16 Tooth primary gear change

[NeilW]

Love it. Know that I am a fire road , highway and freeway rider mostly. I don't do "hold my beer and watch this" hill climbs but I will do rocky / steep up hills when they are in the way. I recently came back from 1100 mile mostly asphalt 4 day adventure to the middle of Idaho. Some off road but mostly on.  Everything about the 16T made the ride better for me. I consistently got high 40's and even some tanks at 50+ MPG. Basically 4-6 MPG better than with the 15T at similar speeds and conditions. I like how much calmer the bike feels at 75MPH and how much farther I can stretch the lower gears to higher speeds. Every once in a while I would notice at 65MPH that I hadn't shifted into 6th for extended miles.  They bike felt that calm.

Just sharing - your mileage may vary......

[Frankgrimes]

Thanks for the input. I’ll be switching to 16. 

[NeilW]

Just now, Frankgrimes said:

Thanks for the input. I’ll be switching to 16. 

I don’t feel I have lost any low end grunt and even taking off from a stop seems smoother than with the 15T. Although there are YouTube videos of people holding the rear brake and leaning over the bike with a breaker bar, I couldn’t budge the nut. Had to enlist the 10 second help of a friend with an impact driver. Just snugged  it back up hand tight and rode home. Remember to open the little DENT in the cover of the nut. 

[Ray Ride4life]

I took another corner but roughly in the same direction and went for a 45 rear instead of the 46.

Still aggressive enough for technical riding but also slightly less rpm on the road

16 front was 500rpm less at 130km/h and the 45 rear is 200 less.

[NeilW]

Just now, DuncMan said:

 

Still not decided on this one. I'm really getting used to the 16T now and enjoying what it does but would still like to test the 45 rear. Hmm...

Experimenting is fun. I find the 16T primary does everything I want. longer gears, better MPG, calmer feel at freeway speeds. 

[mwells20b]

Does it feel any slower? or is it small enough of a change that you don't really notice?

[NeilW]

On 11/29/2022 at 9:10 AM, DuncMan said:

longer gears, better MPG, calmer feel at freeway speeds. 

 

3 hours ago, mwells20b said:

Does it feel any slower? or is it small enough of a change that you don't really notice?

I did it for a 1100 mile, mostly freeway and highway 3.5 day run and loved it. Did some very slow technical dirt roads and didn’t notice any negatives. Got 4mpg average better than normal. In steep dirt downhills it still did a great job of engine braking.  So much calmer at freeway speeds and each gear is a lot longer. 

[JDMT]

 

On 11/29/2022 at 10:06 AM, NeilW said:

Experimenting is fun. I find the 16T primary does everything I want. longer gears, better MPG, calmer feel at freeway speeds. 

 

Did changing to a 16T front sprocket require changing the chain size? 

[NeilW]

2 minutes ago, JDMT said:

 

 

Did changing to a 16T front sprocket require changing the chain size? 

@JDMTno just adjusting it. same chain.