First Gear

[coops]

Apologies if this is a daft question but I'm still pretty new to this. Was riding in a comp today and even though I was in first gear the bike was running like it was in second, to the point that a couple of people asked if I was in second gear and should knock it down as it was running fast on idle. Managed to do ok but spent a lot of time on the clutch.. Don't remember it being like this before, any suggestions ?

Cheers all... Coops

[dombush]

Coops

When i first strarted on my gasgas i felt exactly the same. I could see others inching through off camber corners where i seemed to lurch into them, panicing, clutching, poor grip on the bars, making mistakes.

I checked gearing, tickover speed... all the obvious things.

In the end it was a combination of two things:-

1. Fitting a flywheel weight to reduce the possibility of stalling.
   
2. Practcing leaving the clutch slone and trusting the bike at low revs / tickover.
   

Now i only clutch when i absolutely have to and approach hazards at much reduced pace.

At the time, if asked i would have sworn it was the bike.

Dom

[lineaway]

If you have an 11 tooth counter shaft sprocket, change it out for a 10 tooth. Some models are geared too fast!!

[coops]

Cheers for the responses, just checked and i'm running 11t on the front so will try 10t instead and see how that goes. Another stupid question, but I assume changing it is a straight forward excercise.. anything to be aware of (not done it before)... will I also need to shorten the chain ?

Again sorry if I should know, but pretty new to the maintenance side of things, but determined to learn.. Cheers

[coop650]

Generally just going up, or down, 1 tooth on the countershaft your chain will be fine the length it is. That isn't always 100% the case of course, especially if your chain is worn already and stretched some. But the most times I have only ever had to change the chain length is when I change the rear sprocket by 2 teeth or more.

[coops]

Thanks for the advice, will try a new 10t and current chain see if that works / feels more comfortable without spinning me too much in sections. Guess it may be the first of many changes to see what feels and works best for my dodgy riding style (seem to remember this being easier when I was younger!!)

[sting32]

Coops,

The newer bikes have a great big snail cam chain tensioner, before 06 they were smaller, seems they only allowed you to adjust about half-3/4s of the slot in swingarm. when I radically changed front gears on son's bike I bought Jitsie snail cams for his bike, save us having to find half links for chain.

Dad usually gears his front sprocket down (we have same bike) on his 300's. I hate that, to me makes the bike "spinout" easier. but to each thier own, dad now uses 2nd most of the time, but his class is hellish tight turns (Sr Amature).

The trick to EVERYTHING about your speed and what gear, now days is: you slip the clutch. Your left finger become the manual control of power put to rear wheel, no matter how fast you throttle the engine. Plus this way the bike wont stall, and you control your speed with (rear mainly for me) brakes and slipping the clutch for your desired speed. You wont even notice this happening, but it is when you watch expereinced riders. I ride in 2nd 90% of the time, Master riders seem to ride as much in 3rd (bigger obstacles to jump up)... You will just have to practice this it becomes a non issue.

FWIW, I can poke as slow as you guys can with 10 tooth front on 50 tooth rears sprokets plus slipping the clutch means I dont deal with every combustion pulse, and because I slip the clutch to maintain whatever speed I need... then I have my finger "right there" to pull clutch 100% of the time, to save an engine dying for most any reason, if you get me.

that all above, is just a suggestion, it is not like I am a champ rider or anything, just been at this a while..

Edited April 9, 2013 by sting32

[coops]

sting, thanks for the advice, I think you and dombush make really good points and I can see the sense in keeping practicing for now with the current set up and the benefits of that. TBH I'm still pretty green this time round and on a modern bike ... so guess it's time to practice, practice, practice until the control is there (or not) at least if I can't nail that I have the option of dropping down a tooth on the front later on.

Thanks to all for the reply's and opinions... much appreciated!

[sting32]

Coops, for "lower Classes" I should say gearing the bike down a bit (smaller sprocket, they're cheap enough or used to be).

What I didn't like was, and this would be conjecture I guess, assuming you want to improve, and move up as far as possible in the classes in the next couple years.... But, say you get to top of your amature class, and still riding the slow geared bike? It took me a long long time to convince my dad to go back to stock gearing, because when he rode same stuff I do {practicing mainly}, he'd gas the bike, rear wheel would first slip, AND my stock geared bike would cover slightly more ground for the same "blip" so to speak, and he'd and come up short.

FWIW, after a short testing period, well he's gone back to smaller front, but rides in second though, kinda works for him. they ride more slow tighter turns, tricky little things... so it fits him, and those in that class.

So I guess I say dont be afraid to try it... especially starting out I guess?

Edited April 10, 2013 by sting32