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be vertical -> RE: -1 vs. +2 (4/1/2008 8:36:29 PM)
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1 in the front is equal to three in the back, regardless of direction. Its however hard to set a standard on. Your stock gearing should be something like 16/42... Going down one in the front will in fact do more then two in the rear, but slightly less that three in the rear. I think the equivalency is like 2.72. The best combination for street I think is -1/+1, which comes out to a little less than +4 in the rear. You do have a couple of other things going on however... The first is that you should never go down to anything less than a 15 in the front (which is -1 on most bikes). Anything smaller then that and you risk binding up your chain, which can lead to a breakage of the master link, causing the chain to snap. If it snaps, it will take off your leg, crack your block, cause you to fall, or maybe all at the same time... this is not something you want to risk, EVER! If you go too large in the rear, you will have to get a new chain, because with the stock chain I think you can only go up like +3 before the chain is not big enough to get around the sprocket. When getting new sprockets, you want to make sure that your rear wheel centers up at basically the same spot along the tensioner guide. If you change that too much, you are offsetting the wheelbase, changing the ride and reaction of the bike. Personally I have a 15 in the front, which is -1 for me, and then I have a 43 and a 41 for the rear. Most of the time I have the 43 in there, cause I ride street 90%. On long trips however it is nice to be able to do a 80+ mpg cruise without being in the power-band (above 10k on the tach). This is where the 41 comes in. It brings me almost back to stock, allowing me to coast along on the highway without screaming my rpm head off. My only complaint about this is that with the 15/41 setup I am overall down two teeth from stock, so my wheel sits back about 1/2 inch more then it should, it is however much easier then changing the chain, as that is a real pain and cannot be done in ten minutes like a sprocket swap can.
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