power.
You could also enable your phone's GPS and it will give you your average speed. Btw, good job on the videos!
By going 2 teeths more in the back , do i need to change chain ? What about adding that speedo helper , would the mileage difference be noticeable or nothing to worry ? Thank you so much
Would love to see a video off you guys going on an adventure with the Versys 650!
I have a 82 Yamaha xj 550 and I don't want to force the motor to rev high at a higher speed. What would be the best combo to lower my RPM
Only really matters on a race track or if you are doing lots of motorway miles. For everything else simply knock it down a couple of gears for better acceleration or knock it up a couple for a quieter cruise around the streets.
Thanks mate.Another informative video as usual.On my v-strom650xt I got a 16t to replace the 15t front sprocket.What are your opinions on this?Cheers.
Do not throw your money away changing the sockets. This will only make 2 results:
1. this will improve starting off (launching)
2. this will increase your RPM in top gear at highway speeds.
Changing the sprockets is changing the final gearing on your cycle. Changing the final gearing means nothing. What really matters is overall gearing. Overall gearing is everything from the engine to the rear tire.
Overall gearing is a affected by these areas:
1. Primary drive ratio between crankshaft and transmission.
2. Manual Transmission
3. Drive sprockets (final gearing)
It is a very common misunderstanding that changing the sprockets will mean you'll always have lower gearing. That is not true. You have a manual transmission. That allows you to have what ever gear ratio you want. If you like the power of low gearing then don't shift until redline for all I care. Shifting at redline is not what you really want unless you are drag racing. My point is you can decide how high you want your RPM to go before shifting.
If you like low RPM for fuel efficiency shift early and keep your RPMs low.
Once you get in top gear you can't shift up any more. That's why I say changing the sprockets will affect the RPM on the highway.
Great videos. Thank you very much.
What do you think about husqvarna 701, would love to have something in between speed and acceleration, maybe a little bit to the acceleration side. I was thinking about 15/45. What is you opinion, thank you very much. Greetings from Croatia
I like the MC Garage vids, but sometimes I feel he "cuts corners'
-2 front and +3 rear ... isnt that already quite a BIG change?? should mention that...
I did -1 front and +2 rear and that made my 2nd gear almost be a first gear???
he says changing the front sprocket is easiest cause less to remove, but that aint (always) true.
And those sprockets tend to sit TIGHT, on my dads GSX1200, I could've removed the rear wheel and sprocket 10 times before we got the front one loose.
We needed a 2m pipe to get enough leverage to get it loose.
And those thin bolts holding the sprocketcover and cluthcablelever are easy to overtighten and break by someone with less experience (my dad did)
also, the front spocket is the one that wears fastest and the less teeth, the faster it goes.
also, sometimes you cant even go less teeth or max -1 tooth front, cause of chain hitting the frame/swingarm
and smaller front sprocket reduces chainlife quite a big amoutn
and going up in teeth in the rear can cause your chain to be too short or even tire coming too much forward, hitting the swingarm
mc garage is my addiction. how about the fuel consumption? does it change?
If you're turning more/less rpm for a given speed, then yes it'll change.
Very good video. I just got a 88 GSX1100F that my wife and I hope to tour around on and for me anyhow it feels like there should be a 6th gear because 4000 rpm at 100 kph just seems too high. It's not like it doesn't have enough power to change things up so it is maybe at 3500 rpm at the same speed.
How about adding 5-10 miles to a (small displacement engine) bike's top speed, at the expense of acceleration. The easiest way would be adding 1 (or 2) teeth to the front sprocket, correct?! And are there any other things (positive or negative) I should consider, i.e. higher/lower mog, etc? Thanks for your feedback! 😉👍
Can you elaborate on using prime number tooth sprocket relation?
Great vid....BUT, I gotta say that getting the front sprocket off is infinitely harder then the rear. At least with hand tools....a good impact wrench and you can get that front off no problem. The rear requires more steps, but is easily done if you have a rear stand and some basic tools.
