New RSMax rear diff gears

[Miles]

All I should say is...WOW !

 

Of course, most of you know by now that I cannot leave it with only that being said.

 

I made the decision to refuse to wait for 6 more weeks before they remove the cast on my right leg, before I can take the RSMTD out for a test ride, after having done so much work to it. If I could ride home from Bolivia, with the last 1900 miles having a broken leg, then I can ride my RSMTD with a cast on the leg.

 

So this afternoon, with a balmy 47 degrees out (which is perfect riding weather for me), I went for several test rides on the '06 RSMTD, after having installed the RSMax rear diff gears, and having done the meticulous valve adjustment, and having lowered the rear of the bike.

 

I have to say that everyone that has changed the rear diff gears on their bikes, and have said that it is the best money they ever spent for a performance upgrade, they were 100 % right. I want to THANK everyone that praised this improvement, that lead me to do the same to my bike. WOW, what a difference. It probably helped a little bit that I also did that meticulous valve adjustment, re-synced my carbs after that, etc. The bike acts, rides, and performs like a completely different bike now. Honestly ! I am very impressed with how the bike performs now.

 

If I had done this same upgrade to my first '06 RSMTD, I may never have traded it in 2 years later. Wanting to give the bike a second chance, I decided to buy another one of the same year and model, and I am NOW finally happy with this bike. Before this upgrade, this bike was relinquished to be a second or third string bike in my stable of bikes. Now, with the upgrades I have done, I will "want" to ride this bike more, and it will move up in status in my stable.

 

BTW, the RSMax rear diff gears do in fact change the readings of both the speedo and odometer. Since I already had a HealTech Speed Healer installed on my bike before this gearing upgrade, it was an easy matter to adjust the electronic box of the Speed Healer to match my Garmin Zumo 550. After several test runs, I tweaked it a few times, and now it reads exactly the same as my GPS.

 

I am also very happy with having lowered the rear of the bike. Because I use a Russell day-Long Saddle, which itself raises a rider 1.5" to 2", it was always a little tall for me. Now with the rear end set down 1.5", the bike feels much better, I can put both feet flat footed on the ground, or...er...one boot and one cast for right now.

 

Happ, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy:cool10:

[Mike G in SC]

Miles,

I don't see the Vmax rear in the Vendor/Member classifieds now.

Where did you buy it? Is it same $300+ trade? Got it in the back of my mind for my RSV.

 

Still thinking about your column on your ride. Told my wife about it.

Think I might restrict my out of country experience to Canada. The rest of you ride sounded great, but don't think I am interested in riding Mexico.

 

If you get wander after lowering the rear, might take the front down a notch (say 1").

 

Mike G in SC

[Miles]

Mike G, yes, the RSMax gears I had installed were from the same guy, the same company, in Pennsylvania. I sent him MY rear diff, and he installed the V-Max ring and pinion gears into my diff. So, I did not do a swap for another diff, just re-geared my diff housing.

 

http://rmsportmax.com/gateway.html

 

Still, the cost for doing that was the $ 300.00 plus shipping.

 

VERY pleased.

Edited February 2, 2013 by Miles

[Little Bob]

Who do I contactfor this upgrade?

[wes0778]

All I should say is...WOW !

 

Of course, most of you know by now that I cannot leave it with only that being said.

 

I made the decision to refuse to wait for 6 more weeks before they remove the cast on my right leg, before I can take the RSMTD out for a test ride, after having done so much work to it. If I could ride home from Bolivia, with the last 1900 miles having a broken leg, then I can ride my RSMTD with a cast on the leg.

 

So this afternoon, with a balmy 47 degrees out (which is perfect riding weather for me), I went for several test rides on the '06 RSMTD, after having installed the RSMax rear diff gears, and having done the meticulous valve adjustment, and having lowered the rear of the bike.

 

I have to say that everyone that has changed the rear diff gears on their bikes, and have said that it is the best money they ever spent for a performance upgrade, they were 100 % right. I want to THANK everyone that praised this improvement, that lead me to do the same to my bike. WOW, what a difference. It probably helped a little bit that I also did that meticulous valve adjustment, re-synced my carbs after that, etc. The bike acts, rides, and performs like a completely different bike now. Honestly ! I am very impressed with how the bike performs now.

