Euro Gears for the V2K

[Firechicken]

I did a search on the euro gears on here and didn't really find too much info so I thought I'd put in my $.02 about the subject. I've put about 2500 miles on my V2K since I bought it last December and had noticed a few things about it that I wanted to change.

First thing was the optimistic speedo that was off about 5 MPH @ 75. Not really that bad, but the odometer was off quite a bit also so I wanted to correct them. At first, I thought the Speedohealer would be what I needed to the tune of about $120.

Next thing was the gearing. Again, not really that bad, but the granny 1st gear was way too low and it seemed like I was always shifting while riding in town. Highway gearing seemed OK for the most part, but out on the super-slab @ 75-80 MPH the engine was turning faster than it really needed to. I decided I needed to change my gearing. First thought was to buy the front and rear pulleys which I think run about $700 for the pair. The rear pulley is a HUGE visual upgrade over the stock pulley as well.

Then I found out about the "euro gears". The transmission has a set of transfer gears that connect the transmission to the belt pulley output shaft. The stock "US" transfer gears in the transmission are 41/50 and the "euro" transfer gears are 44/48. Quite a change in gearing. With the stock configuration, the final drive ratio is 2.7439. Swap out the US gears for the euro gears and your final drive ratio changes to 2.4545. These "euro gears" are not available from US Kawasaki dealers, but can be bought from Canadian dealers. I found mine at Blackfoot Motorsports for just under $300 USD shipped.

Since the speed sensor reads the teeth of the driven transfer gear, installing these gears reduces your speedo/odo value by 4% (changed from 50 to 48 ) rather than the ~11% that you gearing changed.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the gear change. My gears have been "stretched" quite a bit. No longer do I need to make that 1-2 shift as soon as the bike gets under way and the amount of shifting I have to do while riding in town has been reduced. 5th gear isn't needed (or even wanted for that matter) until cruising over 60 MPH. The bike has a much more relaxed feeling while in town and on the highway. I haven't done any testing on the speedo yet, but I think it's still off just a little....maybe 1 or 2 MPH @ 60. I did test the odometer. I ran 6 miles on the interstate after resetting my tripometer to zero at a mile-marker. It was off about 60 feet in those 6 miles which is about 2/10 of one percent.....close enough for me. The jury is still out on the fuel mileage......

[Fr8Dog]

What was invovlved in changing out the gears? Simple or difficult?

[Slow Ride]

What about costs?

[Nico]

Originally Posted by Firechicken

...Next thing was the gearing. Again, not really that bad, but the granny 1st gear was way too low and it seemed like I was always shifting while riding in town. Highway gearing seemed OK for the most part, but out on the super-slab @ 75-80 MPH the engine was turning faster than it really needed to...

[EURO GEAR INSTALL]

5th gear isn't needed (or even wanted for that matter) until cruising over 60 MPH. The bike has a much more relaxed feeling while in town and on the highway...

I test drove a 2008 V2K a couple of months ago and had the exact same impression about the gearing, especially on the highway. The gearing and the fact that the V2K didn't come in a "Nomad" version, are the main reasons I ultimately chose to buy a different bike. But it looks like you found a $300 solution to the gearing problem. Now that's a serious achievement. Good work!

[Firechicken]

Here's a how-to article on changing the gears. It's on the Rogue Owner's Group website which you should be a member of if you own a V2K.

Rogue Owners Group - Technical Articles

The job is fairly simple for someone mechanically inclined. You have to drain the coolant and oil. Pull tank, pipes, and the rear master cylinder has to be unbolted from the frame. Then the outer and inner transmission covers can be removed to access the gears. The hardest part was getting to the speed sensor to remove the shim under it. This shim needs to be removed so the sensor will be close enough to the driven gear to "see" it. You have to remove the side covers, battery, and most of the plastic under the seat to get to the bolt that holds the sensor. The job took me 4 hours start to finish.

I think my cost on the gears was $286 USD with shipping. That was my only cost since I'm a bit frugal and I reused the coolant, oil and gaskets. The gaskets were stuck to the inner cover and released cleanly from the transmission and outer cover. No damage to the gaskets at all.