Given that there are discussions here about improving performance and on gearing, I thought I would put this here.
My riding is primarily around town but even when on the open road, I usually like to stay around 60mph or so. My 500 will pull to 35mph in first, doesn't like to idle along in traffic in first gear without chugging, and doesn't like to be short shifted. Taken together, it just acted like it was geared too high for the way that I like to ride. The only smaller front sprocket that I could find was a 14t which would be about 7% lower. I would have liked to go to a 13t, but I haven't been able to find one.
Anyway, the smaller front sprocket made a noticeable difference. The bike feels peppier. In fact, when pushed hard, it will pull the front tire off the ground when going into second. The gear spacing just feels better. It hits the next gear at a slightly higher RPM which makes a nice difference. When inching along in traffic in town, it still wants to idle along in first faster than I like, but it doesn't chug like it did before. Again, for the way I ride my bike, it was a good improvement overall.
Like I said, I would still like to try a 13t on the front. It is possible that that will be too low as it would put the bike at about 13% lower overall gearing from stock, but it is a simple swap, so it is something I would like to try. Anybody know where I can find a13t front sprocket for my 500?
And for those of you that asked about figuring out the difference when changing sprockets, here is the way that I do it:
First divide the number of teeth on your rear sprocket by the number of teeth on the front. For my 500, that would be 40 divided by 15 which is a final drive ratio of 2.66.
Then do the same with the change you want to make. For me that would be 40 divided by the new 14 front which would then give me the new final drive ratio of 2.85.
Now you just take the first final drive ratio and divide it by the new final drive ratio.
2.66 divided by 2.85 gives a ratio change of .93
The smaller number shows a final drive ratio lowered by about 7%.
If I find a 13t front sprocket, the math looks like this: 40t rear divided by 13t front equals 3.07.
The original ratio was 2.66, so
2.66 divided by 3.07 gives a ratio change of .87
This change will lower my final drive ratio by about 13%
And for those of you that want to gear up: A new 16t front will be 40 divided by 16 which gives a new final drive ratio of 2.5.
So, 2.66 divided by 2.5 gives us 1.06 which means that the new ratio would be 6% higher than the original.
My riding is primarily around town but even when on the open road, I usually like to stay around 60mph or so. My 500 will pull to 35mph in first, doesn't like to idle along in traffic in first gear without chugging, and doesn't like to be short shifted. Taken together, it just acted like it was geared too high for the way that I like to ride. The only smaller front sprocket that I could find was a 14t which would be about 7% lower. I would have liked to go to a 13t, but I haven't been able to find one.
Anyway, the smaller front sprocket made a noticeable difference. The bike feels peppier. In fact, when pushed hard, it will pull the front tire off the ground when going into second. The gear spacing just feels better. It hits the next gear at a slightly higher RPM which makes a nice difference. When inching along in traffic in town, it still wants to idle along in first faster than I like, but it doesn't chug like it did before. Again, for the way I ride my bike, it was a good improvement overall.
Like I said, I would still like to try a 13t on the front. It is possible that that will be too low as it would put the bike at about 13% lower overall gearing from stock, but it is a simple swap, so it is something I would like to try. Anybody know where I can find a13t front sprocket for my 500?
And for those of you that asked about figuring out the difference when changing sprockets, here is the way that I do it:
First divide the number of teeth on your rear sprocket by the number of teeth on the front. For my 500, that would be 40 divided by 15 which is a final drive ratio of 2.66.
Then do the same with the change you want to make. For me that would be 40 divided by the new 14 front which would then give me the new final drive ratio of 2.85.
Now you just take the first final drive ratio and divide it by the new final drive ratio.
2.66 divided by 2.85 gives a ratio change of .93
The smaller number shows a final drive ratio lowered by about 7%.
If I find a 13t front sprocket, the math looks like this: 40t rear divided by 13t front equals 3.07.
The original ratio was 2.66, so
2.66 divided by 3.07 gives a ratio change of .87
This change will lower my final drive ratio by about 13%
And for those of you that want to gear up: A new 16t front will be 40 divided by 16 which gives a new final drive ratio of 2.5.
So, 2.66 divided by 2.5 gives us 1.06 which means that the new ratio would be 6% higher than the original.