 

If I had done this same upgrade to my first '06 RSMTD, I may never have traded it in 2 years later. Wanting to give the bike a second chance, I decided to buy another one of the same year and model, and I am NOW finally happy with this bike. Before this upgrade, this bike was relinquished to be a second or third string bike in my stable of bikes. Now, with the upgrades I have done, I will "want" to ride this bike more, and it will move up in status in my stable.

 

BTW, the RSMax rear diff gears do in fact change the readings of both the speedo and odometer. Since I already had a HealTech Speed Healer installed on my bike before this gearing upgrade, it was an easy matter to adjust the electronic box of the Speed Healer to match my Garmin Zumo 550. After several test runs, I tweaked it a few times, and now it reads exactly the same as my GPS.

 

I am also very happy with having lowered the rear of the bike. Because I use a Russell day-Long Saddle, which itself raises a rider 1.5" to 2", it was always a little tall for me. Now with the rear end set down 1.5", the bike feels much better, I can put both feet flat footed on the ground, or...er...one boot and one cast for right now.

 

Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy:cool10:

Not sure why it changed your speedometer, but it did not on mine. According to my GPS the same (fast) reading on the speedometer gives the same MPH on the GPS as it did before the swap.

[Miles]

Who do I contactfor this upgrade?

 

 

Little Bob, here is the link to the company that does this:

 

http://rmsportmax.com/gateway.html

 

On their site, click for the info on Royal Star products, and then find the one for the rear diff gearing.

 

Miles

[hi 05 silver]

Vmax gears in RSV will not alter speedometer, I've installed 8 or 9 , again will not change speedometer reading.

[Freebird]

Who do I contactfor this upgrade?

 

http://www.rmsportmax.com/

[Miles]

Vmax gears in RSV will not alter speedometer, I've installed 8 or 9 , again will not change speedometer reading.

 

I will "politely" beg to differ on this. Given that the speedo has a digital arm that sweeps across the face of the speedo, it does not show us an extremely accurate signal in that sweeping arm, so it is difficult to detect the very slight variations that occur, compared to the odometer that is a digital numerical readout, and we can precisely see the changing of the numbers. I will agree that it "appears" that the speedo is not affected by the gearing change. I can easily see that the odometer is off compared to its' previous settings, before the gearing change, but it is difficult to "see" that the speedo is off.

 

To make a point, prior to this gearing change, I had my speedo and odo dialed in to be very accurate compared to my GPS. They matched the numbers of my GPS in very close numbers. I may have been off by .001 %. After doing the gearing change, and doing several test rides to see where things were, I found the speedo and odo were off by 2.9 % compared to the same GPS, a Garmin Zumo 550.

 

I tweaked my Speed Healer device to make the corrections, and at this moment, I believe my speedo and odo are within .001 % of what my GPS says.

 

In doing this tweaking, for the "fun" of it, I went WAY out of spec and gave the Speed Healer a ridiculous number, just to see what would happen. That odd change did in fact change both my speedo and my odo to be off by as much as 50 % of what my GPS was reading. That means, I was riding down the road at 60 mph, and my bike was reading 30 mph. It was funny, but it showed that given extreme adjustments to the Speed Healer, it can make the speedo/odo make dramatic changes. After that test run, I changed it all back, and right now my bikes' odo will read between 999 to 1000 miles for every 1000 miles my GPS records.

 

Yes, the old GPS argument. Many people say that a GPS, even the best of them, does not record mileage in the real, exact world, as it is not tactile on the road surface, but rather a monitoring of the positioning of the vehicle to the satellites. I will agree with that argument. However, in the world of IBA riders, the IBA leans much more heavily on the accuracy of a good GPS, than they do on the inaccuracy of most modern motorcycles that are proven to be off by 5 to 10 %.

[hi 05 silver]

I will "politely" beg to differ on this. Given that the speedo has a digital arm that sweeps across the face of the speedo, it does not show us an extremely accurate signal in that sweeping arm, so it is difficult to detect the very slight variations that occur, compared to the odometer that is a digital numerical readout, and we can precisely see the changing of the numbers. I will agree that it "appears" that the speedo is not affected by the gearing change. I can easily see that the odometer is off compared to its' previous settings, before the gearing change, but it is difficult to "see" that the speedo is off.

