over loaded by all the info here so I'll just ask

Like I said, Im over loaded in the brain housiong group with the information at hand.

So I will just ask.

Quick specs.;
All stock '08 WR250R (tire size, gearing etc)

Why the change?
1. I want more highway speed. I have to ride about 45 miles or so to get to the mountains, Deals Gap, decent fire roads and trails. It would be nice to drop some RPM and gain some more speed on the highway.
2. 1st gear is so short. I would like to run it out a little bit more before having to shift.
3. Going up 1 tooth on the front will allow the chain to flow thru better.

So, I am thinking about going up 1 tooth in the front to a 14 tooth and leaving the rear a 43 tooth.

Any thoughts or advice are welcome.

i cruise all day on highways with +6 in the back.

+1 up front i dont think is going to change a whole lot, maybe look for another bike that is more cruiser oriented?

Going bigger on the back is going to cut your speed. Same as going smaller on the front. Going smaller on the rear will increase speed a bit, but at the cost of rpm. You will gain an increase of speed in 6th gear by around 7mph if the bike has stock rubber on it going with the 14t.

Look for another bike more cruiser friendly?

Guess I could go buy the Sportster down the street and do the dualsport conversion to it.
That would be one hell of a racket hearing 1200CC with open pipes coming down the trail.
Its been done with a YZ frame and Harley power. Hell of a racket.

Anyhow.

Thank you Lynn.
I may do the 14t. I believe there is enough room up front for it but not sure about a 15t.
I want to junk that stock rubber lined rear sprocket too.
Stock size rubber, just running Avon Distanzia front and rear.

The 15T is going to grind into your case. The 14T you can use your case saver if you dremel the lip off the inside of it, which will still save the case in the event of the chain doing a nasty. If your rear sprocket is still decent, you can very tediously remove the rubber ring off it. It takes a bit of time, but it can be done.

Okay--this is totally my opinion and not to be taken as anything other than that.
Like an asshole....everybody has one...

Why did you buy an R if you want highway ability?
Why did you not at least buy an X?

Going up one tooth on front, and not changing rear, will make a shitty performance oriented gearing even more shitty.

Yes...you might eak out a few more mph's on the extreme upper end of the rev range, but the "feel" you'll have getting there will be awful.

I think you may have bought the wrong motorcycle....but that's my opinion.

What is the majority of your riding going to be?

Highway?
Secondary back roads?
Dirt roads?
Single track trails?
Hooliganism?
Stunting?


Do you NEED to spend large amounts of time in 6th gear at speeds well over 70mph?

OK, so forget the 15t and forget about the 14t too. The case saver is ther for a reason and I dont want to mess with it. But the damn rubber on the rear has gotta tho.

East of Athens there are some trails and riding area but the good shit is to the mountains, 45 miles or so.

Yes I spend a lot of time in 6th gear on the asphalt. Sometimes an hour at a time.

Some of the dual sport rides around here include lengthy ashphalt trips to get from one forest to another, then to river roads and water crossings and trails.

Did not want the X.

Sucks riding 4 lane highway stuck at only 72-75mph.

I dont trailer my WR.

You said you're running the Distanzia's on the front and rear of the stock 21 & 18? How does it ride with those tires on there? i always wondered about a street tire on the dirt rims. I know Todd did that on his bike but it didn't seem like they stayed on there very long.

Why are you "stuck at 72-75mph"?

I have 13/48 gearing and can pull 80mph easily and top out at around 84mph.

My speed is corrected for gearing too, so it's pretty accurate.

So you spend 45 miles on highway....that's what, 35 minutes or so?

Then how much time in "the good shit"?

Hours, or minutes?


Gear yourself for the riding your really want to do.

I am enjoying them. Just let the front and rear down a bit to let the contact patch get wide and it does really well.
With the exception of some of the river roads and water crossings everything is hard packed around here in the lower end of the Smokey Mountains and foothills. The gravel roads range from rail road sized ballast to #5 and #7 stone. Other than that it is good old Georgia red clay. Hard packed and dusty when dry and ranges to slick and goo like or worse when wet. If I go south to Florida and to the east to the coast things get more sandy.

My opinon:
Making the gearing (which is already very tall for a 250cc motorcycle) taller is going overboard.

How fast and at what RPM do you expect that bike to be able to cruise at?
If you gear it so tall that it putters down the freeway at half of it's maximum RPM, it won't get out of it's own way during acelleration, and be even worse off-road.

Unless you like that kind of stuff. :)

I think the bike performs better on the highway geared down a bit from stock. I feel like I get better use of what power the bike actually has. I've never hit the rev limiter in 5th or 6th, so I pay no attention to rpm.

