D
Deleted member 5383
I finally got around to putting my 17t sprocket on. It's from a company in Oregon. The PBI 17-tooth looks like it's a top-notch product at 17 notches and can be had directly: Honda CTX-700, NC-700X/XD 2012-16 on 520 chain -- available in 15 through 17 tooth. I cut a slot at the bottom of the sprocket guard too so that one does not have to disconnect the shifter/clutch connection to open things up when changing sprockets or chains.
Anyway, trying the new 43/17 ratio for just a couple miles at lower speed, things felt smooth, great for general gravel and highway use. First gear starts now make better sense because I can get all the way through an intersection from a stop sign without feeling any pressing need to shift up to second halfways through ; } ...In-town riding was relaxed and only subtly different. Riding around in my back yard in first and making my way around trees and shrubs and humps and dips was hardly different than it was before.
On the highway the ratio felt natural and really didn't make me do anything markedly different than I usually do, though now the speedo reads about 4.9 percent low instead of 1 percent high. With a Hepco-Becker Junior 55 Top Case and the frunk full, the NC pulled grades just fine. It's a subtle enough change that the engine did not feel in general like it was laboring at high speeds. And another plus, should you feel the need to hard-charge when passing others: you won't hit the rev limiter in 5th gear until around 100 miles per hour -- you've gained about 6 mph for 5th gear, For that matter, 4th gear is also revving about 6 percent slower, so downshifts for acceleration have some extra room before hitting redline. So: unless I rode serious off-road -- or on the highway had really wide panniers that were full, as well as a full dry bag on the pillion, and weighed a lot more too (I'm currently at around 190 pounds), I don't think I'd ever feel this sprocket swap was anything but a positive change.
Also, an identical chain on a 17 tooth sprocket and 43 rear will get less wear for several reasons: 1) less bend around the front sprocket, and 2) the same chain link only hits the same teeth a lot less. In general, the more chain rotations it takes to hit the same tooth-link or link-tooth combination, the better for even wear of all components. 3) Also, the front sprocket makes 130 less link/tooth contacts per mile. This all adds up. ...Also, the chain is a bit further away from the slider which isn't a bad thing if you pound the suspension.
Here's how many RPM it takes on stock-diameter tires to maintain some given speeds in SIXTH GEAR for the stock 43/16, and the new 43/17 ratios:
Anyway, trying the new 43/17 ratio for just a couple miles at lower speed, things felt smooth, great for general gravel and highway use. First gear starts now make better sense because I can get all the way through an intersection from a stop sign without feeling any pressing need to shift up to second halfways through ; } ...In-town riding was relaxed and only subtly different. Riding around in my back yard in first and making my way around trees and shrubs and humps and dips was hardly different than it was before.
On the highway the ratio felt natural and really didn't make me do anything markedly different than I usually do, though now the speedo reads about 4.9 percent low instead of 1 percent high. With a Hepco-Becker Junior 55 Top Case and the frunk full, the NC pulled grades just fine. It's a subtle enough change that the engine did not feel in general like it was laboring at high speeds. And another plus, should you feel the need to hard-charge when passing others: you won't hit the rev limiter in 5th gear until around 100 miles per hour -- you've gained about 6 mph for 5th gear, For that matter, 4th gear is also revving about 6 percent slower, so downshifts for acceleration have some extra room before hitting redline. So: unless I rode serious off-road -- or on the highway had really wide panniers that were full, as well as a full dry bag on the pillion, and weighed a lot more too (I'm currently at around 190 pounds), I don't think I'd ever feel this sprocket swap was anything but a positive change.
Also, an identical chain on a 17 tooth sprocket and 43 rear will get less wear for several reasons: 1) less bend around the front sprocket, and 2) the same chain link only hits the same teeth a lot less. In general, the more chain rotations it takes to hit the same tooth-link or link-tooth combination, the better for even wear of all components. 3) Also, the front sprocket makes 130 less link/tooth contacts per mile. This all adds up. ...Also, the chain is a bit further away from the slider which isn't a bad thing if you pound the suspension.
Here's how many RPM it takes on stock-diameter tires to maintain some given speeds in SIXTH GEAR for the stock 43/16, and the new 43/17 ratios:
Code:
speed RPM for 43/16 RPM for 43/17
===== ============= =============
35mph 1867 1757
45mph 2401 2260
55mph 2934 2762
65mph 3468 3264
75mph 4001 3766
85mph 4535 4268
95mph 5068 4770
