Changed Final Drive Gearing 2013

[Randy B]

I have no personal experience as to the effects of changing the final gear on motorcycles but my experience from riding multispeed street/mountain bicycles is in agreement with Bob. From a standing start, the lower the gearing, the quicker I can accelerate. On the rear wheel of my bicycle, if the chain is on a sprocket with 17 teeth, my bicycle will accelerate quicker than if the chain was on a sprocket with 12 teeth.

Not sure if my experience on bicycles translates over to motorcycles, but I just wanted to throw that out.

Well, correct in a perfect world. Using your mountain bike's largest rear cog on loose level dirt means you'll spin the rear wheel and crank way too fast.
On a motorcycle I think that too low a 1st gear means you have to modulate more between spinning the tire and a wheelie, and the time spent in 1st is too short. Most real accelleration takes place in 2nd and 3rd.
Production class vintage road racers gear up for top speed, and generally take off in 2nd gear. I think the same is true of drag racers - too much time lost in the 1-2 shift.
Inspection of transmission gears on a hard-ridden bike would almost always show wear or fatigue on 2nd gear teeth, not 1st. I can't recall ever seeing a blown up 1st gear - it's always 2nd.

This is not due to not accelerating hard in first, but is due to the hard shock 2nd gear takes on the redline shift from 1st.