5 gears or 6 gears?

[Get2stroked]

I am been thinking about this lately. Most of my friends say 6 is better but then why wouldnt all the bikes have 6? ?

[bbohannon]

Such a vague question. For what type of riding are we talking about?

Most bikes 6th gear is only useful when going down a road or straight to get somewhere... not actually for riding fast through chop or on the track.

[Get2stroked]

Well just plain anything. Track, hill climb, or just going down a road.

[Still Bill]

My KTM has 7 (if you count neutral)!

[Chas_M]

Well just plain anything. Track, hill climb, or just going down a road.

If you want a 'do anything' bike, obviously a wide ratio 6 speed is better than a 5 speed.

[Oic0]

It also depends on the motor. When I had a 350 two stroke 2 cylinder with a powerband at a bazillion RPMS and not much outside of that, I needed the 6 speed gear box. When I got my KX500 I thought, 5 gears? how lame! Then in practice I rarely get out of 3rd which will happily carry you to about 60mph.

[Coviello]

Usually the 125 2strokes and smaller two strokes have 6 gears. 6 gears are used to accommodate for the small amount of torque that the two strokes put out. There for each gear is shorter to allow a higher rev In each gear. The 4 strokes have longer gears because they have the torque to beable to pull the bike through each gear. If you put longer gears in a small two stroke it wouldn't pull and would fall flat on it's face. it really comes down to what you are using it for. Woods riding I would go with 6. Mx definatly 5

[Diode663]

I didnt like the 6 gears in my 125, it felt like there was a useless gear in there that you would pull through in 1 second. But I also didnt really like my 4 speed 450. That was kind of silly even though it had no trouble pulling it.

[CDBiker220]

I had a 6 speed in my old KDX...loved that...then got a yz250(5 speed). Was way faster on the YZ but missed the 6 speed. Now have a GasGas EC300 and love the 6 speed. 1st is just a bit lower then 1st on the YZ for rock crawling/total nasty stuff...and 6th is little higher than 5th for ripping down railroad tracks or fire roads. A 6 speed is great for trail riding or cross country stuff. but I would likely never use 1st or 6th in a race...so thats where the 5 speed in alot of bikes are fine...and you dont need the extra weight and rotating mass of the 6th gear.

[OLHILLBILLY]

I am told that my KDX has 6 speeds too, but I've never used the sixth one. The only time I ever remember using fifth even, was on a sand flats area at a place called St. Joe St. Park over by St. Louis.

Even with 6 gears, I still find 1st to be too low, and 2nd to be a bit too high sometimes.

[SnowMule]

I've never kicked into 6th in the dirt.

But when I'm commuting, or on my way to the trails, having that 6th gear to haul balls at 80m/h is nice.

[LILBIT]

Offroad it's all about options. 6 speeds rules! For racing and strictly racing 5 is fine.

Dual sport without 6 is just terrible whether close or wide ratio.

[Get2stroked]

My cr 125 has 5, but my friends rm 125 has 6