front or rear sprocket ?

stewart90

stewart90

XS650 Enthusiast
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I have a 1974 tx650a and I'm looking to get some taller gears, where cruising at highway speeds don't seem to stress the bike so much ( seems excessive in the rpm gauge ). I don't have a tach. From your guys experience is it better to change the front or rear sprocket ? I haven't made it out to the garage yet to count any teeth yet, just tossing around a few ideas right now and figured I'd ask you guys real quick .
 
I'm running 17/30 with 5th od runs good at highway 60mph
I ran 18/30 with reg 5th gear runs good at highway speed, but 1st is very tall and alot of the pep will be gone I'm also running stock size tires
 
Just a fyi. From what I heard going from a 17 to an 18 requires you to remove one of your covers. If your only doing one, people would rather go from a 34 to a 32 rear than a 17 to an 18 front.
My question is, whats the particular reason people prefer an 18-32 vs a 17 - 30?
 
I would say stay with 17 front with th 18 you have to remove the shift shaft guard.
removing the left cover is super easy just takes a couple minutes
 
Since you don't feel it's important enough to run a tach, it really doesn't matter what gearing and RPMs you end up with. When the "the old girl" (your motor) blows, it blows. Then you rebuild it, simple as that. Yes, this is a stupid and expensive way to go about riding one of these but, well, it's what you get for the path you chose.
 
I was wanting to go easy on my bike to at highway speeds and did 32 in rear...big difference....less vibration and runs smoothly.lowered rpms to
 
Last edited:
5twins said:
Since you don't feel it's important enough to run a tach, it really doesn't matter what gearing and RPMs you end up with. When the "the old girl" (your motor) blows, it blows. Then you rebuild it, simple as that. Yes, this is a stupid and expensive way to go about riding one of these but, well, it's what you get for the path you chose.
Click to expand...

If youre not out drag racing from stop light to stop light,not having a tach is not a big deal.
Most stock motors stop pulling/making power long before youll start doing damage from high rpms,listen to the bike it wil tell you what it wants to do.;)
 
Thanks for all the helpful information, I'll look into some parts and cost. 5 twins I did not chose this bought the bike this way just have not switched back to a tach quite yet since I haven't felt the urgency since I don't race it around.... yet ;p . I plan someday to get one tho
 
I'm not much of a racer anyways just a guy who likes riding to just ride. Got to find the right tach before I buy one and figure out where to mount it .
 
18/30 here. you can leave the shift shaft guard on by trimming the vertical bracket a little.
1340949987.jpg
 
I took what you guys said and did some research and ended up buying a 32 tooth rear sprocket, it's coming in the mail now . Did you guys have to drop and links or mess around with the chain at all ?
 
stewart90 said:
Did you guys have to drop and links or mess around with the chain at all ?
Click to expand...

You will probably have to remove a couple links.
But maybe not.
You will know for sure after you install the sprocket.
You will or wont have enough room to slide the wheel back enough to tighten the chain.
If you can't tighten the chain enough then remove the links.
 
I didn't on a stock bike with 32 rear sprocket. 104 links is what I got. Believe that's stock length for my 78. But check to make sure
 
stewart90 said:
I took what you guys said and did some research and ended up buying a 32 tooth rear sprocket, it's coming in the mail now . Did you guys have to drop and links or mess around with the chain at all ?
Click to expand...

Hi stewart,
old chain eats new sprockets. Old sprockets eat new chain.
They last a lot longer installed as a set.
So no, you don't have to "mess around" but the drive will last a lot longer if you replace the chain and both sprockets at the same time.
 
Yeah fredintoon I've read that before so maybe I'll look into lowbrow or Mikes xs and buy a new chain . Thanks everyone for the quick and helpful tips
 

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