Sarah

Ya I think the point of a few people on here is that you don't increase power with higher gearing, the bike won't pull redline in 6th as it is so higher gearing will just increase load and throttle opening just to get to same speeds as stock and the bike would suck off road
Sometimes making the bike adapt to our riding style and expectation does not work, better to have the rider adapt to the bike

I think if you increase gearing you will just end up in 5th gear on every hill or headwind, maybe even render 6th useless
As for the short 1st gear I pretty much just get the bike moving and then short shift it and let 2nd do the work

Jersey Devil wrote:

Sucks riding 4 lane highway stuck at only 72-75mph.

motokid wrote:

Why are you "stuck at 72-75mph"?

I'm still hoping for an answer to this.

A stock wr (x or r) should be able to pull 85-90mph with relative ease.

Mid to upper 70's is where 5th gear should be hitting rev limiter with stock gearing. (I'd think)

With my gearing I'm hitting rev limiter at 64-ish mph in 4th gear.

Getting "stuck" at 72-75mph seems quite odd.

The best way to make the bike cruise better on the highway is to get a pipe and programmer. The motor will be able to breath better at higher rpms and will run smoother at faster speeds. I ran a 14/46 setup most of last fall and winter with a stock sized rear tire and a pipe and it was great up to about 80mph. Try out a 14t front with a stock rear sprocket and tire, it'll probably give you the smoother cruise you want particularly in the flat lands. Im about to.try this setup myself when I swap to x wheels, try to run 14/42. First gear is useless on the street right now imo with my d606 and 13/46, I've been messing with starting in second most of the time and have had no issues on road.

Fwiw xcel was running 14/40 gearing on his x in a quest for high gas mileage and had no complaints.

I can answer this. My r, when stock, is happiest cruising at 72-75mph. Unless im actively pushing it, that's where it inevitably up running. It'll go faster but is obviously working harder breathing harder and not running in its sweet spot. With a pipe and programmer it was happier around 80 indicated.

motokid wrote:

Jersey Devil wrote:

Sucks riding 4 lane highway stuck at only 72-75mph.

motokid wrote:

Why are you "stuck at 72-75mph"?

I'm still hoping for an answer to this.

A stock wr (x or r) should be able to pull 85-90mph with relative ease.

Mid to upper 70's is where 5th gear should be hitting rev limiter with stock gearing. (I'd think)

With my gearing I'm hitting rev limiter at 64-ish mph in 4th gear.

Getting "stuck" at 72-75mph seems quite odd.

skierd wrote:

Fwiw xcel was running 14/40 gearing on his x in a quest for high gas mileage and had no complaints.

It would also be safe to say - that the vast majority of us here would rather sell the R/X we own, than ride our bikes under the conditions and circumstances that xcel rides to get tthose gas mileage numbers.

Lol agreed. Then again after riding highfives rsquared I thin you could make the wrx the best small bore sport touring bike with a big bore, longer gearing, a seat upgrade, and a windscreen...

My main point of bringing up xcel's choice was to illustrate going the opposite of what most try to do with the bikes and it working for him. Fwiw Bigdog is still rocking stock gearing too. I personally think that 13/46 is too steep for stock.tires and borderline for taller tires if you have to or want to do a lot of highway riding. 80mph gets tiring quick compared to taking it easy at 65-70 because the bike is working much harder.

But Jersey Devil has not stated how much he rides off-road.

He stated 45 miles of highway to get to the good shit....but then what?

He's not talking about touring...he's just trying to get to the good shit.

Once in the good shit - then what?

That's what JD needs to explain more.

Thanks to those who have offered positive feed back.

Sometimes I will spend as much as 2 1/2 to 3 hours one way on asphalt to go to specific trails. Once there I will be in the woods ALL day on fire roads, single track, unmaintained mountain roads and campgrounds. The surfaces range from water crossings, asphalt, tar and gravel, loose gravel, hard packed clay, crush and run, regular old decomposed woods material, grass fields and wet/slick red clay. Dont see soft sand and silt which is mainly toward the coast or south towards Florida.
Generally spending 8-10 hours riding. That time does not include food, fuel and resting and bull shitting with other riders which usually turns into a 14 hour day usually. I tend to stay at one of the many motorcycle resorts around here or camp out and ride again the next day then head home. I dont trailer the bike as I am always finding new areas along the way re-opening the once closed off-road trails as well as the state re-opening their wildlife management areas again to offroad vehicles.

The deal with wanting some change is due to me riding out farther and farther. I never had a thought about it when I was in the state forrest areas near home or riding out to areas along the SC/Ga border along the Savannah River after leaving work for the day.

