Hi, I love my GS 500F but wish it had a taller top gear. The bike has plenty of power in top gear at freeway speeds and seems like another shift would be nice. I know there is a 17 tooth front sprocket available but that will make first gear taller.

The best of all worlds for me would be a replacement gear in the transmission that would make the 5-6 gear ratios wider apart.

I'm hoping that one of you expert modifiers has discovered another Suzuki model transmission that has the gear sets I want.

You'd think Suzuki would use as many common parts as possible and that the ratios I think I want are available.

A similar option would be a lower ratio first gear with 17 tooth sprocket.

This is all in the interests of increased fuel economy and less buzzing at higher speeds.

Thanks,
Jess

I know of no other gear sets that will work in the GS transmission.A 17 tooth will make it a little harder to pull off from a stop.The one problem that a bigger front sprocket causes is lack of charging in top gear.This is an easy remedy tho.The GS alternator/generator doesn't start charging until 3000 to 3500 rpm.Lowering cruise rpm can cause the charging system to stop charging and the bike will be running on battery killing it over time.Dropping down a gear for a mile or 2 ever so often and staying there for a mile or to will help keep the battery charged.Hope this helps.

I recently put a 17 tooth front sprocket on my GS500F and I'll probably never go back.

I don't find it affects my 1st gear that much, but I'm not into street racing or trying to impress anyone with my little GS.   I would have bought a different bike if that was the case. My riding style is year-round daily commute (70km round trip) and light touring (1 - 2 weeks). For that, the 17 tooth is an excellent way to go. Easy to install and the bike purrs about 5500 rpm @ 120kmph on the highway which is very smooth compared to stock. (sorry, you'll have to do the math if you want it in mph) Not as much pulling power in top gear, but dropping to 5th on the highway makes it easy to pass when need be. Much of my riding is 80km - 90km on twisty backroads which I can pretty much leave in 4th gear now and cruise's at about 5000rpm. Again, very smooth compared to stock, but with some decent pulling power when I need it. Now 3rd gear on the tight twisties is awsome!  

I still find it has plenty of snot if I need it because I also put in a drop-in K&N filter and Dynojet carb kit which likely helps increase hp a bit and hopefully compensates somewhat for the loss in hp going to the 17 tooth. How much it compensates is anyone's guess - I'm not that technical. I'm considering an aftermarket exhaust at some point too, but probably when the stock one starts to wear out. I'd likely go for more of a performance exhaust, again to try and regain some hp, but not for racing level of performance. Maybe a Supertrapp tunable exhaust. (By the way, K&N filter + Dynojet came to under $150 US and I installed them myself.) I went to the K&N originally because I'm too cheap to pay for throw away filters, but realziing I could also get a little more hp with the jet kit just made that much more sense.

As far as charging goes, I find I keep mine between 4500 and 5500 rpm in any gear most of the time so charging is fairly good at those rpm. With the 17 tooth, I don't find I'm in the 3500 range much at all. Because your gears are taller, you can use lower gears in the city at comfortable rpms with more pull much of the time.

So really, I guess it depends on your riding style, but consider this . . . a 17 tooth front sprocket costs under $30 US and takes about 20 - 30 minutes to install yourself with very few basic tools. Far less expensive or difficult to experiment with than changing gears in the transmission. Even if you decide you don't like it and want go back to the stock 16 tooth then proceed with the gearing option you won't be out of pocket much or have made changes that aren't easy to reverse. Try it, you might just like it.

P.S. - I have an almost-new 16 tooth up for grabs . . . 

I was wondering about the 1+ front sprocket myself  !!  Thanks for the info !
Any noteable increase in fuel mpg?

Sorry, I don't pay too much attention to gas mileage . . . the way prices are going it's just too depressing!

Seriously, I haven't had it on there long enough to tell yet, but I have a trip planned in June that will probably reveal it better. If I notice anything I'll post it here.