15/43 Gearing & Lap Times
08-16-2010, 04:23 PM
#1
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15/43 Gearing & Lap Times
My trackday riding friend and I completed a trackday at Gingerman Raceway (South Haven, MI). His '98 runs stock gearing and chain; my '98 has 15/43 sprockets and a 520 chain. Al is a better rider than me. I let him use my lap timer in the morning. His best lap time was 2:02.60. I let him take my bike out for a session in the afternoon and he got down to 1:55.87 and was consistently running 1:56.5 +/-
So, first gear is really low but everywhere else (at the track) the 15/43 seems to be worth the investment.
So, first gear is really low but everywhere else (at the track) the 15/43 seems to be worth the investment.
08-16-2010, 05:29 PM
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My trackday riding friend and I completed a trackday at Gingerman Raceway (South Haven, MI). His '98 runs stock gearing and chain; my '98 has 15/43 sprockets and a 520 chain. Al is a better rider than me. I let him use my lap timer in the morning. His best lap time was 2:02.60. I let him take my bike out for a session in the afternoon and he got down to 1:55.87 and was consistently running 1:56.5 +/-
So, first gear is really low but everywhere else (at the track) the 15/43 seems to be worth the investment.
So, first gear is really low but everywhere else (at the track) the 15/43 seems to be worth the investment.
Without doing any back to back testing with other gear combinations there is no real way to know what optimum gearing would be.
The 520 chain is also a big factor but we'll leave that out for now.
Your statement :
You don't complain about running out of RPM in 6th or poor acceleration. Instead you state that 1st is too low. Which would cause me to go with a higher final drive ratio.
Then again that is just me.
08-18-2010, 02:35 PM
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I've now done 8 track days on the SH (Carolina Motorsports Park-3, Road America-2, Gingerman-2, Blackhawk Farms-1). The only place I might have used 1st is coming out of the chicane at Road America so 1st being too low has yet to be a real negative to me. On the other hand I've seen a speedo indicated 170 mph (which is more probably 155ish) on Road America's long front straight and the 15/43 helps the SH get there satisfyingly quick. Two other things: 1) I have a total of 55 street miles on my Hawk and 2) if I did do significant street riding I'd probably go back to street gearing or maybe the some times suggested 16/43 gearing.
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