After much, much hair-pulling and shouting with the vendor and Parcel Farce, I’m now in posession of my replacement sprockets, Stomp Pads and a Gilles gear-shift support unit.
I ordered this stuff ages ago from the states and then was presented with a £130 customs invoice because the vendor had mistakenly marked the package as a value of $1000 instead of $200, idiots. All they had to say was sorry. Fat lot of good that does me. I won’t even mention their name here as I don’t want them to get any promotion.
Then Parcel Farce couldn’t deliver the item after I paid the charge, and I couldn’t get through to them despite a week’s worth of phone calls. I was going to ride to the depot this lunch-time but then the package mysteriously turns up at work on its own. lol.
Okay, so the bike will go off to have the new sprockets fitted. The rear is a specialist race item from a US firm. 520 pitch as before, in black. The front is the same as last time, an AFAM steel racing sprocket. -1/+2 configuration teeth wise front and back.
The ‘bath mats’ are going on the tank again, as I miss them, they have helped so much before with hard braking and acceleration. I just need to get the application right this time to stop them peeling at the leading edge. I’ll follow JohnnyBravo’s recommendation here
The Gilles gear-shift support is to mount over the end of the gear shift rod that comes out of the engine and connects to the rearset mechanism. It’s designed to help secure the rod in place as it juts out six inches from the engine and is prone to flexing when riding hard. This will secure it in place and give a firmer, smoother and more positive gear-shift apparently. I’m experimenting with this, I’ve heard good things about it so far. I get a few mis-shifts when going hard through the box, i.e. unable to shift up when doing clutchless, so hopefully this will help.
520 setup (chain & sprockets) = lighter, and apparently helps the engine spin up quicker as there isn’t so much weight to accelerate. Holding the standard set and this lot in your hands and you can’t help but laugh, the 530 stocker is really heavy.
I assume the Gilles gear-shift support is used on Gilles Rear Sets?Does that not suggest a design flaw in the Std Gilles Rearsets? or do you fit this with OEM rearsets too?Now ive seen a pic of it in place I understand it now:cool:
My sprockets have arrived too, quite cheap from B&C, about £36 all in I think inc postage for -1/+1. Customs charges are a right pita, I bought a crank and cylinder head from the states a couple of years ago and got ripped off, still had to pay the £150 customs bill then UPS or whoever stick on their admin charge for the customs fee, rip off.
Always do it on the quiet now, never declare the true value, got JE pistons, carrillo rods and a load of other bits for half the UK cost last year
520 conversion shouldn’t make much difference to chain life if you use a decent chain. Most of the race kits come with a Heavy duty non o ring chain as it has less power loss than an o ring chain.
