08-14-2017, 07:19 AM
I am thinking the same thing with my 2014 Standard. From what I have read here, there is room on the stock chain for up to three additional teeth on the rear sprocket and of course no issue with fitting a smaller front. Some have expressed concern with increased chain wear from a smaller front sprocket but, I'm not to worried about a one tooth drop. There was one poster here that was not happy with the added vibration from the smaller front sprocket but others that had no issue with it. I did run some numbers to see the effect from a percentage of change in ratios basis just to gauge the differences:
Front Rear Ratio Delta
18 40 0%
18 42 +4.76%
18 43 +6.98%
17 40 +5.56%
17 42 +10.05%
17 43 +12.14%
I didn't want to go to radical and am considering adding two teeth to the rear. If that does not get me where I want to be, I can always take the front down a tooth. There are a lot of posts regarding dropping rear and adding front teeth for the 5 speed bikes and a few regarding what we are contemplating. Caddy425 just posted that he was happy with a one tooth drop on the front. Django had thoughts on the same. Beardyweirdy went with 17/43 and loves it. But his bike has many other performance upgrades to go with it.
So, as with everything else, you'll only know when you try it!
Front Rear Ratio Delta
18 40 0%
18 42 +4.76%
18 43 +6.98%
17 40 +5.56%
17 42 +10.05%
17 43 +12.14%
I didn't want to go to radical and am considering adding two teeth to the rear. If that does not get me where I want to be, I can always take the front down a tooth. There are a lot of posts regarding dropping rear and adding front teeth for the 5 speed bikes and a few regarding what we are contemplating. Caddy425 just posted that he was happy with a one tooth drop on the front. Django had thoughts on the same. Beardyweirdy went with 17/43 and loves it. But his bike has many other performance upgrades to go with it.
So, as with everything else, you'll only know when you try it!