04 FE 550, owners "what gearing"?

Gearing

Gearing is totally an individual performance preference. Although, I don't even own a Husaberg yet. I can tell you that you should run the gearing the matches your riding type. Are you wanting resposiveness. Go with the 14/50. If you want more to speed go with the 15/48. Genereally, I'll run the tallest gearing the motor will pull. I think I ran 15/44 on my old 620KTM. But I'm a little guy, so it would easily pull me thru the tight sections as well as scream on top.

My 03 Fe501e had 15/48 stock. I switched to 15/50 because we ride some extremely tight singletrack. The 5 mph type stuff. I presumed that running a 50 rear would help hillclimbing and ease the engine and clutch strain in the really tight stuff. What I have noticed, is I have to shift too often. It seems that as I exit each corner I get a very brief straight, so I rev and shift, and 5 seconds later I need to downshift for the next turn. I have tried taking those turns in a higher gear, but it seems they are too slow for the higher gear and a little fast for the lower gear. I know mx racers set their gearing to minimize shifting during the race. So I ordered a 15/45 gear set to test that theory in the singletrack. I believe that 15/45 will allow me to slip through the turns quickly and provide enough speed in that gear to avoid the need to shift up and then right back down 5 seconds later. That will make a tremendous difference on how fatigued I become in the singletrack. I also noticed the steeper hillclimbs are too tough in second (engine doesn't have enough power to maintain the speed and keep the rpm's up) and my first gear is really revving the engine alot. So the smaller rear will help in that situation. I know other guys that have done the same thing with their KX500 2 strokes. They said they went down some teeth in the rear and it tames the motor and stretches the time between shift points, making it easier to ride those tight trails.
Lastly, I find the majority of whoops put me in the same gearing limbo. One gear is too high and I can't stay on top due to low rpm's and lack of power, and the other gear is too low and I actually have to reduce speed slightly to keep the rpm's from being excessive, but then I don't have the momentum I want to stay on top in the rhythm of the whoops.

A different perspective on gearing for you to consider.

The stock gearing of 15/48 was waaaay too high for me. I have gone to a 14 front and it's nearly perfect. Depending how things go I might go to a 50 rear as well. I ride is some pretty tight stuff and gnarly hills. Fwiw even with the 14/48 the bike did 151kph yesterday and still wanted to go faster... so nothing to loose gearing down

I run a 14/48 on my 470, not for power, but rather to make 1st gear low enough for those REALLY tight trails (like goat trails with switchbacks).

Dear Sir.

You want to change gears less or hardly at all ?

Read Splat´s advise.

I had the standard gearing like he mentions (15-48) and changed to 15-45
because I was somehow always in the wrong gear

Less shifts, less wheelspin, longer pull in gears, less shifting, noise bleeding top-speed and still acceptable first gear.
Try It out, the torque is endless anyhow, the beast will not bog.........

For motocross use the 15-48 is much better.

Re: gearing

Scully said:

Well the one thing I did notice on the first ride was how little I had to change gears, so I guess a 550 can handle 15/48 better than my 501, we'll see.

Click to expand...

That would be your best bet.I run a 13x48 setup on my bike a 96 FE501 for the reasons that are tight trails and I like a granny gear to fall back on if needed.The 550s are supposed to be stronger all the way around so you might not have to do anything or very little.Good luck.

I've tried the following:

15:48 too high
14:51 :shock: too low
14:48 just right!

14:48 has plenty for tight stuff and higher speeds

I settled on 16/48 gearing as the best all round gearing for my '96 FE600E. It served me well for all types of trail conditions from the slowest, nastiest single track to high speed desert runs. First gear was still a granny gear and second gear was good for most low speed trail situations and for the steepest hills. Most hills could be handled in third gear, perhaps shifting to second gear near the top. Note that pre 2001 Bergs had wider ratio tranny gears which I preferred over the closer ratios in the later models.

Even with 13/52 the 600 will still cruise OK @ 80kph without sounding like it's revving too hard. Good for mountain goat country & mustering, but then the new 550s are probably an overkill for that!

Splat says it all

With my 501, I run 14/48 in the mountains with elevation and the e15/48 at home on my grass track or when I race hare scrambles ( short 20kmLoop races). I will do the same with the 550. 14 is to short for tracks, as Splat says, to much shifting and less torque. On the 550, a 14 will tire you in tight stuff if you ride hard and long.

fryguy

Hi All,

I have been running the stock gearing on my 04 550 and it seems to be about right for me. With the stock rear tire out where I ride, it sort of felt under geared for the desert. But, after proper suspension set up, and more so a brand new set of Michelen s-12 tires it seems about right. Still low enough for the really, really tight stuff, and 96 mph on the dry lake. I think if anything, maybe just slightly lower gearing might be the ticket. On my 01 501 I went to 16-52 which is 3.25:1, compared with the stock 3.2:1. I did this for two reasons 1) less wear on the chain, bigger diameter on the front is the main benefit here, and 2) I wanted to try and prove out a theorr I had read about the effect of sproket diameter's on suspension performance. Seems the bigger sprokets you run, mainly the back I believe, helps to alleviate binding forces that the chain exerts through engine torque on the rear suspension. I don't know if it made that much of a difference b/c I never tested this by switching chain/sproket sets. But I do know that set of chain and sprokets lasted 18 months, and that I did notice the slight gear change. And it seemed to have tightend up the box just enough for better selection in those awkward situations. And for the record I have been running the DID 520 VMX chain and sproket specialties sprokets, and I use Maxima chain wax as the lube.

Stock

I'm happy with my stock gearing, and have no plans of changing. For the riding I have done so far, there seems to be a perfect gear for every situation. For what it's worth..

Knopes

If you where doing 150+ where was lynz or geof...

What About The Gearings For 01 FE400's,My One Doesnt Like To Go That Slow,Seems To Stall Very Easy.
My Sons VOR Will Tractor Nice And Slowly,Almost Walking Pace With Out Stalling.
The Berg Wants To Go At A Running Pace,Which Is A Little Fast For The Type Of Riding We Do. :?
What Would You Guys Recommend. We Ride The Tight,Very Muddy Single Trail Type Stuff,Very Tight And Hilly.
Thanks In Advanced
Kez

Kez
You should be able go down to 14 or even 13 tooth on the front with the original rear without having to shorten the chain. Any significant change to the rear would require a chain extension, and I think that 52 teeth is about as big as you might find anyway.