What Gearing Do You Run, Stock Or Not?

[gstanfield]

Just wondering what gearing folks are running on their bikes. It doesn't matter what generation you ride, or even if you ride another kind of bike. I'm just wondering how many people change the gearing of their bikes to better suit their intended uses.

thanks,

George

[jasonsmith]

I would encourage anyone thinking about changing thier gearing to go to gearingcommander.com or a simlar site. You can input different ratios and see what will work best for your riding style.

Action

Awesome site, thanks Action.

I for one have been fighting the urge to go +2 only because I don't want to buy a speedohealer.

[keny]

I´m running stock now, but I need new sprockets for next season as the chain is toasted. Not me toasting it, but the dealer I buoght it from seem to be to hard whit the washer, rust puoring out from several o-rings

So I might try something different, thro stock has worked fine.

[VFR Capt.Bob]

If you ride mostly canyons then 1 tooth smaller in the front is best. If you commute and tour more then leave it stock. Took me a little while to get used to it but I'm sold on the -1 front set up.

[dallasb]

520 Conversion!

I use stock gearing with a 520 chain conversion, "feels" like I geared it down, but I haven't.

I use my VFR (02) for what it was made to do, daily driver, tourer, & canyon carver.

[Joshvfr]

I went with 17/44

+1 front +1 rear

Larger sprockets lessen wear on chains, and I am more sport touring than sport

[VIFFER93]

If you ride mostly canyons then 1 tooth smaller in the front is best. If you commute and tour more then leave it stock. Took me a little while to get used to it but I'm sold on the -1 front set up.

Me too. 3rd generation and I went down to a 15T on the front. For my 3rd generation track bike I am going +3 up in the rear.

[Guest]

Last year I did 16k on stock gearing, comuting to work and hitting corners on the weekends. This year I am trying +2 on the rear. So far I have not rode any where on the weekends but going to and from work it is not much of a rpm difference in the higher gears but in the lower gears I can feel a difference in the few corners I hit. I wish I did the full -1 +2 now instead

[StuntManDan]

I changed to a -1/+2 over winter, it's feels like a big difference to me, the higher rpms give you more acceleration at highway speed (6th gear, 60mph), but get's a little annoying when your scooting at 85-90mph for long period of time. I've got about 500 miles on the change and I like it.

[Guest]

I went with 17/44

+1 front +1 rear

Larger sprockets lessen wear on chains, and I am more sport touring than sport

How much did that change your Rpms at highway speeds and have you figured out what it did to your mpg?

[Serenity_VFR]

Honda spent a lot of money doing track and road testing to come up with a balanced gearing for the VFR.

Sure, you can gear it up for lower RPM's at highway cruising speeds or gear it down for more "grunt" off the line. But then you are going to change the spacing between the gears too. Gearing down will result in a more close-ratio transmission and gearing up will make it more wide-ratio.

I'm of the opinion that if you want more power just shift later and let her rev up to redline, and if you want more higher gearing for highway cruising then you are probably going too fast. Even at 85-90MPH the bike isn't really revving too high. Top gear at 55MPH is too low, even at 65-70MPH it is just barely revving enough to cruise on the level -in the hills it's not great. It's not until you are going 75+ that the top gear really comes into its own on the VFR.

The only bike I own that I've altered the gearing on is my XR650L. I had to gear it down for trail riding as first gear was WAAAAAAAAy too high for that big heavy pig when it got really tight and snotty, and 1-2-3 were way too far apart. Lowering the gearing a tooth in front made a huge difference although she's pretty bad at 65MPH now. I do about 65/35% oriented towards dirt on the XR and a 65MPH top speed (you can push it to 70 but it's really spinning) is all I need. Riding the XR down the highway is an exercise in stupidity IMHO. It's a fun bike around town or riding the fire roads and some single-track. Honda put a lot of effort into finding a good compromise for the XR/L too -but they knew that 99% of the people who bought them would never roll the bike off of an actual road (a gravel or dirt road is NOT "off-road"). Most dual-sports never see single-track and if they do it's only for the briefest of times in "hero" sections of a dual-sport ride.

