2008 Kawasaki Concours 14

Will this finally influence mamma Yamma to add another gear?

Nah........Nice if they would listen up but I doubt it.

One thing I hope Yammie doesnt emulate is the Testarossa body panels...ugh, makes me want to wear a white suit, grow a 24 hr beard and listen to Miami Vice on the ipod!

LOL...

Reminds me of an old friend who would rev up his motor and call it an Italian tune up...

Even if we had 6 speeds, Low gear and high gear would more than likely be the same. The horsepower and torque detirmine final gear ratios. Lots of chain drive bikes will go faster if you lower the final drive ratio because they will not pull the revs in high gear with stock gearing. The FJR has enough torque it only needs three gears. One to start out. One for town. One for highway. :lol:

FJRay said:

Even if we had 6 speeds, Low gear and high gear would more than likely be the same. The horsepower and torque detirmine final gear ratios. Lots of chain drive bikes will go faster if you lower the final drive ratio because they will not pull the revs in high gear with stock gearing. The FJR has enough torque it only needs three gears. One to start out. One for town. One for highway. :lol:

Click to expand...

Yup! Have any of you proponents of a 6-speed transmission bothered to compare the final drive ratio between all the bikes? How about including the Hayabusa and the Blackbird? My Connie had 6 speeds but ran higher rpms at 75 mph than my FJR does. Why would you want to "row" through 6 gears to reach the same final drive/overdrive ratio? Especially when the HPO and torque of the FJR make it so easy to ride? Of course, I don't usually involve myself in such aggressive riding that I would benefit from the extrat ratio between First gear and Overdrive.

madmike2 said:

Yup! Have any of you proponents of a 6-speed transmission bothered to compare the final drive ratio between all the bikes? How about including the Hayabusa and the Blackbird? My Connie had 6 speeds but ran higher rpms at 75 mph than my FJR does. Why would you want to "row" through 6 gears to reach the same final drive/overdrive ratio? Especially when the HPO and torque of the FJR make it so easy to ride? Of course, I don't usually involve myself in such aggressive riding that I would benefit from the extrat ratio between First gear and Overdrive.

Click to expand...

+1

I don't think a lot of FJR owners appreciate the fact that the bike has so much torque it allows you to forgo 1 shift and yet still goes like hell. Especially the '06 and '07's as they have even taller gearing. I would bet that Yamaha has 5th just about as tall as they are comfortable with already. Most don't understand or consider the factors in maximizing top gear performance.

Amen, Madmike. My thoughts exactly. My previous bike was '99 Concours. I had to shift through gear after gear, each one hardly any different than the last, and when I finally got to 6th, the engine was still screaming on the freeway. Many is the time I wondered why Kawasaki didn't change to a 5-speed, and bump engine displacement to 1200-1300cc to pull the wider gearing, with a lower engine rpm in top gear.

Well, Yamaha figured it out. They built what I wanted and I bought one.

I have owned 3 road bikes before the FJR. All have had 6-speed transmissions. Even though it "only" has a 5-speed transmission, the FJR has a lower top gear engine rpm than any of those 6-speed bikes.

If Yamaha were to give the FJR a 6-speed, and keep 1-5 the same as currently, with a nice deep 6th overdrive for high speed freeway use, I would consider that an improvement. All the advocates of keeping things the same could just never shift into 6th, and those who wanted a taller top gear could use it. If they kept first and top the same, and just stuck another gear in between, I would not be interested.

GOD! I am so F***ING tired of this "I need a 6-Speed!" SH*T! A 6-Speed on anything over 750cc is just marketing hype! The # of gears has almost nothing to do with final drive and the FJR would do fine with a 4-Speed! The purpose of putting more speeds in a tranny is to be able to keep the motor in the power band more of the time. This is only needed when you have a narrow power band (like a 2 stroke or a small displacement motor) and you need to be in the power band for racing!

The 6-Speed is not needed on a bike like the FJR! If you think you need a 6-Speed buy an NSR250 and go to the track!

Ditto - With so much torque on my 07, I already skip half the gears. Iwouldn't mess with 5th, The one bene would be for a high speed 6th for cruising.

Yes, everyone thinks that the FJR should go down the highway like a V-twin cruiser....at 2500-3000 RPMs. These are the same folks that will complain when they have to downshift to pass someone @ 70 mph because the engine is below the torque range. And it might get worse gas mileage because, though the engine is spinning at lower rpms, it might have to work harder and the attendant problems of piston slap, intake tract reversal, incomplete fuel burn, etc., etc. could become apparent. Sheesh guys, if it bothers you that much, go buy a new Concours so you can have the bragging rights of saying, "MY bike has a 6 speed transmission!"

