1989kx250 said:would it hurt to go.... say from a 13-48 to a 15-48?
FruDaddy said:going from a 13 to a 15 up from will give the bike a greater speed at any given RPM with a sacrifice in acceleration.
The ratios that you hear mentioned are probably something like 4.00:1 which means that the front gear will rotate 4.00 times for every 1 revolution of the rear gear the . In your case 13-48 is 3.69:1 and 15:48 is 3.20:1. This is a very big jump in gearing. The larger the number the quicker the acceleleration while smaller numbers have a theoretically greater top speed (there are other factors involved). This concept applies to cars and bicycles as well. In fact, take a look at (and maye even ride a) multi speed bicycle. You will notice that the smaller front and larger rear sprockets are much easier to pedal but as you upshift, you go progressivesly faster while keeping the same pedaling speed, of course it does get harder to pedal.
1989kx250 said:would it hurt to go.... say from a 13-48 to a 15-48?