Sprocket truth

[GMP]

It's not about grunt, damn the bike has more of that than I need. It's about being in 3rd with a little more revs out of a turn, and not having to drop to 2nd that is too much. Mountain races is where I notice it, flat land not so much.

[Hammer]

I have tried from 48 to 52 tooth and 51 is about the best for what I ride. The beta kind of suffers the same fate as the Xc-w. You never seem to be in the correct gear.

[twowheels]

The Factory Fatty pipe may be exactly what you're looking for then, and what you won't find in a sprocket. I slipped one on and found the bottom to be a little softer, but where the stock pipe would run out of steam about mid-range the Fatty picks up and revs much further.

Where you may have wanted to shift to third to smooth things out at the bottom end in second you can stay in the lower gear, and where you would have had to shift up from second to third to maintain acceleration, the Fatty lets you rev out further without needing to make the change up, and then down, before the next corner.

That being said, I'm almost committed to running the Fatty in hare scrambles and the OE plated pipe in bar-banging, low speed enduros.

[GMP]

Steve I agree with Armin on this one. He mentioned this a year ago and although I was satisfied with the 50 I could see the 51 being the ticket in the mountains. The trans is wider than say a GG or KTM XC, normally no problem with a 50. Add a little elevation change out of tighter corners and the bike needs a shift down, but then it's making too much power to hook up on the rocks or if it does its lifting the wheel it's pulling so hard. It pulls third, just not quite hard enough without clutch. Never was a big deal until I rode this new course last race. Just the right speed to bring this to your attention.

[GMP]

51t is good. Raced a national HS yesterday in the PA mountains and it did what I wanted. Had a rider go down in front of me on a long, slick, rocky hill climb and block the trail. First was a good bailout.

[flybars]

I'll be switching to a 51 in the future too, for all the same reasons explained above. We ride steep terrain here in the Cascades. I still call it grunt.

[GMP]

After this race test I put a 51t on my spare Husky rear wheel (Husky/GG sprocket) with a trials tire for a few weeks of gnarly trail riding. I think it will climb a tree!

[flybars]

Excellent. I've been using a Michelin trials tire with a HD tube and does this thing hook up.

[brantsdad]

To anyone who's put the 51 on.. did you need a new Chain ?

[GMP]

No, still good even running a Pirelli MT43 TT which is a tall tire. It's awesome fun. With that gearing and tire @ 6PSI you can do some cool stuff!