If you have a helper, you can just get someone to hold the rear brake, that should hold the chain still and let you get that front sprocket off easy!
Always very informative. Thanks a lot for your videos.
Very Good job , Mate .........Thank you .👍👍👍👍👍👍
Is there a difference in changing the gear ratio on the front or on the back, other than budget, when you get the same result? Let's say 16-48 or 15-45, which gives me 3.00 Gear ratio on both. What will result in better performance? Subtract 1 on the front (because engine speed) or add 3 on the back. (ok, I am thinking in weight savings if I go for a 48 aluminum) or it does not make a difference. Thank you
Right timing of this video. Thanks mc garage!
Hello friend i really appreciate the way you explain things ,can you please make some videos about the installation of a oil cooler (not liquid cooler) in non oil cooled motorcycles.I reside at Lucknow India and i own a TVS Apache 160 about 10 years old and 1.65.000 Kms on the odo,i want to install an oil cooler to my machine.Hope you reply soon
Oh perfect, just what I was looking for!
Question. I just bought a 2019 Kawasaki Z400 and the speedo is off by 3 mph. Dealer said it's something I'll have to deal with as all sport bike speedos are off to some degree.
When my speedo reads 60 mph, I'm actually going 57 mph per GPS reading. What changes to the front and or rear sprocket would I need to make to correct this and get it close to reading true???
After watching this vid, I thought about going bigger with the front for gas mileage but I'm already getting just shy of 60 mpg's but more is always better, especially since I have about a 30 mile ride to work lol. I'm assuming going bigger in the front would slow the counter shaft, so would that fix my speedo since it's reading fast and would 1 tooth be enough or would it take a 2 tooth upgrade??
Live with it. Almost every vehicle (cars too) shows an inaccurate speed on the instrument cluster. Your 5% error isn't too bad in my opinion.
In some cases, it is necessary to reduce the # of teeth of the front sprocket cuz increasing the # of teeth on the rear is not practical (too expensive) or possible (mainly for clearance issues). Also, increasing the # of teeth of the rear sprocket drastically may also wear out the chain faster cuz it increases chain speed for a given road speed. For example, if the stock rear sprocket was 40 teeth but it was changed to 50 teeth, at any given speed (50 MPH, 100 MPH, 200 KPH...), the chain would be moving 25% faster. This may increase wear since there are more times the chain and teeth "mesh" with each other.
Nope that's not the way it works. If you increase the number of teeth on the rear and maintain the same RPM you will just slow the bike down. To speed back up you will have to speed up the engine which will make the FRONT sprocket spin faster just to keep the back sprocket turning at your original number of turns.
Its a very good video to explain everything i just have one question im currantly a semi new rider im riding a 250cc scrambler and its running a 428-16t in the front anf a 50-428 in the rear witch sprocet do i replace because i need to replace my rear and chain pls help me?
Hi, I just want to ask. If i change the sprocket size of my YZFR15 V2 from 15/47 to 14/49 does it have a affect or change in reading on the speed meter?
Yes...and that deals only directly with the front sprocket change as chances are with it being directly connected with the transmission shaft, the speed sensor in which is being read deals directly with that. Thus without a Speedohealer or another similar product, the faster you go, the higher the actual difference in real world speed you're doing versus what that stock speedometer in your stock cluster gauge will read
One tooth count going UP on my cb 500x 2019 from 15 to 16 tooth = 10% differences in speed readings in stock speedometer in my gauge cluster versus actual gps real world mph at 55 on the speedometer but 60 on the gps in 6th gear.
You can adjust the rear sprocket to almost any size that you can find without it messing with the speedometer's reading accuracy.
In your exact example would mean your stock speedo will show you're going faster at speeds 40mph and above ( bigger the speed..the bigger the difference), than you're actually doing given you're going down one in the front and up two in the rear...thus that will give you slightly faster acceleration at teh cost of higher rpms needed for the same original whatever speeds above a certain speed range such as 30 or more mph.
Great stuff. Would love to see another build series
Excellent vid as usual Ari.