- Sun Dec 15, 2019 10:47 pm
#86726
(Some of this is repeated elsewhere).
I've now ridden my 5 speed converted 350 about 130 miles. It really does make the bike much nicer to ride, especially as the big gap between 3rd and "top" is gone; as a 350 it's far nicer to have the extra gear with smaller gaps between ratios.
Because the 5 speed gearbox came with an 18T chain sprocket (16 is standard for a 350), I left on the 46T wheel sprocket and longer chain I'd previously fitted. This has increased the revs/mile slightly over standard 350 gearing, the opposite of what most riders seem to want. The bike holds its speed far better, although it is still fast enough to overtake HGVs on the motorway.
I have retained the "down for down, up for up" gear change pattern; it's no problem for me because I grew up on BSAs but I did need to unlearn the RE standard "down for up" habit I had recently become used to on this bike.
I do still have a slight problem because the gear lever won't fully return by itself on all down changes. This means that I have to very gently "tap" the gear lever upwards to reset the mechanism to get it to do down to the next gear.
One thing I've noticed about this type of gear change; it works very much like the mechanism of a (firearm) revolver, albeit needing to work in both directions, rather than one!
However, I'm "well chuffed" with it.
Built like a gun... could go BANG!