"....Well after info overload and all the help, You have been a great help! I came up with a plan. Buy a Baker DD6 and use the stock 25 tooth motor sprocket and chain.. I went to the Baker site and played with the numbers. It did not explain in detail like you did here. By keeping my stock FXR4 25/36 and 32/65 I will retain a 2.92 sixth gear and the one through five should give what I need at all the other speeds? Am I wrong in my thinking? I hope that the DD6 can hold up to the 116HP/122TQ. I know the Barnett Scorpian Clutch will hold up...."
Ltank~
I know nothing about the DD6 actually, in terms of how much it will cost? Or How much it will cost to install?
I grant you for most guys the cost would be around $900.00 or so to do what I am doing if they must take it to a shop. But then again most guys wouldn't bother doing this modification to begin with. I am doing it because I feel the merits add to the overall specifics of the type of riding I enjoy doing, which is a snappier ride, as well as putting the power band of the way the engine has been built more in line with dynamics of the engine. Of course the reasons are all listed above.
I am choosing to do my own work as I always do on my bikes and it's costing as you see at the top of the THREAD nearly $550.00, of course it could be done for less if you purchased both the rear wheel sprocket used as well as finding a Andrews Transmission Pulley/Sprocket used as well but that is negligible really.
I have not done the research with the Bakers DD6, however I have had some conversations about it in the past on another website with another owner of a 1993 FXLR that was concerned about the way he built his bike and was going down the highway at 3800 RPMS at 85 MPH, he did describe his riding style as riding with "club members" who traveled together at constant speeds of 85 MPH and he felt the RPMS were turning too much for highway miles at such speeds, so he infact put in a DD6 bakers unit.
Here is the interesting part of that discussion, it seems like anytime I go out with people to ride over a 100 mile ride there are 2-3 miles where you are checking the wide open throttle just to see what the bike will do....realizing this means that for 3% of my riding is spent drastically above a normal jaunt down the highway....just for example that would be if you went 7,500 miles a year would be 3 hours out of 100 hours of riding are you really working the engine and in this example you are trying to go as fast as possible.....now let's look at it from another way....
Let's say you put a DD6 in, for the same reasoning as this other rider was doing, to bring the RPMS down at 85 MPH. Looking at the chart above shows that at 3.360:1 FINAL GEARING you would in 5th be doing 3721 RPMS at 85 MPH. (Since our minds like to round numbers this would be seen as 3800 RPMS, Where as at 75 MPH with 3.360:1 FINAL GEARING, you are doing 3315 RPMS (once again, would it be fair to round this up or down, perhaps down, to 3300 RPMS). Say the DD6 was set up with a FINAL GEARING RATIO of 3.360:1 for 5th GEAR, and then rolled it down to say 2.925:1 FINAL GEARING for the "6th Speed" which is where I believe the other rider I have been referring to said would be the results, then looking at the chart above reveals that at 85 MPH there would be a lowering of RPMS down from aprx 3800 RPMS at 85 MPH down to 3271 RPMS or rounded to 3300 RPMS, a lowering of 500 RPMS for highway use. But that is at 85 MPH where this rider said his "club" would spend their time riding down the highway. What's interesting to me about this discussion as it was then and as it is now, in order for the DD6 to work effectively you would have to be going 85 MPH all of the time or else you present the problems that I am trying to step away from initially anyway, for example:
75 MPH 2.925:1 = 2886 RPMS
70 MPH 2.925:1 = 2700 RPMS
65 MPH 2.925:1 = 2500 RPMS
In those RPMS listed above DO you really need a 6th Gear, as offered by a DD6?
With the 3.360:1:
75 MPH = 3315 RPMS
70 MPH = 3094 RPMS
65 MPH = 2873 RPMS
If you look at these numbers carefully you will discover that the OEM gearing 2.925:1 FINAL GEARING in 5th gear in my opinion is too high of gearing which takes you off of the power band of the cam, yet, once we ride over 75 MPH then the merits of a DD6 come in to play. I have already disclosed how often I ride full open throttle which is about 3% of the time if that much, but let's just say it is, for 2-3 miles every aprx 100 miles. At that point you don't care about a DD6 transmission you are just going full open throttle and seeing how the bike performs....or "racing" against the other person for whatever reason.