Z400 gearing

303 Views 6 Replies 7 Participants Last post by seniorider, 10 d ago

kc4sox

Discussion Starter · 13 d ago

I just bought a 2023 Z400 a couple of weeks ago and just rolled over 1000 miles. I’m loving the bike so far. I’ve addressed the ergonomics issue and I need to address the gearing. It seems to me that the gearing is really short on this bike. I assume they did that to help with the small displacement. I’d like to lower the RPM’s at highway speed and make all the gears a bit longer. I’m considering going down 2 teeth in the rear or 1 up in the front. What has been your experience doing either and any problems with using the OEM chain doing either one ?

Thanks

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Tracy

· #2 · 13 d ago

One tooth on the front will change it to much and you probably will get a CEL and Loss of gear position indicator. Two on the rear probably won't cause it, three will. Chain length? Two on the rear you MIGHT get away with, might not. I'm sure some others might know

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KwackerJack

· #3 · 13 d ago

kc4sox said:
I just bought a 2023 Z400 a couple of weeks ago and just rolled over 1000 miles. I’m loving the bike so far. I’ve addressed the ergonomics issue and I need to address the gearing. It seems to me that the gearing is really short on this bike. I assume they did that to help with the small displacement. I’d like to lower the RPM’s at highway speed and make all the gears a bit longer. I’m considering going down 2 teeth in the rear or 1 up in the front. What has been your experience doing either and any problems with using the OEM chain doing either one ?

Thanks

One tooth larger on the front or three teeth smaller on the back will trigger your CEL warning, unless you by-pass the clutch safety switch. Two less teeth on the rear will not trigger the CEL and the chain length will be fine. I tend to do a lot of hiway riding, so I went up one in front and two down in back (15/39): the chain works fine and the RPM's are about 5000 at 57/58 mph. I had to by-pass the clutch safety switch, however.

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Duckman

· #4 · 13 d ago

Actually the stock gearing on the bike is too tall. Stock the bike won’t pull all the way through top gear. There is nothing wrong with reving a small engine. Put two teeth on the back and it will be extremely slow and lug in the upper gears. That’s actually harder on the engine than reving it.

Not to mention stress on an already marginal clutch.

But yea, try it. You can always switch it back if you don’t like it.

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Flash Bantam

· #5 · 12 d ago

I'm a small light rider so when I changed the front sprocket to 15 I didn't feel any difference other then when doing 80 mph, dropped 500 rpm. I still take off in 2nd gear sometimes and it still has tons of torque on slower steep twisty roads. Had to short out the clutch safety switch with a paper clip. With the Stock chain the rear wheel is pushed forward which shortenes the wheel base.

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Z4002021

· #6 · 10 d ago (Edited)

Duckman said:
Actually the stock gearing on the bike is too tall. Stock the bike won’t pull all the way through top gear. There is nothing wrong with reving a small engine. Put two teeth on the back and it will be extremely slow and lug in the upper gears. That’s actually harder on the engine than reving it.

Not to mention stress on an already marginal clutch.

But yea, try it. You can always switch it back if you don’t like it.

I agree with this 100%

Except for 1st. 1st gear could be a tiny bit shorter (its to tall….ends to fast) But it is really good at breaking the tire loose or getting the front wheel up.

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seniorider

· #7 · 10 d ago

Geared for lower RPMs, I would expect a price to be paid resulting in more shifting in the upper gears to maintain the desired speed. On the other hand with stock gearing, I have no trouble riding 2up any speed I want and no downshifts while climbing. Plus 1st gear is great for stop and go / construction zone traffic, and 2nd gear starts under normal conditions are quite easy.

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