Friday, May 8 2015
My DR650 is comfortable going down the road at 65-70 MPH. On the other hand I sometimes finding myself needing to downshift more than expected when playing on the back roads. That’s easy to fix. I’m replacing the front 15 tooth sprocket with a 14 tooth sprocket.
Sprocket and retainer
Stock sprocket
Seal retainer
Procycle delivered more stickers along with the new sprocket and retainer. The retainer is needed as the stock item is too large for the smaller sprocket. Removing the old retainer and pulling the sprocket give me a nice view of the counter shaft seal retainer Suzuki now puts on the bike.
Must clean thread locker
Old and new sprocket
The hardest part of the job is removing the old threadlocker from the screws before adding new threadlocker. I installed the new sprocket and raised the rear end of the bike with a scissor jack to adjust the chain tension for the smaller sprocket.
Ready to ride
Chain adjusted and cleaned. The bike is ready to ride.
I like. On the freeway the bike runs about 350 RPM higher moving 65-70 MPH from 4750 RPM (±) to 5100 RPM (±). The bike is a bit buzzy at that RPM. I can live with that as the bike feels more fun to ride in the lower gears. It’s only a 7% difference, but quite noticeable.