Life on a Honda 2008 CBF1000A purhcased on Facebook Marketplace. A Flog's Blog

[facthunter]

I Can't stand Bikes where you are always looking for a Higher gear, especially on long trips. The endless buffeting behind semis and busses with the Occasional Rock or tyre tread, is One of the reasons I hate Riding on fast highly trafficked Roads.  I once did over 1100 Kms in one Hit. The last 350 of it being in Heavy rain. I don't recommend that.  Nev

[pmccarthy]

Hop on a Honda, and go! 

 

An advert from about 1968 I think.

[onetrack]

It looks like a new sprocket is coming up? Getting gearing right for highway cruising is important. When I ran a lot of Holden utes, we would change the rear axle ratio to a higher ratio, to improve fuel economy, reduce engine and increase engine longevity. We would go from a 3.55:1 rear axle to a 3:36:1 for the 6 cyl engines. Just enough difference to stop the engines from screaming their guts out at highways speeds. Too often, the factory gearing is too low.

 

The earlier Landcruiser traytops and troop carriers with the 4.5L V8 diesel are notorious for too low gearing. The 4.5L V8 diesel was doing 2600RPM at 110km/h, that's revving too high for such a big donk. Toyota fixed the Landcruiser gearing in 2017 and raised the 5th gear ratio by 15%. Interestingly, aftermarket suppliers can supply a modified gearbox mainshaft with a 5th gear that is 20% higher.

 

My 2013 2WD diesel (N70 series) Hilux was too low geared for highway work. About 2 years ago, I took off the 15" wheels (fitted with 205/70R15 tyres) and fitted a set of 16 wheels from the later N80 series 2WD Hilux. These 16" wheels are fitted with 215/65R16 tyres - slighter lower profile than the 15" I took off, but still larger diameter overall (by about 4%).

 

The improvement the 16" wheels made was just amazing. Fuel economy improved, engine revs and noise went down, and I didn't notice a great deal of difference in pulling power on hills. I'm alert to engine lugging by coming down too low in 5th gear at lower speeds, and change down to 4th at any sign of engine lugging.

 

Edited 26 minutes ago by onetrack