Lower gearing on GSA

amesbub

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Be gentle with me....
New to GSA and after my first excursion onto a green lane or two today I was wondering if you can lower the gearing at all?
Cheers
 
Anything is possible, but it would be bloody costly with a shaft drive bike! Obviously with a chain drive, you can change sprockets. With a shaft drive, you can only really change the gearbox. Which is quite costly on any bike/car.
 
Be gentle with me....
New to GSA and after my first excursion onto a green lane or two today I was wondering if you can lower the gearing at all?
Cheers

They do come with an option of the Enduro Gearbox (which is actually only a lowered first gear) - I'm guessing yours isn't ?
 
there are 2 gearbox options on a gsa,enduro box with a low first gear and a normal box.which have you?use the last 7 didgits of your vin to find out at a dealer.if you havent got the low box you didnt research your new purchase very well did you:D
 
Be gentle with me....
New to GSA and after my first excursion onto a green lane or two today I was wondering if you can lower the gearing at all?
Cheers

Hi im new to this site too but not to greenlaning/enduros would i be correct in thinking you are slipping the clutch to much and you think lower gearing will solve this well really with abit more practice and time your speed will increase and you'll find the gearing to be fine as said before it would be so costly if possible to alter the ratios on a shaft drive bike
 
Lower gearing

On my 1150 I solved the problem by fitting a different bevel box, after experimenting used a box from an 1100 with brilliant results.
Dunno which you could fit on a 1200, but have a look on the Adventure Riders site always a good source of such information.
 
Be gentle with me....
New to GSA and after my first excursion onto a green lane or two today I was wondering if you can lower the gearing at all?
Cheers

As above, you COULD do it, but give it another dozen rides or more, and you'll tune in to how to control the bike in those lanes.

Tyres make more of a difference to your greenlaning on a GS (£ for £) than the enormous cost of modifying your ratios......it would be cheaper to buy a tatty DRZ400 than change your ratios in fact.

Put some more hours in, and make sure you have the right tyres :beerjug:
 
Forget it as too expensive. Been looked at before by quite a few folk. The enduro box has a 1st gear lowered by about 10% which is a small amount but noticeable. However when descending steep hills due to the weight of the GSA the rear has a tendency to try and overtake the front so you end up feathering brakes and clutch which limits benefit if lower first gear.

Just ride it and you will be fine. TKC80's essential.

I am a huge fan of off roading my GSA but less so when it is muddy. Have had too many front wheel wash outs followed by a hard landing. Prefer taking it to drier places like Spanish Pyrenees.
 
I couldn't handle mud on my GSA , but was comfortable with easy graded trails. I didn't have the lower gear enduro option, but NEVER found this to be wanting in any of my off road sorties. Conversely, I would have preferred a low gear option for two up town riding.
 
Confidence - which comes with practice. I first started with a R80GS in the 80's.....first instinct was first gear and go as slow as possible (fear of falling off)......then someone suggested second gear and keep the speed up a bit. At first it seemed a mad idea....I just wanted to crawl along. I tried it, looked further in front, planned my route and WOW.......as others have said get some nobbies on and turn up and stiffen the suspension. I have since gone through all the subsequent versions of the GS and it works on all of them. Good luck.
 
I hardly ever do any off roading but what I did do showed me that going in too slow is asking for trouble. The bike needs speed to remain in control, but I have too far engrained road instincts so until I can get down to see Simon Pavey I'm staying on road.

My GSA was a used buy that would benefit from a lower 1st for busy towns and traffic jams.
 


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