Hi all.

Little info for those considering some gearing changes…

The bike is a 2005 TT600RE. The stock front sprocket is 15t.I got my 14t front sprocket from wemoto yesterday and installed it this morning. Then I went for a ride, 40 Km offroad/trails, 70Km road, 20 Km around town.

The sprocket is made by “Techcorps”. It looks like a quality part, I like how they let the splines run the whole width of the sprocket, and not only 2/3 of the way like on the stock Yamaha (see pic).

The sprocket swap was straight forward. I did not need to shorten the chain, I had enough adjustment left.

General:
The bike feels more responsive, the difference is very noticeable. With the stock gearing the bike felt a little lazy, but now it will pull better out of turns and feel more “awake”. Gearing changes have great impact on how smaller capacity bikes feel, but I did not expect this big thumper to react this much to one tooth change on the front sprocket.

Offroad:
Big improvement. The first gear is now OK (but a little high), and the second nearer to it. Much easier to find the right gear in the rough.

Dirtroads/trails:
Big improvement. The bike is now plain more fun. It will pull better out of corners. Easier to power slide. More responsive.

Road:
The sweet spot in fifth gear is now around 90 KM/H, perfect IMHO. I was not happy with the stock gearing on the road, fifth was often to high ( no lugging - fifth gear problem) so I was changing between fifth and fourth a lot (uphill, downhill, wind, exc) . I hardly ever ride the bike over 100 KM/H for any length of time due to the upright sitting position and the lack of windshield. For people riding over 100 KM/H for long periods of time it’s better not to lower the gearing. I did run the bike for a short period at 110KM/H and it was OK I guess, but the RPM’s felt a little high.

Wheelies:
Big improvement. I have been pulling wheelies in second gear on this bike, I am not good enough to use first gear. To lift the front, with the stock gearing, I needed to move backwards on the bike, hit the front brake hard to compress the forks and then, when the forks rebounded, clutch and throttle aggressively. Timing was everything. Hard to do. Now the procedure is the same, but *MUCH* easier.

So for me, this change was 100% positive. Bigger difference than I expected for sure. But for someone that mainly rides on the road at higher speeds… not a good idea.

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Yamaha XT600E '01, Honda XR400 '03, Yamaha XT550 '83