Which Transmission setup

[davesax36]

Ok. I'm about to have this extra transmission worked on, but I can't make a final decision on what setup to go with. Please vote to help me decide because I have to get this thing sent out in the next two days.

My driving style is: Not hyper-speed, but power sure is nice.

I live in: North Texas... Which means most of my roads are straight and filled with lunatics that are trying to kill me with their vehicles either on purpose or by accident. I also have access to some really great twisty roads within a day's drive, so I'll use those as much as possible on weekends.

I used to ride: VTX, FZ1, Monster. I'm not a racer-boy, but I like to explore the handling of my bikes. Right now my V-max is all stock size/spec everything, but that will probably change (starting with suspension) after the trans work is done.

I need you guys to help me with this. I've got Spousal Approval for all the above options, so it's not really about money at this point.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

After riding mine on the three sisters in Bandera I found the 20% rpm drop of the 5th gear conversion done on mine a little tedious. Too many places where fourth is too low and fifth way to high.
I absolutely love it on the highway but power gear it's not.

I found myself in spots winding it out more cause a knew the next gear was like hitting a wall, not a handy thing in the twisties.
I do not regret doing it tho cause 90% of my riding is around the Houston area, the reductions great for highway riding.

I think their is a lesser reduction gear available than the one I went with.

The full undercut done on my tranny was well worth the money. I would never do another tranny without performing that mod. It's smooth as butter

 

[davesax36]

Edit for my inability to read....


Rusty- I'm assuming you're using the stock final drive. I'm wondering if the venture diff (10% everywhere) with stock gears would work better in texas (and everywhere for me, really).

 

[srk468]

I personally like the stock gearing but if I wasn't racing and most of my riding was on the highway then the OD 5'th Sean offers would be a good idea... The venture diff will keep the rpm down but you'll lose alot of punch down low and even up top because the engine doesn't make enough hp to pull against that tall of a gear, Sean can explain it better than I can... When I send mine off to Sean I'm just going to be doing the undercut and whatever else he can do to help the trans live but I'll be skipping the OD 5'th because on the spray I need 5'th to finish the 1/4 and other than it being a little loud I don't mind the gearing for cruising... You can cruise at 5000rpm all day long and not hurt a thing and still get pretty decent mileage actually, last trip on mine I averaged 39mpg but my friends stayed back a bit to protect their hearing... LOL

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[Redbone]

Rusty spelled out pretty well my feelings on the undercut/ fifth gear OD transmission w/ stock rear differential. Undercut the transmission whatever you do, it improves the shifting greatly.
The path you choose depends on what you are doing when you change from 4th gear to 5th; if your still looking to push handling limits/ looking for top ET in the 1/4 mile the OD may not be for you. Although if you only occaisionlly get into these modes it may be a viable tradeoff. If your a daily rider that occasionally steps it up this undercut/ OD setup will be for you. It makes cruising backroads effortless, while you still have enough giddyup to pass multiple vehicles with ease.

 

[[email protected]]

I would not buy an OD 5th unless I was doing highway riding more than anything else.

The venture diff is easy enough to try out. Buy a cheap one and put it on. If you like it, keep it. If not, sell it and get your money back.

As noted, the vmax is perfectly happy buzzing along a 5K RPM all day long.

 

[davesax36]

I wonder if the venture diff with stock gearing would really give 10% lower fuel mileage than OD and 10% better than stock on a long trip. I never felt bad running my FZ1 at 4.5k all day when I rode from Houston to D.C... That's on a bike with an 11k redline (close enough). That stock gear/venture diff is looking a little better to me for some reason.

 

[bikedave99]

Ok Morley, it sounds like perfect solution to everyone's problem is a 6th gear! Ha ha!

 

[dannymax]

Thought for sure I'd be solo on this but see Joe went this way too. unk:

Considering the kind of riding I do I'm perfectly happy to use the gear ratios that Yamaha engineers pondered long & hard over. I do very little slab riding, once in awhile a blast on the Taconic Motor Speedway, mostly secondary and twistie roads and the power is nice.

As others have mentioned....it depends on your requirements but for me....undercut gears, all else stock.

 

[one2dmax]

There is a 15% option but it requires a completely different core transmission (I only have one at the moment). It changes ALL of the gears though mostly the 5th gear again. I think I have it listed in my transmission compare chart.