The issue with being stuck at speed is the bike feels like it is just working harder than it needs to be. It is all stock so I would guess if I freed it up with some intake and exhaust mods and some programing it would relieve it some. Sure its been up to 80+mph but sounds like it really does not preferr to be there for long and seems to be best around the 72-75mph range. I believe "Skierd" made mention to the same thing in one of his replies and is understanding my situation in my location.

As for motokid, well, i simply wanted advice on making my time on the asphalt a bit more enjoyable and instead your giving me a hard time. I am not a motorcross/dualsport/touring expert. I am just trying to make my time more enjoyable on this bike as my ride times get longer and farther and cover more and more variations in surfaces under the tires. I understand the idea of to get one thing comes at a cost of another. I was wanting to find out if the idea I had was going to work or not. I thought maybe a gear change may help out but I guess it is just a matter of adapting to the bike from being use to something else.

Sounds like our riding situation is similar, except my state is actively closing down its ORV resources. Since there aren't many or any legal hardcore places to ride for free withing 3+ hours of me, I'm punting and going with X wheels and tires to better enjoy the pavement.

I was posting from my phone earlier so I couldn't give you this link:

http://www.gearingcommander.com/

It lets you pick your bike and enter in the gearing changes you want and shows you how it affects your speed in each gear. Also lets you see the effects of tire size changes.

Regarding the highway cruise I mentioned earlier, I wanted to be sure I said that the motor felt happiest at an indicated 72-75mph, which varies in actual speed depending on your tire and gearing choices. That's closer to a true road speed of 65mph with my current gearing (13/46) and tire (120-90-18 D606). Since the tire is significantly taller, going up 3 teeth on the back sprocket isn't as big of a gearing just as you might think. mph/rpm wise, its only 3-4mph lower than stock gearing at any given rpm.

Playing with gearing commander, I'd suggest trying a 14T front sprocket as see if that helps the highway ride for you. Its a cheap experiment at $15 and should lower you about 500rpms at highway speed. Bone stock, true 70mph is right around 7400rpm but 14/43 gearing puts it around 6900-7000rpm. You'll probably have to work the clutch a bit more the few times it gets sloppy or extremely tight but otherwise you'll probably not notice it much. Or you can just carry a 12T or a 13T front with you for when you get to the trails, changing it at your first stop in the forests and changing back when you get ready to ride home. Remember, the stock speedo is off signifcantly and reads way high from the factory when you go out for a test ride, try to bring a gps to compare before and after actual speeds. With basically stock gearing (14/46) and the taller rear tire, equivalent in overall gearing to a 14T front with stock rear tire and sprocket, I found the bike just fine around town and off-road, forget really how the highway performance was. Its been a while since I've ridden with that setup... but thats how BigDog sets his WR250R up and he seems to have no problems getting into all sorts of tight and nasty places far far from home and surviving to tell the tale.

Still, the biggest boost for on-road performance is a pipe and programmer with the airbox mod. Off-road the bike doesn't need any more power to be fun trail bike, but I really really miss the added mid-range punch on my favorite curvy backroads since I've gone back to stock and since I do a lot of highway miles I miss the higher cruising speed the extra power and moved up powerband gave as well. IMO, so long as you're not trying to run it like a race bike (not that there's anything wrong with that), the gearing really doesn't matter.

CN: Try a 14T front, it'll lower your rpms by ~500rpm on the highway and should smooth things out. If you're still not satisfied, try the standard power modifications. The power boost gives it more oomph on the slab and lets it breath better at higher rpms, making higher speed cruising more comfortable even if the motor is still screaming away. Consider gearing it for the highway and bringing a shorter front sprocket for when you get to the trails.

I didn't read all of this thread. So maybe I'm off base. But I did see comments about the motor being more comfortable at certain speeds. That's complete non sense. This motor is made to rev and is 'comfortable' at anything below red line. I just rode 500 miles at 75-80 (gps indicated) with 13/47 gearing on my X wheels. It handled it just fine and will do it all day long day after day. I also run 13/47 on my R wheels but I'm unable to maintain the same 75-80 that I am with the X wheels. But I still have no issue reving the shit out of it for 55 miles on the highway running 70-75, then hitting single track for hours and then head 55 miles home. If you went to 14/43 you will absolutely hate it off road not to mention your 6th gear will be almost useless.

Where do you get that I'm giving you a hard time?????????????

You have totally misread any intent implied or otherwise.

Have a great day.

Thanks for the feedback Trav.
6th gear is a nice thing to have so I dont want to lose it to the rpm's dropping off too much. And I dont want to lose the off road side either.
Guess I'll just leave the gearing alone and work on getting it to inhale and exhale better.