Changing gearing -- front vs rear

[Kabara, Richard M.]

I looked up some stuff last night...
The book I was referring to "The Racing Motorcycle, A technical guide for
constructors" John Bradley. He claims "Industrial designers try to avoid
anything less than 17 teeth"

Two data points on OEM stock c/s sprockets that I have in my garage...
2003 R6 - 16 tooth
2006 GSX-R750 - 17 tooth

These are 'cutting edge' sportbikes where weight and compact design are
critical, still they use 'big' c/s sprockets. Of course they set the
internal ratios to work with those sprockets, would not work on SV...or rear
sprocket would have to be unreasonably large.

Moral of the story is: for long term sprocket wear, bigger is better. So if
you want to shorten your gearing, run 15/48, not 14/45. As Jim already
proved with his 15 tooth c/s sprocket going for four years.


-----Original Message-----
From: Kabara, Richard M. [mailto:richard.kabara at pw.utc.com] 
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 5:41 PM
To: Suzuki SV650 Mailing List
Subject: RE: Changing gearing -- front vs rear

Thanks Zoran, it's 520

>From the RK chain website, comparing their "standard O-ring" chains
http://www.rk-excel.co.jp/global/chain/chain_application.pdf

520 is 3.36  lbs / 100 links

525 is 4.30  lbs / 100 links 


So the 525 is 28% heavier.....I'd call that significantly heavier!



-----Original Message-----
From: zoran [mailto:zv30 at sbcglobal.net] 
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 5:24 PM
To: Suzuki SV650 Mailing List
Subject: Re: Changing gearing -- front vs rear

520.


Zoran Vujasinovic
Twin Works Factory
775-786-4881
www.twfracing.com 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kabara, Richard M." <richard.kabara at pw.utc.com>
To: "Suzuki SV650 Mailing List" <sv650 at micapeak.com>
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 2:26 PM
Subject: RE: Changing gearing -- front vs rear


> I'd bet the SV400 uses a lightweight chain, like a 418? (not sure of the
> spec) not the heavier 525 chain the SV650 uses, so the SV400 may be more
> tolerant of the 14 tooth c/s sprocket. 
> 
> Rich
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Stewart [mailto:js at strappe.com] 
> 
> Well, Zoran tells us that the SV 400 has a 14 tooth sprocket stock.