The 428 16T sprocket from Xian arrived today, and fitting went smoothly. I was surprised how many turns I had to take off the axle adjustment screws to fit the larger sprocket, but I think I managed to keep them even when I tightened the chain back up. The fact that I'm posting this from the sofa rather than a ditch bears witness to that.
By that time, it was 9:30 in the PM, and time for my first night ride. Shhhh... don't wake the sprogs or neighbours with the electric start. Fortunately, the bike is set up so nicely now that it started sweetly on the second kick. And then we were creeping off into the all concealing shadows.
Wow. Double wow.
The 16 tooth sprocket makes a surprisingly noticeable difference to the gearing. The engine is torquey and pulls well from low revs, so it seems to make sense to let it slap rather than scream. 5000 rpm (the notional running-in limit) in 5th gear now result in about 2 more of Her Majesty's Miles per Greenwich Standard Hour, up from 30 to 32. It doesn't sound like a huge improvement, but it's the difference between slightly holding up traffic and comfortably keeping up with it, and it should also result in 60mph at the same rpm that would have yielded 56mph on the 15 tooth sprocket. Given the low cost of these sprockets, I may even give a 17 toother (60mph from 53mph Old Money revs) a try once I've got the bike run in a little more.
The other zowie is the Xenon 50W/50W "blue white" bulb, of "upside down" fame; this was my first opportunity to see it doing its stuff in the dark. It's now producing a sensible spread, and the light level is genuinely impressive, and very nearly white. I actually had to pull over to adjust the headlight down a fraction, for fear of blinding other traffic. The missus confirms that it's highly visible in daylight traffic as well. So if you've got a bike, any bike, and are running on anything other than Xenon, then do yourself a favour and splash out all of £8 on one of these. It's cheaper than most other hi-vis aids that you could invest in.
Finally, the verdict on the "inside-out" K&N filter is that it seems to let enough air in - the bike went to 7200rpm / indicated 50mph without a hiccup - and results in just a hint of "classic" growl at large throttle openings. I reckon I'll keep it.
The only downer on the day is that the clods at Adrian Flux / Bikesure have lost the copies of my license(s) that I sent them. The joy of being a pessimist is that I fully expected this, so I can just sigh and crank out (several) more copies rather than lose the rag over it. Rain on my parade? Not today, pen pushers.
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