Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

okay....
going from a 525 --> 520 and also the OEM 15/40 F/R --> 14/42 #teeth of new sprockets... going alloy. also going thru chain gang (got all this info so far from the forums archives ) this will equate to a final drive ratio of 3.00 (instead of 2.67) supposedly an increase of about 2-8% RWhP???? whatever.... i'm mainly interested in LONG_LIFE and lightness of parts, okay, yeah, and the increase in power associated with the benefits of less reciprocating mass.... etc...etc...
BUT
will my speedo be more or less out (they reckon the things r already out anyway, this conversion may bring it back down??)
ALSO
just wondering what others would do in my case.... I NEED the whole new drive line set, so stay stock or just go MOD crazy while i NEED the whole bang lot anyway.....??????

I'd personally be changing one thing at a time.
But then I go through a full set every 5 months or so, so there's not too much time between combinations.
If you've done the research and are confident with the results then give it a go. It's not really going to hurt.
Going down 1 on the front and up 2 on the back probably wouldn't change your speedo reading too much I'd think.

my 2c of fluff
ty

I go to the dealer and it normally goes like this:
"Got any chains and sprockets in stock?"
"Yep"
"Whatchya got?"
"Blah, blah, blah."
"Gimme the cheapest ones."
"OK"
"Gonna give me discount on those?"
"Of course."
"Sweet."

I'm just about to do the same thing. I'm only going +3 at the back. Your combo will be like +5. I'm going to get a speedo healer as I don't want any more k's on the odo than should be there come trade in/sale time. Then again I guess I could just track down a cluster with less k's but they will probably want more than the healer costs. With a healer you can theoretically slow down your odo if you really wanted to.

aardvark wrote:I go to the dealer and it normally goes like this:
"Got any chains and sprockets in stock?"
"Yep"
"Whatchya got?"
"Blah, blah, blah."
"Gimme the cheapest ones."
"OK"
"Gonna give me discount on those?"
"No!."
"I'm a cop"
"ok then, here your free chain and sprocket and a healthy bribe"
"Sweet."

Sorry Mate, couldn't resist

Hey Plas, that's not too far from the truth. Except they normally through in a box of donuts aswell!

Your bike has pretty much optimum gearing my man (I speak from experience). I think if you gear it down it's going to be too 'revy' and as it already won't red-line it top there's no reason to gear up.

The only problem with the J1's standard gearing is the fact that top-gear is too high and the gap between it and 5th gear is therefore BIG. You won't fix that with a change of sprockets.

Don't forget to go for a well know brand and you really have to get a gold chain!

Yankee i would check to see if you have the stock gearing because our milage at the servo today was within a couple of kms of each other mine said 265km and i am 1 tooth down at the front so my milage reads high so yoours could have 3 extra teeth at the rear or be missing one on the the front.
dont know what your stock sprockets are but mine is 15f/40r it will be stamped on the sprockets.

i know my rear is stock (has the 40 on it) but yeah, the front coulda been made smaller from the previous owner... and that would explain why my bike pulls like no other 599 i know of!!! (she is a great bike tho!)

yep, gunna just stay stock i reckon, or whatever is on there atm, as it works a treat

Yankee wrote:i know my rear is stock (has the 40 on it) but yeah, the front coulda been made smaller from the previous owner...

If she's stock she should do 240 on the rev-limiter in 5th, that's a fun way of telling

If your speedo is reading off the front wheel (cable). The reading you'd get is the speed of/from the front wheel not the back. So if you change your O/D (tyre) from say a 120/70-17 to a 120/60 you would in effect change your speedo readings..........

Changing your sprocket sizes will have no effect on the speedo readings if it runs off the front wheel, your rev's will change and power curve will, not your km. The engine will and can rev till the cows come home and the speedo will only give the reading on distance travelled based on front wheel rotation. So in fact your front wheel will travel to that distance regardless of what speed your are travelling at! Thats why you would loose top end speed and get, say 270km not 285km, because the engine can only rev to what the gearing is.

Now the fireblades on the other hand has an electronic speedo that reads off the front sprocket, so any gearing changes you make will affect km readings. Going two down on the front will have the sprocket travelling faster....(friend of mine did his 95 blade 900rr and read 120km when we were only travelling at 110km).

To put it simpily, connect a speedo to the front wheel and one to the back wheel of a mountain bike. You can change gearings through that sucker and use all 30 gears on it till it broke and you'll find that both wheels will turn at the same speed!

In all and to sum up, front wheel O/D will decide on your speedo reading if you have a speedo linked to it. Not rear wheel or sprockets.

Hope it helps!

Snr

SNR wrote:Now the fireblades on the other hand has an electronic speedo that reads off the front sprocket, so any gearing changes you make will affect km readings. Going two down on the front will have the sprocket travelling faster....(friend of mine did his 95 blade 900rr and read 120km when we were only travelling at 110km).


Snr

The J1 has an electronic speedo that reads off the front sprocket, so any gearing changes you make will affect km readings.

aardvark wrote:I go to the dealer and it normally goes like this:
"Got any chains and sprockets in stock?"
"Yep"
"Whatchya got?"
"Blah, blah, blah."
"Gimme the cheapest ones."
"OK"
"Gonna give me discount on those?"
"Of course."
"Sweet."

fark and i thought i was tight...i'm gonna try that next time