Geared too low

I have a 2012 G650 that I feel is geared too low for the kind of riding I do. I'm considering replacing the front and rear sprockets to get higher gearing, lower rpm's at highway speeds. Has any one out there tried this, and if so how did it work?
Thanks in advance for any help.

I replaced just the rear sproket on my wife's F650GS. Went from a 45 tooth gear to a 43.

Doing this from a possibly faulty memory......

At 70MPH the engine RPM is reduced by 600-800 RPM. No need to shorten the chain.

Excellent, just the info I was looking for. Thanks

thanks for the info

i just bought a 2009 g650 and was thinking about changing the rear sproket also now i will do it... thx for the info.

wdt650 said:

I have a 2012 G650 that I feel is geared too low for the kind of riding I do. I'm considering replacing the front and rear sprockets to get higher gearing, lower rpm's at highway speeds. Has any one out there tried this, and if so how did it work?
Thanks in advance for any help.

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It's a trade off. Lower rpm at highway speed means less torque everywhere. Going up a tooth on the front is how most folks I know drop the rpms.

I went from the stock 45 tooth rear to a 47 years ago with no noticeable change in gas mileage (Thank you to Prof Steve Johnson!). I have a sweet spot between 72-74 mph (indicated) that will deliver 60-65 mpg loaded on a trip. Riding 55-60 mph gets 68-72 mpg. Twisting your right wrist slower will deliver better mileage, but fewer smiles. And yes I have done a few trips with the 47 tooth sprocket. Alaska 3 times.

Thumpers - F & G bikes

Don't have a BMW Thumper but just sold my KLR650 which I really liked a lot. For sprocket changes there were several complete kits. The Stock chain sprocket for that bike was a 15 tooth sprocket. Kinda did neither highway or off-road at any extreme of superior. Change to a sixteen for street riding. There was also a seventeen but you'd have to grind away some of the front sprocket cover to make it work. Too many options and I never got around to it. For just street it was fine.
A 14 was available for off-road only but that was a pretty heavy bike to ever be called a dirt bike.

Mike Wex
'96 r1100rt

F650624 said:

I went from the stock 45 tooth rear to a 47 years ago with no noticeable change in gas mileage (Thank you to Prof Steve Johnson!). I have a sweet spot between 72-74 mph (indicated) that will deliver 60-65 mpg loaded on a trip. Riding 55-60 mph gets 68-72 mpg. Twisting your right wrist slower will deliver better mileage, but fewer smiles. And yes I have done a few trips with the 47 tooth sprocket. Alaska 3 times.

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My bike came stock with a 47 tooth rear. I get 63 to 65 combination city/hwy. The 47 tooth is probably fine, maybe I'm just not used to running highway speeds at 4 to 5k rpms.

16/47 is the stock gearing on F650GS singles. I've been running 16/45 since 8K miles and at 54K I believe it is perfect for riders that spend a lot of time at highway speeds. 5400= 80mph indicated (77 by GPS), 5550=85indicated (81 by GPS). This is the smallest increment of change moving to higher gearing. I just returned from Colorado on my machine and it is very "sweet" at 80-90 indicated. Fuel mileage is also good. If I keep it around 70 it will do 67-70mpg and I've gotten as high as 72. I go off pavement with it quite often and it handles most stuff just fine. I did have to balk at some very rocky single track last week in Colorado however as I didn't want to smoke the clutch that far from home.