77 gs550 ratios

[Guest]

Ok so bumming around on an online gearing calculator has lead me to change the final ratio on my 550. At 70 mph the last ride I was on it was running a cool 6800 rpm. I remember reading on here somewhere that these bikes were built to rev high, but this still seems excessive for extended rides. So to drop some rpm the calculator said if I ran a 17 front and a 40 rear I'd be at around 4K at 70mph. This is a large change front the original 15:50 ratio, so now to the real question. How bad will this kill the performance of the bike? I'm not trying to pull wheelies or run a 0-60 in 2.5 sec. but also don't want to struggle in low rpm. What ratios you guys running out there on these 550s? I see a lot of 1000 and 750/850 changes but not much on the 550. Thanks for any insight guys.

[steve murdoch]

An old thread but has the info you are looking for.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?113833-GS550-47-tooth-rear-sprocket

[Nessism]

Simple swap is to move up one tooth on the front sprocket. This will reduce rpm by a noticeable amount. If you go higher still the bike will be hard to launch without a lot more clutch slippage and the acceleration will be sluggish.

[Hell or high water]

Thanks guys! Sorry about the old thread, I looked but only found larger bike changes.