NoBs Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 New owner here, first ride today. Tried a couple of hills today and had some issues between 1st and 2nd while going up a few decent hills. First was too low and second wanted to bog. Who has dropped a tooth or two in the counter shaft sprocket to help with this and what kind of results did you notice ? Pretty sure this probably has been addressed before but I don't know where or how to look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Cynic Posted March 14, 2020 Moderator Share Posted March 14, 2020 Counter shaft? Do you mean output shaft? I would count off the teeth on the sprockets you have. Often as not people up gear off road type bikes thinking they will get some more road speed. There are also limits to what that little 250 is good for. its not a massive leap from the 125, maybe 8hp. You may have to settle for what you have on the 'big' hills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoBs Posted April 9, 2020 Author Share Posted April 9, 2020 On 3/14/2020 at 1:32 PM, Cynic said: Counter shaft? Do you mean output shaft? I would count off the teeth on the sprockets you have. Often as not people up gear off road type bikes thinking they will get some more road speed. There are also limits to what that little 250 is good for. its not a massive leap from the 125, maybe 8hp. You may have to settle for what you have on the 'big' hills. I've only ever known it as a counter shaft sprocket but output shaft works as well. .. I'm in the USA so our ways of describing it may be different. Perhaps you folks have less terrain where a little more oomph is useful while going up steeper hills. Here in the States there's a lot, especially in the Eastern and Western parts. Have to disagree with " settling " with what you have. A tooth or two less on the counter shaft makes a world of difference in pulling power up steep terrain. While the HP is unchanged the pulling power is increased dramatically. Obviously, it's easier to go uphill no matter what the terrain. Common practice here in the States.. Some guys also increase the teeth on the rear sprocket as well. If one lives on flat ground area, you might go the other way ( less output shaft teeth ) for more speed.. but for me, I wouldn't have bought the dual purpose XT 250 if that were the case.. *** guess I should have stated in the beginning I'm mainly talking dirt bike riding hills, some fairly aggressive in soft dirt, not street hills. Even so, the principle works the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finnerz89 Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 I dropped a tooth off the front sprocket on my DT. Pulls much nicer now, especially on those pesky hills. I think cynic is trying to say that someone may have already changed the gearing from stock. For the cost of a front sprocket, it's definitely worth a try. 1 tooth on the front is probably equivalent to 4 or 5 on the rear. You can use https://www.gearingcommander.com/ to calculate your ratios if you like. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackhat250 Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 Yip.. go down 2 if offroad . as top speed not important,, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Cynic Posted April 10, 2020 Moderator Share Posted April 10, 2020 Yes I was saying, obviously badly, that a previous owner may have messed with it already thinking it would do a zillion miles an hour with different gearing and as the 250 has little spare (for 70mph road work) horsepower it hurts. From my off road riding you can benefit from fitting a big front sprocket and a big rear, you keep a broadly similar final drive ratio but the relationship between the sprocket and the wheel means its easier for the gear to turn the wheel. Its not a massive benefit but it all helps. We have just the same lumpy ground in the uk, I used to find that letting the wheel spin up was normally the best option, not so much for people close behind. but hey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoBs Posted February 15, 2022 Author Share Posted February 15, 2022 On 4/10/2020 at 10:00 AM, Cynic said: Yes I was saying, obviously badly, that a previous owner may have messed with it already thinking it would do a zillion miles an hour with different gearing and as the 250 has little spare (for 70mph road work) horsepower it hurts. From my off road riding you can benefit from fitting a big front sprocket and a big rear, you keep a broadly similar final drive ratio but the relationship between the sprocket and the wheel means its easier for the gear to turn the wheel. Its not a massive benefit but it all helps. We have just the same lumpy ground in the uk, I used to find that letting the wheel spin up was normally the best option, not so much for people close behind. but hey. Didn't see this was replied to... sorry about that. The bike was brand new, I've since located a 14T front sprocket instead of the stock 15 and as I thought, made a world of difference. Made the first 4 gears much more useable in the dirt because of the local terrain, especially the first 2 gears. I've always geared my dirt bikes down a notch since the 70's. It's commonplace to have over a 1000 ft elevation change several times in one outing. Top speed is not an issue. Feathering the clutch on a long uphill climb is a technique that's popular here in the states. While there are rocks everywhere, there are sections that have fist size to baby head size all the way to full fledged boulders all the way up a climb. On the few flat areas you can still have 60 mph or so top speed which is more than enough in the dirt.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy Posted February 15, 2022 Share Posted February 15, 2022 Good update bud, glad you're still enjoying the bike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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