Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Bonneville America Rear Sprocket and rear shocks

Looking to change rear sprocket to lower number for less RPM at speed and reasonable $rear shocks to take out spine shock on the the big bumps at speed. Any ideas appreciated.
2003 Bonnevile America factory loaded beauty.

18 or 19 tooth front sprocket and some progressive shocks will set you right up.

http://fasteddysports.com is where you want to go

This is my 6th Bonny since the sixties and my retirement ride. I need to make some changes as surgeries make me want a better ride. However I just added a 1994 Nissan 300ZX vert with a 400HP Twin t

Witworth Gearhead Tool & Die since 1964

i tlearn how to navigate this site before my experience can be added as I am on my 8th Bonny in a lot of years. I do know machining, tool $ die and Triumph Meridan engineering. I just want to smoth out my retirement ride.

Two of the 8 bonnys were hanger queens

Welcome to the Forum James. You will find these people very friendly and helpful as I know I have. It sounds like you have some knowledge behind you yourself. You will fit right in.

Most everyone here including myself have changed the front sprocket to an 18 or 19 tooth and kept the rear sprocket stock. At least thats what I did with a 19 tooth front.
I added progressive spring shocks to the rear and added progressive springs to my forks. I used Ikon products on mine but a lot of guys here can inform you about the other products.
I'm very pleased with my setup. I fractured my L4 vertebra back in 1990 and live with back problems but none I equate to my bike. I've hit some hard dips but my suspension does it's job for me.
I've got a 06 America with the same engine as yours and the 19 tooth sprocket worked out just fine.
BTW, welcome to bonnevilleamerica.com. There are tons of information on this site that you will find useful.

+1 on dealing with the front sprocket instead of the rear. It is much cheaper to buy, much easier to change and will get you where you want to be rpm wise

Thanks for the advice I guess I keep thinking about my 1970 650 that I had a variety of rear sprockets up to a 60 toother for scattin' fast around the dirt/tires and heard I could change the rear on the Hincley rr sprocket down one 0r tooth from the stock 42 tooth and loose 500 RPM at the top . I don't need low end any more. Why would I want to change the small gear while doing a mere tire change to Michelin Commander Tyres if I can just do the wheel sprocket if possible

i do appreciate your response. I hope to humbly add to this forum experience from all the infernal engine factory lines I & my father of 101 years living now have worked for or serviced over four generations in the tooling & machinging & engineering business.

Welcome to the Forum, James. FrankW has a handy dandy sprocket calculator spreadsheet where you can play with all kinds of combinations to see what rpms you will be turning. Not sure if its posted anywhere here...

Welcome to the forum, James.

Yeah, I suppose you could go slightly smaller on the rear sprocket while you have the wheel off, but like everybody is saying here, most of us have found that by just going a little larger on the countershaft(front) sprocket is a much easier task in order to accomplish what you're after here.

All you have to do is bend back the edge of the lockwasher behind the nut which holds the front sprocket on to the countershaft, unscrew it, pull it off, replace it with the larger sprocket. Of course, you'll first have to loosen and move your rear axle a little more forward in order to accommodate the larger sprocket. In all, just about a 10 minute job. And, as Dave[dmy] said, the front sprockets are usually a lot less in price than are the rear.

And, might I suggest for your suspension needs you might consider getting Progressive 412s, as I've found them to be a much needed improvement over the stock shocks, and they're a very reasonable price for this improvement as compared to Progressive's more upscale and more expensive units.

Hi James, looking forward to seeing some of that experience come out in perhaps some new engineering ideas and passing on the ideas to me for one.

Regarding shocks, I and a few other discerning owners on here have Hagon nitros as rear shocks which whilst not cheap, you only get what you pay for. Of course the progressive 414's being American are very popular and probably the pick from the majority.

As far as front suspension goes, I have tried the progressive front springs but now have the intiminators with the oem springs which I have found actually work better with them than the progressive springs by themselves or with the intimidators. Btw, the intiminators were designed to work with the oem's.

Good luck

#1 on the Ricor Intiminators, as they square away our forks.

Thanks to all of you guys for the info and sorry for no speedy reply. The machining business has really got busy since new year and not much time for an browsing unless I stay up way to late. I have a lot of price checking to do and have a vendor enginnering some special rear shocks but still need to do price and application evaualtion for my 64 year old NoAssatol butt 6'1" 250lbs gerth.
Guidance and pricing has and will be appreciated.

Thanks for all the advice and sorry to busy to reply. The machine shops are busy since new year.

How about YSS as they are probably an OEM to the Taiwan Bonneville factory.