YEA! What he said . . .

My recent trip to Big Bend afforded me the first real opportunity to um...test...this bike. I now understand that the bike is in fact correctly geared. What feels busy and buzzy at 75 (and originally had me looking for 6th) feels like butter at um...higher speeds.

No 6th needed but I wouldn't mind having the 4,100 RPM buzz moved up or down a bit in the RPM range vs. the current gearing so it's not so prevalent at the speeds I normally run.

BMWHD wrote:

No 6th needed but I wouldn't mind having the 4,100 RPM buzz moved up or down a bit in the RPM range vs. the current gearing so it's not so prevalent at the speeds I normally run.

Click to expand...

Have you considered a PCIII and a smoothness map?

The gear ratio argumant makes sense for sure. I can remember changing to a smaller rear sproket on my '78 GS 750, and it turned it into an overdrive gear with no ability to pull at all, or even take a moderate hill....lesson learned back then and forgot...

Makes me wonder why some cars are now going with even 7 gears...marketing? After service and parts sales?

....20 days and counting.....

madmike2 said:

Yes, everyone thinks that the FJR should go down the highway like a V-twin cruiser....at 2500-3000 RPMs. These are the same folks that will complain when they have to downshift to pass someone @ 70 mph because the engine is below the torque range. And it might get worse gas mileage because, though the engine is spinning at lower rpms, it might have to work harder and the attendant problems of piston slap, intake tract reversal, incomplete fuel burn, etc., etc. could become apparent. Sheesh guys, if it bothers you that much, go buy a new Concours so you can have the bragging rights of saying, "MY bike has a 6 speed transmission!"

Click to expand...

The FJR needs a 6th gear (as one put it "a nice deep 6th overdrive") to lower rpms at cruising. I have the 07, and I greatly appreciate the very slight decrease in RPMs at cruising over my previous 04. But it is not enough. I am NOT talking about a 6th with the same final drive ratio: that is outright numb. The FJR has plenty of torque to power an overdrive 6th and it should have one. Keep the 5th where is it now or move it back to where it was on the 05 and early models.

I rode a friend's 2004 BMW (not familiar with their model designation, might have been an RS): an 1100 with a 6th overdrive. The 6th gear was the only thing that I liked about that bike.

I believe manufactures are afraid of a tall final gear because they don't want to look bad in roll-on comparisons.

And as far as " it might get worse gas mileage because, though the engine is spinning at lower rpms, it might have to work harder and the attendant problems of piston slap, intake tract reversal, incomplete fuel burn, etc., ". At 3000 RPM? You gota be kidding.

At 3000 RPM? You gota be kidding.

Click to expand...

And you think that there aren't owners who would ride @ the 65 mph speed limit and pin the throttle, then complain because the mass of this bike didn't accelerate like a sports bike? Then we'd be reading the "hue and cry" about the lack/loss of power in the new model. And since the engine cases may not be wide enough to accomodate a 6th gear (depending on what width of gear the engineers decide is needed to transfer the hp/torque of the FJR's engine) a possible engine redesign could be in order.

Simple requests are not always so simple. If one really wants to lower the rpms at a particular cruising speed, I'd imagine a machine shop could build a gearset. I seriously doubt Yamaha (or any other Japanese manufacturer) is going to build a bike with a "hyper" over drive. I'm not familiar with the BMW's "boxer engine" rpm range, but there must be a reason they wanted to lower the rpms for their opposed twin at autobahn speeds.

But this subject has been discussed endlessly on many websites since 2003 (Hmarc's fjr info, FJR Owners.com, FJR owners assn.--the "green room"). Those who want a 6th gear will continue to beg for it but Yamaha's answer was to change the final drive ratio in the NewGen bikes.

I'm guessing this thread is headed for the NEPRT page.

+1 This has been beat on enough for this round. It won't be long before another authority on engineering demands one more gear.

I found the perfect solution with out doing anything and it is a real simple fix.

So all you gear heads out here Yamaha has eliminated first gear and we now begin with second gear and shift on through to sixth gear. problem solved..

:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: weekend rider

Are you happy now you have a sixth gear............

So all you gear heads out here Yamaha has eliminated first gear and we now begin with second gear and shift on through to sixth gear. problem solved..

Click to expand...

I like the perception shift here.