2006 R/T Gearing too tall - especially first gear

chrisinsc said:

The af-xied has definitely smoothed out the bike considerably and helped the low speed performance. Really curious about the rocket sprockets now

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OldCamper said:

Changing out an RT transmission or rear drive is not trivial nor likely to be inexpensive. To contemplate doing it to be able to ride alongside bicycles at less than 10mph uphill shows true dedication to an activity. I’ve seen videos of motorcycles at bicycle events carrying camerapersons and such, but if low speed capability is a requirement, why aren’t maxiscooters used by the referees? They would seem a better choice but I’m probably missing something.

Just curious.

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OldCamper said:

Changing out an RT transmission or rear drive is not trivial nor likely to be inexpensive. To contemplate doing it to be able to ride alongside bicycles at less than 10mph uphill shows true dedication to an activity. I’ve seen videos of motorcycles at bicycle events carrying camerapersons and such, but if low speed capability is a requirement, why aren’t maxiscooters used by the referees? They would seem a better choice but I’m probably missing something.

Just curious.

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masegraves said:

Good to hear. I have the af-xied installed on a 2006 R1200RT that I'm using as a sidecar tug. I thought it was geared too high, so this was the first step to address that. Next I switched to a smaller diameter rear wheel and tire, which also helped a lot. I'm not sure if that can be done on a stand alone bike. Finally, I have a used GS final drive that I haven't tried yet, but that should improve low end torque even more.

Mark
Chicago

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natrab said:

I'll give my input as I've had an RT-P as well as changed the final drive on my current R1200RT. The RT-P is a master of going incredibly slow, with the shorter final drive and modified 1st gear. The only downside to it is that 1st gear is not usable for much else. I've taken it on the track and in spirited rides in the hills and if I accidentally went all the way back down to 1st for tight turns as I normally would, it was enough to spin up the rear and activate the ASC. So what you gain in low speed, you'll lose in faster speed ability (granted, I am someone who does track days on his RTs and uses the whole rev range often...).

On my current RT, I swapped the final drive for that of an R1200R, which is a 2.75 ratio compared to my stock 2.62. This was enough to give me a little more low-speed stability without sacrificing the lower RPM on the freeway in 6th gear (which is perfect for me as I teach a lot of low speed and need to go slow on the same bike that I ride daily and recreationally).

Ideally, you'd have two bikes. The RT-P for slow speed stuff like your bicycle race and a normally geared RT for everything else. I've had that setup and it was great, only it was two bikes to maintain and store. Now I'm content with the 2.75 FD, though if I did more slow speed, I could see going to the GS final drive ratio of 2.91, which is also still usable as a daily ride (you'll just have higher RPMs on the freeway). However, RT-Ps in the hexhead gen are dirt cheap right now, so you could also just buy one and have a second bike rather than trying to replace just the transmission, which could leave you with a big headache and no bike for a period of time.

Anyways, hope this helps.

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