Chain and Sprocket 101 - Gearing Up - Gearing Down - Finding the Best Gear Ratio

Are you running the best size sprockets for your type of ridding?
Sprockets:

Do you have the best chain for the type of riding that you enjoy?
Chains:

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[TheHortond]

I went up 1 tooth on the front for my ADV bike to get better highway speed. I went down 1 tooth in the front and up 2 in the rear on my superbike for better torque on the street. I brought them both to the middle where I drive the most.

[justdad]

I have been drag racing for decades and land speed racing for eight years. I have about nine different combinations of gearing to run, sometimes I gave moved down from 525 go 520, moved from O or X to racing, have run steel, aluminum, and combinations of steel and aluminum. Depending on the type of racing, street or touring riding it can make quite a difference in dialing in the gearing. I learn something every time.

[JoshNewby]

The only instance in which making the final drive ratio smaller (gearing up) increases top speed is if your bike currently bounces off the limiter in top gear. That's it. The change in speed would only be single digit percentages. If you're not at the limiter currently then speed will not change at all, only the engine rpm at top speed will. It would be great if the people who sell parts for a living understood & explained this concept to their customers.

[galactic]

My bike broke down and i got a sketchy guy to fix it for cheap by changing only the chain and i didn't know anything about them. A day later it broke down again and now that i have watched this video it helped me a lot to understand and i know what to order. Thank you very much

[williamjohnson]

Great explanation guys, much less confusing now !!

[jhobaugh]

For understanding the gear up vs down, just look at a bicycle... it has different gears in place and you can test the changes yourself. Bigger gear in the front makes top speed, bigger gear in the rear makes slower speed and more torque

[littlekingcobrasden]

I'm dyslexic, and this was too many numbers for me to comprehend in the YouTube videos. So short and simple, changing my front sprocket is not an option in my case. At least not for another six months when more money becomes available. (I can't even get to the front sprocket to count the teeth without disassembling 1/2 the motor.) However I'm upgrading my entire rear tire/ rim from spoke to mag rim. (Primarily because I keep bending the spoke rims) This forces me to change some mounting adapters, currently I have 42T on the rear large sprocket, Some of the longer steeper hills I can hear and feel the bike struggle to climb. But on flat straight road I'm averaging 22 mph at full throttle. In my particular case, this is all original parts, as a new "in box" gift from a friend. It's now only a few months and 200 miles old, still in its breaking in stages. So my dilemma is it wouldn't hurt to have more hill climbing power, but I'm riding on highway roads and can't afford to lose speed. I need to keep up with the slow lane traffic. Most the slow traffic is at least 35 mph. The adapter for the mag rim I'm looking at online is set up with a 36T sprocket. How will the difference between the 42T and the 36T help or hurt me? If I can find the same adapter I need with a different tooth, what number tooth do you recommend? I am very limited what I can change. This is a bicycle with a 2 cycle motor on it. So I know I'm not any where near what a normal motorcycle has for engine ability. But I know that the principles the gear ratio are the same. One more factor that might help make a difference, is I almost always have a wagon/ trailer pulled behind me to carry spare gas, tools, and carry groceries home. (My current gas tank is bearly one gallon, I have a small Harley Davidson gas tank, that is estimated three or four gallons at a house I recently inherited 62 miles away, that I plan to try fitting on for longer rides between fill ups. The irony is I almost need that tank to travel that far to pick it up.) I live in the sticks, and it's 25 miles one way to Walmart. (50 miles round trip) I'm getting between 35 and 45 miles to a gallon. [Possibly between 50 and 75, if I don't idle it to let it warm up] so with my current set up, I can get from the house to Walmart, and even most of the way home on a tank, but to save myself aggravation, try to remember to top off before leaving Walmart to head home.

[jetdr]

Reason I went 1 tooth down in the front for my Woods Bike.

[victorresendez]

Thee best job in explaining all of this, and yes it can be confusing, I have numerous bikes and have always just figured factory set ups were the best, I am going to play around with gearing, now that I kinda understand it a little better

[atticusnicol]

This was achieved very helpful!
I recently got an 1988 kdx80 about a month ago and I want to get higher speeds from it I mainly drive it on country roads and on dirt trails. I'm not really taking it in the mud or doing endurance.
So this really helped me to figure out what gearing ratio I want.
Thank you guys! 👍

[richardsprings]

Awesome job of explaining chains and Gearing

[LuziannMan]

I have a 2023 KLX140 I went down 2 teeth (14t to 12t) in the front and just recently went down 1 tooth on the rear (50t to 49t) and I find it really balanced my bike out. I was hitting the rev limiter way too fast with the 12t on the front and 50t on the back but that 1 tooth decrease in the rear has really made a difference for how I ride. Hope this helps anyone trying to figure out a good balance point

[badmofo]

what is the rule for what chain length to use if you go up 1 tooth in the front or 1 tooth in th rear. Thanks, great video guys.

[jj-tqhx]

Best explained video I have seen on this matter. Thanks and now I can decide what's best for my Gixxer 600!

[pootietang]

Really the best video I've watched in a while and that's saying alot. You guy's are good at this very informative and professional, helpful knowledge and that's honestly a good looking kit.

[bernardogartalia]

I noticed that easily hit the rpm limiter with my 15t x 46t combination. I decided to change to 16t x 49t, practically same gear ratios. I noticed a relax rpm ang long gearings in my lower gears, giving me the needed rpm to hit the top speed.

[muzz]

Geared down. Im running an Sv1000 with -1tooth front and +3teeth rear. Who needs a 170mph road bike when 2nd gear wheelies happen at 40 👍does chew through fuel and need to recalibrate speedo but its worth it.

[andreduval]

This is one of the best videos I've ever seen! Super clear!

[andrewwest]

Hey guys, great video on gearing & great advice on going up or down teeth front or rear depending on what you are trying to achieve & as far as to using old chains on new spockets or vice versa, thanks for sharing your experience

[theartist]

Just trying to learn something about gear ratio for highest top end speed. Working on a fun 4 stroke motorized skateboard project and trying to learn all that i can