I hear ya’, don’t disagree. Just trying to understand if it is already too tall in first gear and the lesser of his evils is the higher rpm on the open road, then going just a couple teeth up on the rear will help around town and not be as big of a change as as adding a tooth up front and going the opposite way with respect to making it even taller around town which is already an issue. Granted, it doesn’t make much difference in mph when comparing the sprocket sizes on gearing commander, but it’s a little engine and not a lot of oomph until it gets up there a ways in rpm.
Ok, slow Sunday evening...
Did a dyno chart check and correlated the rpm/road speed. The engine maxes out about 18.5 ft/lbs at 6,600 rpm. At 4500 rpm that little 280cc tweeter is making 13-14ft/lbs, which is 30 mph with a 15/36 gear combo in 3rd gear. 5100 rpm is up to 16ft/lbs at 30 mph in the same gear with a 14/38 combo. 600 rpm difference (3 ft/lbs) is a 23% difference in torque, if the difference is only 2 ft/lbs, it’s still a 15% difference in output. The bike weighs 315 lbs wet, add a 185 Rider and that is 500 lbs rolling weight. My ZRX1200 for comparison with lighter exhaust and other mods, weighs 495 lbs wet. I am rather tall and weigh 275 lbs. That’s 770 lbs with an engine making 75 ft/lbs at 3500 rpm, 87 ft/lbs max. I can feel a big difference in 1 tooth up on the front compared to 1 tooth up on the rear. It makes a difference in feel with either more relaxed around town or a bit more power via higher rpm in the lower gears. Once on the open road it matters little to the ZRX, but the point being a small 280cc engine will only magnify the differences one way or the other and 600 rpm is a huge difference in output, percentage-wise relative to the weight it has to move around.
I like the more relaxed feel of taller gearing, so I am with you in the grand scheme, but with a litttle engine and not enough power to get out of its own way around town with already too-tall gearing in stock form, I would go up a couple teeth on the rear.