Thanks John - interesting stuff.
I will look into the restriction thingy.
for me, there is enough power in the lower gears if the damn thing didn't have this fluff area.
Before the sag was done it would hop the back wheel over even a small tree root or large pebble and I was thinking I had made a big mistake buying the bike.
I wouldn't have lasted an hour in Wales with it like that. The previous owner apparently was 15 stone and carried a passenger so just wound the static sag up to 7mm instead of the proper 18mm. The transformation was massive and, with my limited ability, enough to make the bike ok for the weekend. Normally it won't matter on local lanes as we don't have the rocky stuff. I didn't feel it needed more 'bounce'
I'll try a tad more wind off the damping and rebound settings though. Even I can cope with that
A thought I had during the night.....when doing the decent thing and running a higher gear at low revs, it is also feels like the throttle won't stay stable.
Again, this could be the TPS so, once I've washed the bike off, that is the first easy fix.
As best as I can find, 15/45 is standard so 15/48 is just adding 3 teeth to the rear (a bit less than one off the front? but better for the chain obviously).
6th is plenty high enough so a drop probably wouldn't be the end of the world for the riding I now do. I'll ponder that one as it's not specific to my current problem but looks a worthwhile tweak.
I tried it on my old WR450 and didn't like it as it seemed wrong in every gear.
EDIT: Is there any reason why I shouldn't go to a 14/45 instead as it would be cheaper and easier? Some guys on ABR seem to have gone that route.
My riding will be usual trail riding locally or road rides also locally, maybe up to 100 to 150 miles - all on the MT21's which are good fun on the road.
I'm not going to get into wheel swaps as I wouldn't bother after the first time. I am happy with full time knobblies even if they cost me more to run.