Myself and Ian spend a lot of time off road and the -1 front sprocket is ideal for our terrain. I was often looking for gear number one and a half and now second is just that. Off road, 1st is like a crawler gear which is good for peat bogs and second is like a tricky terrain gear and so on whereas before the clutch was being overworked.As Ian said, the slow single track "I really need to take all this scenery in " kinda roads which need a slow cruise at 40 to 45 mph in 5th are now a reality whereas before it was a fourth fifth, fifth fourth kinda pain. In these situations it is good the bike is fit for the purpose so more time is spent having a lo0ok. We are well out of the rat race and busy civillisation up here and the need for motorway cruising is not an issue, so horses for courses really.

What's the big difference in 14/45 and 15/48? I use the 15/48 gearing and I'm happy with it...

Pillion?? How tall is she/he? My pillion will NEVER be able to get on without a milk crate to hand. Which is fine until it's time to get off. We have to use the FJR if she wants to come along (which, incidentally, will burble along at 30mph in top quite happily in traffic. I don't think I could own two more different bikes if I tried).

0.014 according to my calculator - not a bl00dy lot!
Out of interest did you change the gearing for this 5th gear 50mph/3000rpm problem I'm harping on about?

That's just it, complete end of the spectrum from my use of the bike, pleased that �15 of sprocket makes it so. Now if only I could find 15 more bhp for �15...

No, actually for some trails I intended to drive. I can handle the Ten a lot better on slow speeds than before. But it works for 50mph/3000rpm very well!

losing 15lbs in body weight* would make things swifter and is free to do...infact you'll actually save money.

*this is not suggesting you're a fat fecker but more of a general statement applicable to everyone

It would, there'd be nowt left of him!

I agree that this is applicable to a great many of us. We want our bikes to lose weight, but we need to lose it a b****y sight more. Saving a few kilos on a loud exhaust to gain 2hp is silly if we've got pork to get rid of. I know I have.

As for the complaint that the 660 motor isn't flexible and capable of pulling <3000 rpm in top - fair enough, but neither is almost any other non-classic big single I've ever owned (13 of 'em. Jeez.), and that goes right back to XT/TT500s. The only big single that would was my 2001 TE610E, then they went and stuffed it with the 06 model, which was worse than the Tenere, let me assure you. Admittedly, it was a lot faster.

Another reason not to make modern big singles lug hard is that if you do, eventually you will flog out the gearbox, cush drives notwithstanding. Those heavy pulses are murder on gears and mains. Spin 'em, I always say. If a motor is unhappy at 3000rpm, change gears and live with it. A happy engine is a free-spinning engine. Sometimes there is way too much thought put into things that don't matter imo. I guess I'm guilty of that too, or I'd not be writing this!

:YouRock:


Thats has to be "quote of the day!