Tecate3 gearing question

[ccdhowell]

I bought an '85 Tecate about 5 weeks ago. Since then I have gone through the carb, replaced the reed valves with Boyesen Power Valves, repacked the DG Type 2 silencer that was on it when I bought it, had Works Performance rebuild the works shock that was on it and cleaned all the greasey gunk that was covering the trike. I took it out yesterday for it's maiden run. My first impression was awesome, this thing really flies. Trouble is that the guys I run with, and me included, like to poke down pipelines and woods trails. I had trouble with my Tecate negotiating all the little ditches and short hillclimbs at slow speed. I know this is a high-strung engine and I easily outdistance my untility quad riding buddies on the open stretches, but was confounded on the slow stuff.

My Tecate has stock 13/42 teeth count and stock size 22 inch rears. I'm a convert from the shaft drive quad world and don't have gearing in my head. Seems a gearing change would help my trike with the slow stuff. I'm not terribly concerned with top speed, just want max torque for woods trail riding. The engine is basically stock.

I looked in th JLATV catalog and see that I can go as low as 11 teeth on the front and as large as 45 on the rear. I think I have to go down on front teeth count and up on rear teeth count to do what I want.

How much difference does two teeth less make on the front? How much difference does 3 teeth more make on the rear? Would using both these together make the change I'm looking for?

Any helpful input in appreciated for this excited trike newby. Thanks, Chris

[BigGreenMachine]

I have a 45 tooth rear sprocket plus 20 inch tires that I've used for mine and it was nice for tight stuff but absolutely sucked on open stretches. I'd swap to a 12 tooth front. I think an 11 would make the gearing way too short to be useful anywhere else but crawling in the woods.

[TimSr]

You are a perfedct candidate for gearing down. You said it, High strung engine nees to be run at rpms where it delivers its power. That means either lots of clutch featherling, which you are doing now, or gearing lower.

As a general guideline two teeth in the front is like dropping everything a full gear. In other words, if you want your 2nd gear to feel like first does now, with another gear to shift into below it, drop two front teeth. Only problem there is that getting two small on front can cause chain to rub swingarm on some machines, and smallr front will wear out faster and wear chain faster. 3.5 teeth in the rear equals one front tooth so you may want to drop one in front, and add 3 or 4 teeth to rear.

As for tire size, a general guide is one tooth on front equals 2" in tire height.

Where I ride, 22" is my personal best choice for trail riding, and I gear accordingly.

[ccdhowell]

Thanks guys for the responces. I called Sidewinder today and ordered an 11 tooth front sprocket. I'll try that for now. If that doesn't do what I want I'll increase the rear tooth count as required. I'm excited to see what it does with the smaller front sprocket. chris