new boy

[hutchy]

hi everyone,
I've recently bought a 03 baggy Black panther with 6k on the clock and have a couple of issues that I could do with sorting so any advice would be appreciated.
First of all the bike doesn't like to pull really well in top gear and seems to run out of puff between 70 to 90 mph and I feel it could do with gearing down a bit, but this could be down to the fact that I'm 6'3" and weigh 16 stone, the bike is running standard gearing 15/43 and I am thinking of gearing it down to 15/45 will this help? as 5th feels to long and I'm not bothered about top speeds over 80 mph.
next question is what end pipes are recomended, I see that BSM do a link pipe and silencer but they seem to have some poor write ups.
Last of all what kind of tank range can I expect from the bike riding the bike fairly hard.
Any advice will help... cheers

[rodge70]

hi,fitted the bsm titanium to mine,recommended by the dealer i bought bike from,fitted in about 40mins,no problems with fitting it,removable baffle included and apparently no carb mods either.seems to run very well though only just finished the running in bit.as for fuel consumption i've no idea as having to much fun riding it to notice

[DAVID THOMPSON]

as 5th feels to long

all my MZ bikes and most of the BMW bikes i have had all seemed geared toooooo tall
the germans seem to like them that way

want to see a bmw r90s do the 1/4 mile run fast replace rear end with one from a R50/5
and you will have the front wheel in the air all the time
dave

[el-mar]

Hey new boy,

welcome here and congrats to your MZ.
my pipe is an M4. sounds great, runs great.

[m4panther]

What's up new boy you need to clean out the carbs!! I had a similar problem (bad gas and varnish) at wide open throttle I would loose power. Then I found this stuff

http://www.webbikeworld.com/sea-foam/

Works like magic. I run an M4 can also. Just had to rebuild it after 4 or 5 years of torture. The front flange separated, the can was inches of falling out of the hangar strap and I had fiberglass everywhere from the airbox to wrapped around the rear hub. Right now I think i'm on my fourth hangar strap bracket. it doesn't hold up to jumping RR tracks or parking blocks get an extra if you're like me I bottom out the suspension once in a while and the tire will F it up also.
Enjoy it I love the bike and everyone else does too

I get about 100 miles to a tank

[AtomicSpew]

I'm getting ready to gear my down as well. Got a 14 tooth for the counter-sprocket and will likely install it in the next week or two. Love my M4 can, but yeah, the hanger straps are shit. M4Panther--find yourself some loading docks to launch off of, but stiffen up that rear suspension as much as you can first! I'm getting about 35-40mpg, depending on how aggressively I'm riding...

[Bill Jurgenson]

Got a 14 tooth for the counter-sprocket and will likely install it

don't if you want to keep your transmission running for a while still.
15 is the smallest practical size in terms of bearing load. Anything smaller just puts undue strain on the countershaft and bearing. Besides, it uses some of the precious little HP the engine has because of its bad mechanical advantage. If you want shorter gearing, put on a larger chainwheel. Better yet, put on a larger cog (16t) and a much larger chainwheel (aluminum) to get better mechanical advantage and return a wee bit more of that precious little HP to the rear wheel.

[MSW]

I've heard folks say that going down to 14t on the front will put undue strain on the bearing, but I've never heard of anyone actually having a bearing/tranny problem because of it (well, one guy I knew had a tranny problem, but it had nothing to do with his motorcycle).

That said, of course, when it came time to try new sprockets, I didn't go near the front, and instead just tried out a couple different sizes on the rear chainwheel. I settled on 41t on the rear, and it has made a nice difference on the freeway. Since I do very little serious offroad, and a fair bit of freeway on my way to twisties (and also being a fairly large guy at 6'0", 215 lbs), I recommend going down a tooth or two in back. Not a world of difference, mind you. You'll get much more noticeable response out of a freer header and pipe, as well as carb mods, but it's not negligible.

[hutchy]

Thanks for all the help, today i fitted a 14 tooth to the front and the baggy now feels better suited to my bulk! so when i get to ordering new chain and spockets i'll go for 15 front 46 rear, that gives me a ratio of just under 3:1, as for the rear pipe i'll try to get hold of a bsm silencer as m4 are hard to get hold of

All the best ..........Hutchy

[Bill Jurgenson]

David wrote:

all my MZ bikes and most of the BMW bikes i have had all seemed geared toooooo tall
the germans seem to like them that way :D

Not a question of liking them that way. It is done in order to pass registration demands in Germany. All vehicles must be submitted and must pass rather stringent demands, in particular concerning noise. The long final ratio keeps revs down at the speed (50mhp=80kmh) that is measured, thus making less noise. That way, you can get away with less development and also less restrictive cans.
The OEM can of the Skorpion is very quiet at that speed. The can was designed specifically with this in mind while doing as little damage as possible at peak power. Compared to an open BOS absorber can with 108db, the L&W, a refractor, has only one hp less, both mounted on the same bike and system. But at 4000rpm the L&W has 5hp less than the open can.
Whatever, gearing for Germany is in general toooooo tall. This is true of virtually all bikes with 1- and 2-cylinder engines. It is a constant gripe with testers an journalists and one of the first things they change on long-term test machines, just to make them drivable.
It is definitely the first thing I change along with the CDI. Have lost count how many times I have noted this.

[MSW]

BTW, I believe that the tall 5th gear is actually intended as an overdrive. Used appropriately, it does make freeway driving a little easier. You just have to remember to down-shift if you really want to get out of the way in a hurry.