Gearing change?

[leonardlloyd]

Anyone increased front sprocket by one tooth? I find first and second gear to be very short, so I quick-shift through to third even for slow urban situations. Alternative, less radical, perhaps I could drop 2-3 teeth with new rear sprocket. Require shorter drive chain or is there sufficient adjustment available?

[norcal616]

When are you shifting? I got my shift light set a 9k, most days it's shifted at 7k
 
In fact I don't hardly ever use 1st gear unless I need to activate my LaunchControl, all my stop/starts are in 2nd gear which also eliminates accidentally hitting N when you wanted 2nd
 
Dropping 1T up front is just perfect- cured a lazy lowef rpm feeling when taking off in 2nd gear...now it's feels lively from the get go...

[betoney]

I too like -1 tooth upfront, it gets it into the meat of the powerband easier. I personally think 6th is geared too high and I rarely use it unless I am motoring at 80+mph for a longer distance.
I just got back from an 1,100 mile ride through various type of roads, interstates, state highways, mountain twisties 2-lane country roads etc and I only used 6th a handful of times.
 
I find it odd that you feel 1st and 2nd are too short, you must normally keep the engine at fairly low rpm's. I feel like I can use them forever around town because they pull forever, even with a 15T front sprocket. I guess it all comes down to how a person likes to ride, some dont like getting up to 5,000 rpm, while I rarely ever ride below 5,000 rpm.
 
BTW, I believe you can fit a 17T but definitely not an 18T in front.

[betoney]

...I find it odd that you feel 1st and 2nd are too short, you must normally keep the engine at fairly low rpm's....

Why do you find it odd? It depends on where you ride... short shifting is a common way to change gears in city traffic, whether it's a car or a bike... or would you rather ride 1st gear at 6,000 rpm between lights? I think the OP is looking to calm things down in 1 and 2 for urban use.

I guess its more of how you ride also, because whether its a car or bike, I dont short shift to third for city driving.  I may end up in 3rd gear but I ride each gear out normally to get there.  Around here, "city driving" is around 35mph, in 3rd gear I would consider that fairly low rpm's with stock gearing. 

[wordsmith]

...I find it odd that you feel 1st and 2nd are too short, you must normally keep the engine at fairly low rpm's....

Why do you find it odd? It depends on where you ride... short shifting is a common way to change gears in city traffic, whether it's a car or a bike... or would you rather ride 1st gear at 6,000 rpm between lights? I think the OP is looking to calm things down in 1 and 2 for urban use.

I go into Mode B for that purpose - it's what it's there for, surely?  

[Guest kernowjim]

Anyone increased front sprocket by one tooth? I find first and second gear to be very short, so I quick-shift through to third even for slow urban situations. Alternative, less radical, perhaps I could drop 2-3 teeth with new rear sprocket. Require shorter drive chain or is there sufficient adjustment available?

17 tooth front sprocket is a bit tight in terms of clearance, I run a 43 tooth Renthal rear sprocket which drops the 6th gear cruising RPM by about 300.  Nice thing is the 'eco' light is still on at 85mph in B mode.  Plenty of chain adjustment if your chain is fairly new.  A worthwhile modification and doesn't affect the acceleration at all but just calms the bike down in the lower gears.

[xlxr]

Perhaps you need an engine tune, APS adjustment and/or ECU reflash. My engine doesn't care what RPM or tranny gear it's in, pulls great from idle to redline in any of the gears. ( I never ride over 100 mph in any gear)

[suncoaster]

I find it amusing how different people have different expectations from this bike.
Ex cruiser riders may find it psychologically hard to rev.
 
My last bike revved to 15,500 RPM and you could use 2nd gear all day as 2nd gear went up to 160kph.
Around town you could pull away from the lights in second and not change between lights.
 
On this I rarely get over 9,000 RPM..

[ogryder]

FJ-09 sold as a sport-tourer. Built from a naked sport bike. Other manufactures have a different ways of defining their bikes as sport-touring, such as: gearing like constant mesh spur and or helical. Then engine selection and type, comforts like cruise control, seat location/type, wind/weather protection. Yamaha has it seems allowed us to buy a SPORT-tourer. Which IMO means if you want more of a touring bike buy accessories. Or if you want more of a sport-bike buy accessories. But most of all have fun! 8-)
 

[leonardlloyd]

Anyone increased front sprocket by one tooth? I find first and second gear to be very short, so I quick-shift through to third even for slow urban situations. Alternative, less radical, perhaps I could drop 2-3 teeth with new rear sprocket. Require shorter drive chain or is there sufficient adjustment available?

17 tooth front sprocket is a bit tight in terms of clearance, I run a 43 tooth Renthal rear sprocket which drops the 6th gear cruising RPM by about 300.  Nice thing is the 'eco' light is still on at 85mph in B mode.  Plenty of chain adjustment if your chain is fairly new.  A worthwhile modification and doesn't affect the acceleration at all but just calms the bike down in the lower gears.

 
Thanks for information. Two less teeth on rear sprocket seems worth trying before trying to fit larger up front.

[jo1000]

I don't like to change the gearing at all!! Yea it might make the bike feel better down low but when you're in 5th and 6th , you might not like the change there.When I bought my Tuono the first owner lowered the gearing( I bought the bike with 900 miles.. killer deal). Yea the bike burst out of the hole nicely had great low end grunt but on the highway the bike felt like it was racing . The gas mileage really suffered, so I went back to stock and I loved it. Point of the story think about how the bike will change in ALL the gears when you change the gearing.

[wordsmith]

FJ-09 sold as a sport-tourer. Built from a naked sport bike. Other manufactures have a different ways of defining their bikes as sport-touring, such as: gearing like constant mesh spur and or helical. Then engine selection and type, comforts like cruise control, seat location/type, wind/weather protection. Yamaha has it seems allowed us to buy a SPORT-tourer. Which IMO means if you want more of a touring bike buy accessories. Or if you want more of a sport-bike buy accessories. But most of all have fun! 8-)

Well put!   I still believe that if our FJ/ MT-09 was a person it would be confused as to its identity!

[wordsmith]

I find it amusing how different people have different expectations from this bike. Ex cruiser riders may find it psychologically hard to rev.
 
My last bike revved to 15,500 RPM and you could use 2nd gear all day as 2nd gear went up to 160kph.
Around town you could pull away from the lights in second and not change between lights.
 
On this I rarely get over 9,000 RPM..

Tongue-in-cheek firmly, I assume, sun!   Unless your last bike was a Bugatti Veyron...

[estell]

I guess its more of how you ride also, because whether its a car or bike, I dont short shift to third for city driving.  I may end up in 3rd gear but I ride each gear out normally to get there.  Around here, "city driving" is around 35mph, in 3rd gear I would consider that fairly low rpm's with stock gearing.

All depends on circumstances (obviously)... longer stretch of road allows longer shifts, but in busy traffic I absolutely short shift. Not to be confused with lugging... just not spinning it hard... there's just no need, and no fun unless you can move fast.... IMO.

I agree with both of you. The FJ09 will happily cruise at 3000 rpm on city streets. While accelerating, it loves to go all the way to 11000. I do both.  
What I don't get is calling 1st and 2nd gears too short. 1st gear will get to 60 mph, and 2nd will get to 80 mph. You can do a 0 to 60 romp in 2.9 seconds without shifting out of 1st. Is that short-geared?
 
 

[norcal616]

When I had stock gearing I used 2nd gear in stop/start traffic...no need to start in 1st gear, who says you gotta start off in 1st gear?... starting off in 2nd gear over 1st gear will be much calmer and allows you to use way less shifting in stop/go traffic...