Having just put on the third front tire and fourth rear tire, I decided to lower the final drive again.
I had been running 15X48 for two years having used 15X46 before that. I had noticed that on an up hill in the rough, really rough, I had been slipping the clutch a bit more than I liked. I just put 15X49 on with new chain of course, and for the shakedown took a pretty girl down to the lighthouse waterfront.
That one more tooth made a lot of difference in tractability. The problem is that on these grounds there are a lot of places where very slow is needed to prevent grounding on sharp lave rock. The 15X49 offers this slow speed with a lot less clutch slip.
It allows me to enjoy these trips a bit more.
Enjoy happy Chrismas- Passat winds, here they were left out and the weather switched from rainy season to summer in only 2 week Passat transition.
Sven
It's simply amazing to me what an extraordinary difference a very minor gear change can make in driveability. My example is my truck, a 7,500 lbs 1967 Dodge that I stuck a Cummins 4BTA 4 cylinder Diesel into with NV4500 5 spd trans and 4.1 gears. Normal tire size is 235/75-15. Truck got over 32 mpg on the highway, very high 20's up here in the mountains, a joy to drive anywhere.
New set of BF Goodrich All Terrains added and the tire shop mananger insisted I needed 256/85-15, I fell for it. A fairly minor difference it seemed but ah, not so! Now it's a major pain to drive through the local mountains, never can find the right gear and most often requiring lots more pedal to get anywhere. Highway mileage is in the toilet with mid 20's at best, dropping lower in stop & go in the city. Poor performance, engine often lugging and just a mess in general.
Those 'little' ratio changes sure do make a big difference!
When the bike was new in 06 I immediately went from a stock 42 to a 43 which made it more to my liking as a solo bike.
A year later with the hack on it I went to 46 teeth which worked very well where I lived in Washington State.
When I moved to this Island and saw the kind of terrain I had to deal with I went to 48.
Now at 49 teeth I think I finally have what is needed.
I was not a matter of power. The DR650 has plenty of power and torque, that's what I bought it for.
What was the need, was to be able to crawl over lava pinnacles slow enough to not have the bike bounce and ground out.
Until the 49 tooth this meant a lot of clutch slippage. I still have to slip some of the worst of the rocks but not nearly as many.
There is nowhere on this island where the speed limit is above 55 and that is only on the major roads, so most riding is done at 45 mph and down. I can be in 5th gear at less than 40 mph with a passenger in the hack and not lug the engine now. Lower speeds make for better drive by shooting.
If the girl doesn't have a camera I let her use mine.
