Anyone try a 13/48 gearing and how was it?

Hello all. I tried a search and didn't find anything. Has anyone tried a 13/48 gearing. I ran this through gearing commander and think that I would like it. I am on stock tires right now. In the future I may go to D606's or another tire that may be taller than stock. My goal is to be able to hit about 83-85 MPH with 6th pinned. I don't ever plan to ride on the interstate (75MPH) but I would be on the highway a lot (65-70MPH). Gearing commander calculated top speed would be 84MPH, can anyone tell me how close this is to reality? How is the change from 43 rear to 48 rear? Improve trail riding? Good impact on torque? Better about stalls and improve the off/on throttle sensitivity? Would I need a larger chain? Any help would be great. Thanks.

I run 13-47 and around 65 is my comfort zone, if you change gearing use a GPS and see how far your speedo is out, mine was app. 205, I fixed it with DRD from 12 oclock labs, now at least Im real close, cheer`s

On my 2008 WR250R, I ran 12/45 sprockets, which is a little bit lower than 13/48 (3.75 vs. 3.69 gear ratios, respectively).
On my 2008 WR250X, I ran 13/49 sprockets.

My top speeds were 80 mph - plenty for a 250cc dual-purpose bike.
In fact, back in the days of the 1980 XT250G or XL250S, that speed would have been unheard of.

I say to go for it if you want final gearing that is MUCH more in tune with the bike's power characteristics.
Acceleration will be peppier and trail riding will be easier.
The only negative will be if you want Gold Wing gearing for the Interstate.

A quick search will answer all your questions.

I run 13-48, it works good offroad, its geared nice and low like most offroad bikes in first and second with this gearing.
I rarely ever go on the highway but run 65 mph on back roads all the time, this gearing is good for that too.

The switch from a stock tire to a 606 will make quite a difference, once you put the 606 on you wont be worried about being geared too low for the road but with the stock tire you may find the 48 geared a touch low when doing 65-70 mph.

I'm not set on D606's, I am guessing most tires are a little taller than stock? This bike will see a lot of asphalt so don't want to go too knobby. Was looking at Pirelli MT43. Sounds like I might be better off going 47. Any thoughts?

I have 13/48, with a Michelin S12xc.

For dualsport i swap the front for a 14, but for pure offroad i love the 13/48.

My low-reving xt600 has spoiled me a bit, so I hate the sound of all the revs at steady speed, eventhough the bike doesn'tseem to bother at all.

I run the 13/48 and I love it. All the gears feel like it has get up an go. My top speed is 84mph pinned going downhill and 82-83mph flat. I feel good cruising at 65-67mph. I also get anywhere from 40-48.5 MPG as well.

I also did the DRD speedo healer and my MPH is spot on, not the ODO tho lol

On a side not, I kinda feel like 1st gear goes by way to fast :/ but everything else is good.


PS has anyone actually found how to get to 7th gear

13/48 is one of my best mods. Its great on road, 80mph is fine. off road its great! slow stuff I can wheelie over bumps at will.

Thanks for the input, especially how the speeds feel. Anyone think there is much of a difference between 47 and 48? Biglake made me think I should go 47 considering I will be running stock tires until they are gone. Plus I may go with tires that may be shorter than the 606's. I think I'm pretty well decided on 47. Anyone running that with or without stock tires? I mostly ride street and don't need hardcore off-road performance, but want it to be more trail capable.

west5786 wrote:

Thanks for the input, especially how the speeds feel. Anyone think there is much of a difference between 47 and 48? Biglake made me think I should go 47 considering I will be running stock tires until they are gone. Plus I may go with tires that may be shorter than the 606's. I think I'm pretty well decided on 47. Anyone running that with or without stock tires? I mostly ride street and don't need hardcore off-road performance, but want it to be more trail capable.

I weigh 240 and pack about 20 lb of luggage, along with the 3 gallon tank. I ride in the mountains from 3000 to 6000 feet. I've got 13/49 gearing and run the MT43 tire. Overall it works well. On the trail, it would be nice to have a bit lower, low gear in those really tight spots. On the highway, flat or downhill, sometimes I could use a LITTLE bit higher gearing, but with any altitude, wind, or grade a higher gear would be bad.

If you are lighter, ride at lower altitude, ride in flat terrain, and/or ride on more open trails, your results may vary.

13/48 is where I ended up on mine. TR8 rear tire is a bit larger than stock. If I was using a stock tire, I'd run 13/47 as it would be about the same RPM and overall gearing. The TR8 and D606 are awfully close to each other in diameter with the TR8 being just a hair smaller. I do fine doing 70+ on the slab and the offroad performance is much better than stock. 1st is very usable on tight trails, and I can still do 80-85 on the wide open desert stuff. I have the Speedo DRD, and have the speedo set up so that it's correct, but the odo is off about 7% (low).

Overall, 13/48 is a great setup for all around use of the bike with a bit of bias towards offroad use. I tried the 12/43 setup initially and it was close (3.58 final ratio) but like the 3.7 final ratio the best.

Thanks to everyone for the input. What I heard really helped me come to a solid conclusion. I will be going 13/47 for sure. If I was going to ride more off-road than I plan I would have gone with 13/48, but I will be on a lot of highway and flat dirt roads. This will be my first change to the bike, except the tank bag and Flatland skid plate that I hope will show up soon! Thanks again, I found a forum that wants to help... amazing.

I have a WRX, so my results will be a bit different than yours, but I went from the stock 13/42 + 140/70/17 to 13/48 + 150/60/17 (Distanzia's) and my speedo required a -22.7% change with the SpeedoDRD.
I verified the speed by GPS and I topped out at 130 km/h (80 mph) on the highway, pinned/engine screaming... Actually, the engine was already yelling at me at 110 km/h.
I have now gone back to the stock 13/42 gearing due to highway-ability, and the small road fun has gone. 



@ Traveller: If your odo is only off by 7% now, you haven't programmed your SpeedoDRD properly. The stock WRR/X's are off by 7.7%, plus the gearing change, plus the rear tire size change...

http://www.12oclocklabs.com/sdrd_calc.htm

No, my odo is off about 7% low because I have the speedo corrected now. The speedo is accurate, but the odo is off as verified against mile markers and my phone GPS. The odo was right on from the factory, but the speedo was about 7% high as many have noted. Correcting the speedo shifts the odo about that offset the other direction. I made the choice that if I could only have one be accurate, I'd go with the speedo.

Im with Traveler, I dont care if my odometer is off but with the DRD now my speedo is really close, mine was out 21.5% with the gear change, drove me nuts, or maybe nuttier, all good now, I just use the odometer for a referance for oil changes and such, cheer`s

I ran 13/48 with a Dunlop D606 for a bit. I found that I wanted more low end grunt.
I run off road mostly and end up going with 13/50 which I like a lot.

Didn't read anything about changing the chain. What size rear requires a new chain?

I used this for both 13/48 and 13/50

Primary Drive 520 ORH 520x112

Been running 13/48 on T63s for probably 3 years. Better top end, better low end grunt, all round just better (than stock). So much better that I have no inclination to experiment with anything else. I'm about 195 lbs with gear on.