 

To make a point, prior to this gearing change, I had my speedo and odo dialed in to be very accurate compared to my GPS. They matched the numbers of my GPS in very close numbers. I may have been off by .001 %. After doing the gearing change, and doing several test rides to see where things were, I found the speedo and odo were off by 2.9 % compared to the same GPS, a Garmin Zumo 550.

 

I tweaked my Speed Healer device to make the corrections, and at this moment, I believe my speedo and odo are within .001 % of what my GPS says.

 

In doing this tweaking, for the "fun" of it, I went WAY out of spec and gave the Speed Healer a ridiculous number, just to see what would happen. That odd change did in fact change both my speedo and my odo to be off by as much as 50 % of what my GPS was reading. That means, I was riding down the road at 60 mph, and my bike was reading 30 mph. It was funny, but it showed that given extreme adjustments to the Speed Healer, it can make the speedo/odo make dramatic changes. After that test run, I changed it all back, and right now my bikes' odo will read between 999 to 1000 miles for every 1000 miles my GPS records.

 

Yes, the old GPS argument. Many people say that a GPS, even the best of them, does not record mileage in the real, exact world, as it is not tactile on the road surface, but rather a monitoring of the positioning of the vehicle to the satellites. I will agree with that argument. However, in the world of IBA riders, the IBA leans much more heavily on the accuracy of a good GPS, than they do on the inaccuracy of most modern motorcycles that are proven to be off by 5 to 10 %.

RSV has 10 tooth pinion and 33 tooth ring gear .....VMAX has 9 tooth pinion and 33 tooth ring gear , you notice the ring gears are the same 33 tooth.......that is were the magnetic trigger is built in for speedometer sensor...... and that means as long as you have a 33 tooth it does not matter what size pinion you have , it's not going to change the speedometer reading.

[MikeWa]

Miles

Glad it worked out for you. I agree it is the best mod for these bikes. As for the speedo change. It doesn't mater. What counts is that it works for you and you are happy with it. Hope to meet up with you for coffee or M&E as soon as I am walking again.

 

Mike

[Miles]

Miles

Glad it worked out for you. I agree it is the best mod for these bikes. As for the speedo change. It doesn't mater. What counts is that it works for you and you are happy with it. Hope to meet up with you for coffee or M&E as soon as I am walking again.

 

Mike

 

Thanks MikeWa, let's get together in the next month or so, and talk about doing some riding this year. I plan to ride out to Freebirds' MD in Ohio, and to the International Rally in Galena, IL. If you want to ride along, you are more than welcome.

 

PM me, and we will arrange to hobble over to each other.

[pmelah]

seems to me were doing a hole lot of wobbleing around here and not enough riding

[Miles]

RSV has 10 tooth pinion and 33 tooth ring gear .....VMAX has 9 tooth pinion and 33 tooth ring gear , you notice the ring gears are the same 33 tooth.......that is were the magnetic trigger is built in for speedometer sensor...... and that means as long as you have a 33 tooth it does not matter what size pinion you have , it's not going to change the speedometer reading.

 

 

Okay, I will allow that I am possibly wrong here...BUT...I have done some pretty careful checking, and I believe that the speed sensor that is fastened into the rear diff reads off the pinion gear...NOT the ring gear. Again...I "may" be wrong, and I would ask that Joh Ferber from RMSportMax that does these gear changes for most of us confirm or deny this, but I have just gone out and looked at my bike very closely, and...I did a very close examination of the extended service manual, and...I very much remember that I counted the number of pinion gear teeth, before the gear change and after the gear change, by looking through the hole where the speed sensor mounts. It would be improbable that the speed sensor could reach "past" the pinion gear, or go around the pinion gear, to receive a pick-up from the ring gear. The ring gear faces toward the left side of the bike. The pinion gear engages with the ring gear on the left side of the bike. That means that when you look through the hole where the speed sensor mounts to the rear diff, what you see is the pinion gear, and behind that is the ring gear.

 

Yes, the ring gear is still a 33 toothed gear after the gear change, and yes the pinion gear has been changed from a 10 toothed gear to a 9 toothed gear, so..."if" I am correct that the speed sensor reads off the pinion gear, then changing the pinion gear from a 10 tooth to a 9 tooth would in fact change the speedo and odo readings.

