Metro Gears

[cruiser]

Has anyone done this yet? Pics?

[Dandy Dan]

zoomer46 has, I bought a set of the gears and then sold them too him and I'm going to buy another set for my self soon. My big bore Ruckus hits the 45mph redline easy so I need more gear.

If you do all 3 gears it's a bolt in mod that's 100% compatable and it will gear you 13% taller which is awesome if you have the power but if you don't then just doing the final gear will gear you about 6% taller.

[cruiser]

What is the gear called that we do not replace? It is also the rear axle!
I have an 06 so power should not be a problem.

[Dandy Dan]

There are 4 gears back there. The first gear is on the other end of the shaft ('driveshaft') that your clutch is on. Then there are 2 fairly regular looking gears that connect you to the rear axle which of course has a gear on it.

The gear you DO NOT replace is the drive shaft gear. When you take the transmission cover off the rear axle and the 2 regular gears can just be lifted out but the drive shaft gear requires a bunch of special tools so you don't have to worry about getting confused and replacing the wrong gear or something.

In summary, you ARE replacing the REAR AXLE from the stock one which has 49 teeth with the Metro rear axle which has 47 teeth and then you replace the 2 regular gears back there with the Metro ones as well. The regular gear that's right next to the rear axle is a 12 tooth gear which you want to replace with the 13 tooth Metro one and then the other regular gear (which goes between that 13 tooth Metro gear and the drive shaft) is 11 tooth in the Ruckus and Metro but you still need to buy the Metro one because it interfaces a bit differently with the other regular gear. Make sense?

[Dandy Dan]

Here's a guide (with pics) on how to do it for an Aprila SR50 scooter which is very similar to the Ruckus.

www.apriliaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8903

The only differences really are that you don't need to do any of that pressing gears in and out because you only replace the final 3 gears and not the shaft the clutch is on. Also, we don't have a gear oil drain hole so you just need to let it fall out when you disassemble the tranny and then refill it through the fill hole.

[Dandy Dan]

Here's a exploded diagram for you:


To do this mod:
1 - Remove your exhaust (10mm and 12mm bolt heads) and then remove the rear wheel (22mm)
2 - Remove your drive cover (7, 8mm bolts and one 10mm) and then remove the rear clutch (14mm)
3 - Remove the transmission cover via about 7 (10mm?) bolts including one that's in behind where the clutch was. Wiggle the cover off once the bolts are loose and catch or clean up the 0.1L of gear oil.
4 - Carefully replace the gears (parts #3,4 and 5 above) and washers (if you don't have a lot of miles you can reuse the washers). If you mess up the washers that's really bad because there will be slop in your rear end and loud whirring noises...especially above 30mph. Trust me I did it once.
5 - Apply sealant and bolt the cover back on (if you don't have the service manual we'll scan in the diagram for you)
6 - Refill the transmission with Hypoid SAE 90 gear oil via the bolt hole behind the drive cover (fill it flush to the bottom of the hole)
7 - Put the clutch and drive cover back on.
8 - Put the rear wheel and exhaust back on.

[ZOOMER46]

its an easy job,but you will need dans variator tool.

my zoomer went from a crappy get in everyones way 28mph

to a keep with the flow 32mph.

roughly 13% rise to whatever set up you already may have.

tho the polini variator will add 33% approx and is a little easier to do.cheaper too.

best to do the gears aft you have tuned the engine some as it will need
to breath more to pull that higher gearing.(in my opinion)
the h.o cam does this very well.
the exhaust and back wheel needs to come off to access the axle.easy jobs.

only pos drawback is hills or 2 up,but is great for relaxed cruising or longer distance.

go for it!

[ZOOMER46]

also dont forget you dont have to use all the metro gears.
you in effect have 3 possible gearbox combo's.

[cruiser]

Does Ron Ayers have the Metro parts? What model number would that be? I did look but failed to find it.

[Dandy Dan]

RonAyers.com doesn't have the Metro listed but BikeBandit.com does but you have to enter 2003 for the year.

Zoomer46, how's the H.O. cam working out for you? Do you have it installed?