 

[naughtyG]

I ran the Venture diff on my '86 pretty much the whole time I had it. Now I run the stock diff on my 2000.

I found I liked the Venture diff a lot in FL, and I was doing a lot of highway miles, but I would still have preferred the stock 1-4 with OD 5th if I could have afforded it.
With the Venture the revs were a little (500rpm) lower across the range, but there's no way in hell it cut fuel consumption at all. Just meant I was doing 85 rather than 75 at the same cruising revs...
It did lose a bit of punch on acceleration, but conversely once it got going each gear 'felt' faster as it was taller.

Still, I love the way the Max goes on stock gearing, so I would always favor keeping that. Having the 5th OD is the best of both worlds - an even more relaxed motor when cruising than with a Venture diff, and still all the punch down low. That's my 2 cents.

Here in Oz however, the highest speed limit anywhere is 110km/h (just under 70mph) and cops are everywhere with radars, so stock gearing is perfect as you could never cruise at high speeds as I did in Europe and the US..

 

[davesax36]

Hmmm... I guess most of my riding is just around town, going to work, store, see friends, etc. I will be doing some weekend slab trips with my wife on the back, though. I think gas mileage isn't going to matter. It's a giant motor with a tiny tank... Can't change that, and I wouldn't want to. I've wanted one of these things for 20 years now. I just want to make sure I choose what's good for me for the next 20.

 

[naughtyG]

A more relaxed 5th will never hurt unless you're drag racing. On the contrary, it's awesome to cruise at lower revs. Remember that at 70mph you'd usually be doing around 5000rpm, whereas with the 5th OD you'd be way lower - I think Sean said it's 15% so just about 4250..

Still, if you're only gonna do short runs and never cruise anywhere then I say keep it all stock, just undercut for reliability.

 

[[email protected]]

Ok Morley, it sounds like perfect solution to everyone's problem is a 6th gear! Ha ha!

A 6th gear would be nice!

 

[Miles Long]

I'm looking forward to trying out my newly-installed Venture diff., although it looks like that won't take place until the spring.
For one thing, my bike seems to have a critical speed thing going on at around 4 grand rpm - I can feel the vibration thru the pegs and see it in the mirrors. At 5 grand all is smooth, and at 3500 the vibes are much less as well. Since I spend the majority of my time on "the slab", cruising at 3500 or so should be a peachy experience.
I'm also hoping that there is an improvement in gas mileage. Petrol is more expensive in Canada. Has anyone that uses a Venture diff. done a controlled mileage check to verify better mileage vs.the stock setup?
Cheers!

 

[naughtyG]

I'm also hoping that there is an improvement in gas mileage. Petrol is more expensive in Canada. Has anyone that uses a Venture diff. done a controlled mileage check to verify better mileage vs.the stock setup?
Cheers!

Honestly after many, many miles on I-4 doing the same 70ish miles ride again and again, I can safely say I did not see much of an improvement at all in fuel consumption. I sure was expecting better.

But, the lower 500 revs for the same speed were very nice indeed. I used to get 95 miles to the reserve light, every time pretty much, doing 85-95 all the way. Until I fitted an off switch for the radiator fan (to counter a lower temp thermostat that kept the fan going all the time) and then consumption went to 105 miles to reserve light, reliably for the whole rest of the time I had my '86!

Just thought also - I was running a HellFire windshield (large), Fatmax hard bags and a top box as well as my 200ish pounds all suited up, which all contributed to my figures too..

 

[davesax36]

Great. Tied again. I know I should just pick one and I'll be happy. I guess I was hoping somebody would come on here and say ,"I did (whichever one) and I wish I'd done something different."

 

[naughtyG]

Well if it helps, I went with Venture diff and wished I'd gone 5th OD instead! Still do. Just was too much $$ at the time..

 

[davesax36]

Thanks, G. That helps.

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[Redbone]

60% of my time is local cruising/ hooliganism and the rest are long rides on the slad so I can do some cruising/ hooliganism with my Vmax friends. I would do the 5th gear OD again, as I have squeezed 141 miles out of a stock tank, so it does help on the slab rides with gas mileage. Normally I would get ~125 (at best) before I had the OD upgrade. I am also going to get a bigger tank, hoping to find one of the BRM tanks, or probably will have Sean weld one up for me.
From what it sounds like, you could get the trans undercut and be happy with it. The fuel breaks are far and few inbetween in the U.P. which makes my fuel mileage a little more critical than most would require.