 

I will again..."politely"...say that I am a good enough tech that I seriously considered replacing these gears myself, as I have all the tools in my shop to do the job properly. My only hesitation was that John Ferber is much more experienced than I am at this specific rear diff as far as setting us the shim thicknesses, and...the cost to have him do it was so cheap, that I felt it was money well spent. In the past, I have torn down and rebuilt many rear drive units on classic cars, and never had a problem.

 

I would ask that you please give a second look at where the speed sensor is reading the pick-up from, and then decide if this affects speedo/odo readings.

 

And, PMELAH says that we are not riding enough, but I contend that my 15,182 miles last month...already this year, is enough that I can attempt to make my point on this gearing issue. (smile)

Edited February 3, 2013 by Miles

[Flyinfool]

...

Edited February 3, 2013 by Flyinfool
oppie, double post

[Flyinfool]

I think Miles is correct that the sensor reads the pinion.

 

This was discussed in a thread last week that will hopefully shed some light.

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=75566

 

Your 15K+ miles so far this year certainly has me beat......

[MikeWa]

Miles is correct in that the sensor mounts to the pinion gear. But it takes 33 pinion ring gear meshes for the ring gear to go around one time. That means 33 pinion teeth must pass under the sensor for each ring gear revolution with either rear end. As both have a 33 tooth ring gear. So in both rear ends the speed sensor will see 33 pulses for each wheel revolution. The speedometer should be unaffected.

 

Mike

[hi 05 silver]

RSV has 10 tooth pinion and 33 tooth ring gear .....VMAX has 9 tooth pinion and 33 tooth ring gear , you notice the ring gears are the same 33 tooth.......that is were the magnetic trigger is built in for speedometer sensor...... and that means as long as you have a 33 tooth it does not matter what size pinion you have , it's not going to change the speedometer reading.

Were I typed above " that is were the magnetic.".... should have read " that pinion is were the magnetic trigger is..... " I left out ''pinion'' leading people to think the trigger was in the ring gear, no so , it is in the pinion and the speedometer sensor " counts the rotation of the pinion ,and it doen't matter if it's 9 or 10 tooth pinion , one rotation is one rotation. The only way that speedometer reading could be efected is if you changed the 33 tooth ring gear. Sorry for the typo.

[pktexas]

Miles, thanks for the post on the upgrade. I just boxed my rear diff up yesterday to send in for the upgrade. Looking forward to getting it installed and riding with the improved performance.

[Miles]

Miles, thanks for the post on the upgrade. I just boxed my rear diff up yesterday to send in for the upgrade. Looking forward to getting it installed and riding with the improved performance.

 

Perry, I believe you will LOVE this upgrade. As moast all have said...it is the best performance upgrade for the money. I am not into adding chrome to my bikes, but I do want them to go faster, handle better, last longer, and provide me with many miles of riding enjoyment.

 

BTW, are you having John Ferber swap out your rear diff for another one, or are you having them re-gear YOUR rear diff ? I chose to have them re-gear MY rear diff, as I knew the history of my rear diff, and it still looked new on the outside. The cost is the same, whether you swap it out, or have them re-gear yours.

 

Once you install this, tell Mollie to hold on.

[pktexas]

, are you having John Ferber swap out your rear diff for another one, or are you having them re-gear YOUR rear diff ? I chose to have them re-gear MY rear diff, as I knew the history of my rear diff, and it still looked new on the outside. The cost is the same, whether you swap it out, or have them re-gear yours.

 

Once you install this, tell Mollie to hold on.

 

I am having him re-gear mine also. While bike is down, time for valve check at 101k.

[David Hall]

So as to the actual change in where we pick up on the power band, is it correct to say that the rpm should increase by 10% at any given speed with the diff change?? If so, at 80 miles per hour would change the rpm from about 3600 to about 4000 and so on and so on??

[pofarm]

I feel I must weigh in on this... I installed the Vmax gears in mine and the change DID effect the speedo reading. I also installed a speedo healer to correct the reading after the gearing change.

[Venturous Randy]

I feel I must weigh in on this... I installed the Vmax gears in mine and the change DID effect the speedo reading. I also installed a speedo healer to correct the reading after the gearing change.

 

 

Did you change tire size or something? Mechanically speaking, it will not make any difference in your speedometer reading. You do realize that your speedometer was off before you changed to the V-Max rear, if it was normal like other bikes like yours.

RandyA

[Guest tx2sturgis]

Just surfin the forums and I noticed that Miles shows to have an expired membership?