My suggestion would be peck around and find a Kawasaki 650 forum and you will probably find your answer pretty quick. I'm on a Ninja 1000SX specific forum and there is plenty of information about riders on that bike that have switched out sprockets added a in the front and taking away from the rear to provide lower rpm at highway cruising speeds. The 1000SX has plenty of torque so this doesn't effect the lower gear performance much. However, on later models going to much may cause the ECU to throw a code. You may also find valuable information to possibly step up a tire size on the rear (little larger diameter) to help reduce rpm a little bit and might improve turn in performance. I know there is at least one other active member here riding a 650, maybe she or others will have something helpful.

 

BTW what is your high today in Sunny Tucson, about 105, that's not to bad, we are in the low 90's up here in the White Mountains today and my house A/C went out! Not that it has anything to do with your question!!

 

The heat doesn't bother me. Its a test of strength and endurance.

I have a friend at work that doesn't wear his helmet because its too hot. Good thing crashes only happen in good weather.

 

Those revs at these speeds are normal for this engine sizes. Engineers are not concerned much with RPMs, as everything turning is doing it either, on hi press oil film (plain bearings), or metal bearings, but they care about piston speed which is a function of stroke, and this is what determines red line on the tach...........

Meaning; the shorter the stroke, the higher they can rev w/out any excess dynamic load banging on the crank.,,,,and yes, these engines can go all day at high revs w/out problem.

....however, higher revs feel a bit frantic and makes people nervous, specially when they are used to cars (with much longer stroke), so if it bothers you, you can go a couple of teeth higher on front, and that would drop revs about 500 RPM.....at the expense of course, of acceleration.

 

The front sprocket is cheaper than the rear one, easier to change,
and increasing 1 or 2 teeth number will not affect the chain length appreciably.
Going up 1 tooth on the front is my suggestion.

 

Like I was mentioning to Hugo, I don't think there is room up front, but I'll check with the Kawasaki guys.

Thank you!

 

....however, higher revs feel a bit frantic and makes people nervous, specially when they are used to cars (with much longer stroke), so if it bothers you, you can go a couple of teeth higher on front, and that would drop revs about 500 RPM.....at the expense of course, of acceleration.
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Thanks for your input. On my Honda, I installed a larger front sprocket, but it is my understanding that on the Kawi, there is not enough clearance to use a larger one in front. So, maybe a smaller rear sprocket would be a good compromise.

Nowhere in my owner's manual does it say what size rear sprocket I have though. I suppose I could just get my lazy ass out to the motorcycle and count teeth.