Ok, I was reading the post about the best mods for the Klx and everybody seems to concur that the 13 tooth sprocket is one of the best. I have a couple of Dumb questions about it.

1 - The sprocket goes on the motor side right (duu)

2 - Whats the tooth number on the stock sprocket.

3 - By going to a 13 tooth front sprocket what does it do for me.

I know from my DR days that most people swap out sprocket/gears to give them more slow speed controlabilty for off road use. IE - More Stump pulling power. By doing this though you hurt the top end / cruising side of things. Since I dont really ride offroad much and most of my riding is on the street I dont want to kill my topend to get a little more Umph in the lower end. So the question is does the 13 tooth help in the topend / cruising side of things or does it give you more Umph in the lower end. Dont think it can do both so whats the word. Hopefully I have made myself clear.

Thanks

LV

 

It gives you low end power and takes away top speed... The stock is 14 tooth...
If you think about how this change affects the operation, for each revolution of the back tire, the front sprocket on the motor has to spin more times with the 13 tooth sprocket.
This lowers your gearing, and gives you more torque.

Putting a bigger one on the front obviously has the opposite effect. If you're familiar with mountain biking and shifting bike gears, it's much easier to understand. Same thing happens. On a mountain bike there are three front sprockets. The big one is the "high gear" for fast speeds.

 

More lower end at the expense of high end. The only way to get both, it is to change out the tranny components. It sounds to me that you don't want this mod, based on what you said above.

I'm OK with the lower end, especially after doing the 300cc upgrade. What'd I'd like is higher gearing for 6th gear in order to cruise at lower RPM. Ideally I'd like to lower first a tad, raise 6th a bit, and spread the other gears out in between. For that, you'd need to change out the gear stacks in the tranny with the different ratios. Not impossible, but would require some research - I bet the parts are out there without having to resort to custom machining, but it would require some leg-work to match up the proper parts and ratios.

 

Cool, Brian, so when do you think you'll have the parts list ready for us? Jus kiddin.

You know, I once had a 1979 XR200 that came stock as a 5 speed. But when I bought it in 1998 or so, it was a six speed...
I don't know how they figured it out, or where they learned it from, but somebody added a 6th gear to that bike.
Quite a feat, especially in the days before the intarweb, and forums like this.

 

Yeah, that'd work too - what I'd really like is 7th gear

Have ever gone down the stairs that you've gone down a thousand times before but somehow your brain mis-calculates and you think there is actually one more step at the bottome than there really is? That's kind've what it feels like when you try to shift into "7th". You know there _should_ be a gear there, but there is none. [&:]

 

And I thought I was the only one always trying to shift into 7th gear.

 

I proably need that cause its so slow from 1-40. Cars just burn my @SS off stop lights and thats not cool. What else helps with acceleration on the bike?

 

Sixth gear is the only gear where the speed is higher than the RPM so to speak. In another words, at indicated 60mph, the tach is at 5500 RPM and at 70 mph 6500 RPM or so. So if I look at the tach and the RPM is higher than the speed, I know I can shift up. This method has worked very well for me and now I rarely ever shift into "7th".

 

I was worried about what it would do as well to my overall speed as well. I really don't notice a difference. It revs a bit higher in 6th, but not bad. I'm still hitting 70mph pretty well and I feel like I have more left over at 70mph. It keeps the bike in the meat of the power. It feels faster and you don't have all this lag time getting it up to speed. I'm very happy with the change.

I was with a group ride this weekend that covered about 120 miles of Oregon dirt roads, mountain passes and trails. There was a section where we all had to get on Interstate 5 over Siskiyou Pass with the big trucks and all! I didn't have any problems keeping with the traffic on a big climb when it really mattered.