A more highway-friendly rebel?

**Honzo** · 07-26-2010, 08:32 AM

Hey everyone, I'm basically just looking for what sort of relatively cheap mods I could do to my bike to make it more comfortable on the highway. I think if possible I'd like to increase the power just a bit and possibly drop the rpm's at cruising speed with a different sprocket size. I was thinking a swap in sprockets and a new exhaust/rejet, but I'm looking for your suggestions about what would work the best/be the most practical. I ride the bike to work, which is about 40 miles from where I live, and theres a very large bridge on the way. I find myself running wide open throttle up the one side of it and by halfway up, I'm at 60 mph and decelerating (the speed limit is 65). I just feel I'm putting a ton of strain on the engine and it just makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Any suggestions?

**flitecontrol** · 07-26-2010, 09:24 AM

St. Johns river bridge on I 295? The sprocket change isn't going to help getting over the bridge. It will take some RPMs off the engine at speed so it doesn't work quite as hard. It's basically a trade off. You can downshift to help keep your speed up on hills, but on steep ones you are still going to slow down. Don't worry about the engine, it can handle the high RPMs.

**Honzo** · 07-26-2010, 09:41 AM

Hmm... maybe I'll just get a tach then for the piece of mind lol. It just sounds like i'm MURDERING that thing at WOT.

And actually yes I think that's the same bridge, you familiar with it? In Jax 9A and 295 are the same thing, 9A just loops around to the east and 295 to the west and they connect at 95 on the northside and the st. john's river on the southside. Theres a bridge on 295 at the junction called the buckman bridge which spans the st. johns. The particular bridge I'm talking about is technically on 9A and spans the st. johns in northeast jax and is called the Dames Point. It's definitely a doosey!

**Guba** · 07-26-2010, 09:48 AM

[QUOTE=Honzo;36298]Hmm... maybe I'll just get a tach then for the piece of mind lol. It just sounds like i'm MURDERING that thing at WOT.

QUOTE]

Actually, your speedometer already has a crude tach on it. It would be the red lines marked one through five. In first gear the engine would reach red line, 8,250 rpm's I think, when the speedometer reaches the #1. Just use the speedo.

**Blueberry** · 07-26-2010, 10:27 AM

IMHO, Keep your Rebel in good tune, check tire pressure, and lube+adjust the chain. You may get a 1 or 2 HP gain it if you add pipes, air filter and a rejet. A 15 tooth countershaft sprocket will drop rpm and you will have to downshift on most hills. If the bridge is the only hill you go over it might work with the 15t if you take in 4th at 60-65 mph. You still will be running at 6,500 rpm or so. No problem with the Rebel. What you are thinking about doing (pipes,filter,rejet) would make 1 sweet Rebel. My wife will not let me mod. her 85 in any way. She wants to keep it stock since its a first year bike. If I only had a 2nd. one!!!

**flitecontrol** · 07-26-2010, 10:33 AM

When going to Cocoa Beach to visit family I go I-10 to I-95 and take the connector. Went that route earlier this month. Looks like a different bridge than the one pictured.

**Fridgitator** · 07-27-2010, 02:16 AM

That is one long incline. Even if you increased the HP by a few percent, I doubt it would make enough difference to justify the trouble and expense. You might make it further up the bridge before you have to downshift. Rebs are built to run at high RPM despite the way they sound. I run mine on the highway wide open in 5th gear all the time. Once you get used to the sound, it's fine. A 15 T will lower the rpms in general, but it won't give you an advantage for climbing a grade like that. No harm in trying, really. I got a 15t for about eleven bucks. I ended up switching back because of the vibration. I might try it again when it comes time to change my chain.

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