Need some suggestions...

[somesuch]

I have undercut the gears myself with a Dremel, and I have also sent them out to be undercut by Fas-by-Gast in NY. XS11 gears have so much meat that I felt very comfortable doing it myself, but GSXR gears are a lot smaller and the power is double, with greater torque as well, so I sent them out. Both sets worke flawlessly for many thousands of myles of real hard use. As a matter of fact i tried braking the XS11 (my old bike) gears just to see what it would take with no success. The XS11 gears did not seem to be case hardened.
--Nick

[Guy_b_g]

Nick,

Metallurgy, tranny design, and quality control have all come a long way since the early 80s, haven't they? Seems like almost everything on the new bikes is so much lighter and more compact.

As to whether the gears in the XS11 are or are not surface (case) hardened, not being able to break then would lead me to believe that they are, as hardened gears would be more brittle than case hardened ones.

I will take the parts of the tranny (the ones I don't need) I just got to my friend Nick and have him examine them (doing whatever he needs to do to them in order to find out if they are indeed case hardened)..if only to satisfy my own curiousity and those here who might be interested. I have a good quality digital camera and a macro lense, so if anything is visible to the naked eye and some small amount of magnification, maybe I can catch it on camera..we'll see...but at the very least we can put this subject to bed for good (or at least for me...If I am wrong, so be it. If I am right there will be disbelievers anyway...but I will know for sure). I will try to post the results by next weekend if Nick's schedule allows him the time to do this for me.