Will a smaller sprocket help?

[dougahole]

I'm a little let down with the take off performance with my new, used tiger. It seems as though it's geared a little tall for initial take off and requires a lot of clutch. Would a 17 tooth sprocket cure this or is it the way the ecm is mapping the fuel. I already have a K&N air filter, race can and have had it mapped to the race tune and it is still a pig off the line.

[robbo]

If you search the forum youÌll find several threads about this but in short I think the general feeling is that it does improve acceleration but at the cost of very short gears and very buzzy at cruising speeds. Well thatÌs what I found when I tried it anyway.

[BykBoy]

I'm a little let down with the take off performance with my new, used tiger. It seems as though it's geared a little tall for initial take off and requires a lot of clutch. Would a 17 tooth sprocket cure this or is it the way the ecm is mapping the fuel. I already have a K&N air filter, race can and have had it mapped to the race tune and it is still a pig off the line.

Let down? You had high expectations...



Is this your first bike? If not, what did you ride before?



If you want more "getup" get a 16 tooth sprocket. That will get you going right off the line. Your fuel consumption will suffer and the bike will be even more "buzzy" like robbo said,  but it will get you off the line fast!

[Howlin]

If it is a used bike,pull the c/shaft cover and count the teeth to see if previous owner went 1 over.I am running 1 over and it is pretty long legged in 1st,but nice to cruise with.

[dougahole]

Hey Bykboy! My previous bike was a Kawasaki ZZR1200 and this is bike number 49 for me. I've had every type of bike made and like all of them, including the tiger. It just seems a little sluggish  off idle, but once under way it runs great. The one I demo'ed acouple of years ago felt spunkier but maybe I just got used to the massive torque of the ZZR the past year or so and I just got spoiled. My sprockets are 18/46 which I believe are stock and I might try a 17 up front just to satisfy my curiousity. Maybe I should put a bottle of NOS in one of the hard bags for those days I need more poop!

[ArizonaKid]

As mentioned most (including myself) tend to gear the Tiger up, usually by virtue of a 19 tooth countershaft sprocket, to make hwy travel less stressful on the Tiger. If you're inclined to gear down, I'd recommend you do it with a larger rear sprocket.  The general reason is that the smaller the countershaft sprocket is the "tighter" the chain has to turn to get around it, thus causing excessive wear and tear on the chain. The larger rear sprocket will get you to the same place with less wear on the chain.