Gearing question
 

So I was thinking of entering the snetterton round and it apparently has a long straight. This got me thinking about my gearing as I've thought in the past that any straight any longer than cadwell and I'd have to mess about with my gearing coz the bike sounds and feels like it's about to explode at the end of park straight and funnily enough also at the end of cadwell's start finish straight (even though they are different lengths)
Anyway I've never done snetterton before and can't do the test day so if snetterton has a straight any longer than cadwell I thought I better change the gearing.
I've had a look through past posts on gearing and havn't come across anyone using the same gearing as what's on my bike.
The bike is a 5 speed 94 583 ss and came with 14t front sprocket and 40t rear. I've never tried any other gearing ratio as for the tracks I've done it seems fine.
But I do have a spare 15t front sprocket and a 39t rear.
So to prevent my bike exploding down snetterton straight would anyone with a 5 speed 583 share there snetteron gearing secrets?

if yr bike is same as mine (which it sounds like it is) you could try 15/40 as you have it already or 15/41

Shane depending on the actual primary drive ratio the bike would have had as standard road gearing
15/36 gearing if its a 2.28 to 1 primary (a lot taller than your 14/40 which is equal to 15/43)
and
15/41 gearing if its a 2.00 to 1 primary (not far off your 14/40 which is equal to 15/43)

Thanks miles.
And Kev I think my head just exploded. Your post confused me more than the wife's sudoku puzzles

right
the very first 600SS came with a 2.28 to 1 primary drive and had a 15T front sprocket and a 36T rear sprocket

During 1994 they changed the primary drive to a 2 to 1 ratio a change of 14%
as such the final drive gearing need changing to compensate so the rear sprocket was also altered by 14%

Knowing which one you have is the key

Ok Kev thanks
Is there any way of telling which primary drive ratio I have?

well you could remove the clutch cover and count the teeth on the primary drive
the other way of telling is the output shaft for the front sprocket is shorter on the 2.28 to 1 engines, maybe Mark Hamilton or Andy Claridge could let you know what their early engines measure

Ok kev thanks

I think Kev means remove the Sprocket cover, not the Clutch cover;)


Chris:burn:

No I don't Chris as the only way to be certain is to remove the clutch cover you can then count the teeth on both the primary gear and the clutch basket 32/73 respectively for the 2.28 to 1 and 31/62 for the 2 to 1 ratio

The output shaft is a good guide but there is nothing to stop someone having changed the primary gearing on a previous occasion

Ooops, my bad, not properly awake when read it ;)


Chris :burn:

I was awake when I started to read it,,,,,,,,,

Shane, I think your bike is the same primary drive as mine as I was running 14/40 at Cadwell this year and was about 8500rpm at the end of the Park straight.
Based on the gearing at Donnington I will probably start the first few sessions for the Friday at that then as I hopefully start to carry more corner speed I may drop the rear to 39.
Ultimately your riding style, corner speed etc will determine the best gearing for you!

Thanks Mark. Well with the sprockets I've got at least I've got a couple of options to get a bit more top speed

I'm aiming to keep the same gearing on that I've used all year, maybe at Snet I'll use top.

i've tended mainly to use
15/41 for donny/anglesey/snett
14/40 cadwell
14/39 pembrey