[cruiser]

Me? No H.O. cam here!
They list two Met's
CHF50 METROPOLITAN and CHF50P METROPOLITAN II for 2003.
Also listed for 2006 www.bikebandit.com/partsbandit/OEM-Nav~submit_from_stage~2~section_dept_id~1~model_dept_mfr~Honda~model_dept_year~2006.asp
Which one is best to use?

[Dandy Dan]

I was just wondering if Zoomer46 had installed the cam yet.

About BikeBandit, they must have gotten the 2006 parts up quite recently. That's great to hear. Use the 2006 info because you never know when a part # might have changed and the prices will be the most accurate. Use the 2006 metro and use the first one (CHF50 Metropolitan) the other Metro's listed should be indentical though so whatever (the CHF50s is just the special paint one, kinda like the camo ruckus).

[timberwolfmadcat]

Is it really that easy, it looks dissapointingly easy Maybe an hour tops if you take your time

[ZOOMER46]

been offline a little dan,

no cam fitted yet ,but received.

the only thing i havent fitted within minutes of arriving!
got the variator in tho,easy job,
the weirdest thing has happened,put the vari in with the
metro gears that were already there,
and at first i was still getting my ba ba ba ba ba
of the rev limiter at around 30mph,crap i thought!
then gradually the ba ba ba(stop laughing)shifted up the
speed range to the point were it has almost dis -appeared?

seems like with the engine working harder to keep my higher speed
it has re calibrated itself or something?

hardly ba ba's now,which was obvious to anyone within
a mile cos of the yoshi.
seemed like she is strugling a little to pull the rev limiter with the
metro and vari stuff
so i tried it wth the standard gears and the new polini vari
and it makes it better on pull away and the higher range of speed,
and more usuable.
top speed with new vari and metro gears
is 41 mph.

with new vari only is 38mph,
which is o.k as it gets there a little quicker.

also tried with out the filter and she ran o.k/normal
i think that before i ran without the filter she maybe did not warm
properly before i made an opinion,
elsie does run better when she is fully warmed up,
especially on pullaway.

so the next thing is the h.o cam
as to be honest she needs that top end power and breathing to pull
the metro gears and polini vari better at higher speeds.

also iam still running standard rev limiter whatever it is set at.

[Dandy Dan]

Cool, thanks for the update, you could try just the Metro rear axle for only about 1/2 the difference. Also, if you don't think you'll ever use the Metro gears you can always sell them back to me but I'm super tight for cash right now cuz I'm paying for a wedding, honeymoon and new apartment so it don't have any Ruckus $$$ until I go back to work in January (I'm a university student in a co-op program so I go to school for 4 mths and then work 4 mths back and forth).

[cruiser]

From Bike Bandit

2006 Honda CRF50 METROPOLITAN
4: COUNTERSHAFT (13T) 2917302-001 $21.29
5: GEAR, COUNTER (42T)
(42T) 1470824-001 $20.20
6: GEAR, FINAL (45T)
(45T) 1470828-001 $58.29

Notice the tooth count!

2005 Honda NPS50 RUCKUS - no 2006 listing?
3: COUNTERSHAFT (12T)
(12T) 1470816-001 $23.15
4: GEAR, COUNTER (42T)
(42T) 1470825-001 $21.31
5: GEAR, FINAL (47T)
(47T) 1470829-001 $66.69

I hope I am reading it right that Bike Bandit charges $6.00 flat rate for ground shpping!

Has anyone priced the parts from Honda USA?

[Dandy Dan]

Hmm....those are good prices. I wonder if they ship to Canada.

[ZOOMER46]

you say that i could use the big metro gear(last one)
with the standard first two?
or standard last gear with the first two metro gears?

[Dandy Dan]

zoomer46 said:

you say that i could use the big metro gear(last one)
with the standard first two?
or standard last gear with the first two metro gears?

Yes, you either one of those combos should work perfectly. There are a couple guys in Canada doing that (metro Rear axle only). The important thing is that you keep the first 2 metro gears together but I don't think you can really screw that up because the middle two Ruckus gears fit together differently that the middle two Metro gears so I don't think it's possible to use one of each for the middle two gears.

[ZOOMER46]

seeing as i got the gearchanging down to a fine art
i'm gonna try every pos combo i can!

good that the gears can mixed both ways,
thanks for clarifying that ;D