The VFR is just about perfect right where it is IMHO.

[taglicious]

what IS stock gearing on the newer bikes?

Shit I don't even know what mine is LOL

I think it's suppose to be 16-43 (that's what I'm running)

thought seriously about dropping down to a 42 just to try it out...

never up though

[CornerCarver]

+2 on the rear, I am sure there are easier ways to change the sprcket than this...

easy sprocket install.jpg

[achfly]

I guess I better sound off since I'm apparently the only person running the happy medium. That is to say +1 on the rear sprocket. Small but noticeable improvement in acceleration.

Hey! How come the 7th Gen guys aren't posting their thoughts!? :biggrin:

[superfuzz]

I stayed stock. I am trying to figure out how going to a low gear ratio does anything for corners taken in a gear above first.

More torque at the wheel = faster acceleration and the lowered gearing will put you into higher RPMs for a given speed, so you don't have to go 120+ to use the upper RPMs in the higher gears. Plus, I never liked the stock gearing for 1st & 2nd, 1st gear was too short for tight corners, 2nd gear to tall. Now 2nd gear works for corners down to about 15mph and can pull away easily without lugging. Of course 1st is even less useful except for taking off from a stop, but better overall.

A 15t counter shaft sprocket is really cheap and easy to install, give it a try.

+1 :fing02:

[jaimev34]

I run stock gearing, but everytime this topic surfaces, I seriously consider going to a 2+ in the back. Not too interested in a +1 in the front due to increased wear from what I've heard. Don't know if I'll ever go through with it because I almost always regret any mods I do (other than getting the Sargent).

[enzed_viffer]

Over the past 10 years and last three bikes, I've run lowered gearing most of the time (-1 on front), due to most of my riding being commuting. Plus on the VTR1000, the gearing when I got it was so high that at 100km/h in top, it was turning over at only 2600 rpm, below where the torque kicked in. However (but!) despite running lowered gearing for most of the 5 and a half years I've owned the VFR800, when I recently changed the chain'n'sprockets, I went back to stock, and I'm glad I did. It just feels better.

[Guest]

I went with 17/44

+1 front +1 rear

Larger sprockets lessen wear on chains, and I am more sport touring than sport

You went +1, +1? I would like to do that, only try +2 in front and +1 on the rear, but I cannot find 44t steel sprockets for a 6th gen VFR. Anyone know where I can find one?

[MBrane]

-1 on the front. One of the best mods I've done to the bike so far. This stuff wears out anyway so if I get a few less miles out of it I'm OK with that.

[vfr350]

I went +1 (44) on the driven sproket few years back. I like the fact it was a bit easier off the line with say a passenger and overall it seems great. I have noticed that on the highway the same speeds I run in my car (speedo) I seem to get passed or they are on my azz on the bike. So it seems like with speedo continues to get further off reading low higher the speed. I had never thought about using the gps to verify, going to have to try that if I can see the speed on it. I went with AFAM sprockets, they seem to have a wide range available. Here's a link to the catalog (can I post that here?) for reference, no affiliation at all. http://afam.com/images/downloads/catalogue/afam_cat_2012.pdf

[Guest]

Last year I went to a -1 front and +1 rear, I actually have three different sprockets for the rear all the way up to a +4. I currently have the -1 +1 setup on it. I ride with full sport bikes and have no problem keeping up. I never topped it out with the factory gearing setup but with this one im on the red line in 6th at 162 per gps Speedo is way off. This bike is my toy she has had the heads gone through and milled, lowered two inches in the front, Jardine gp1 exhaust( yes its loud as hell) carbs were jetted by the previous owner, and all I run in it is 93 octane with the occasional 116 octane when im on the mainland and at the track. I ride the hell out of it, Its been the best and most fun bike I have ever owned. Ive had a 00 cbr 600, 02 gsxr 600 and a 03 gsxr 750 and I do believe this bike is faster than all of the others. And definatly the most comfortable bike I have ever ridden. I was contemplating turbo'ing it but I just purchased a nitrous kit for it when I get home from this deployment.