Jake450s
Posts: 7199
Joined: 7/2/2000
From: Panton, VT
Status: offline
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The "max torque" is misquoted and mistranslated from the original...
Think of them like a car with an automatic transmission, and the sport/economy selector. D1 is sport, D2 is economy. It quiets the engine some bu slowing it down a touch for long steady flat cruising, but should be avoided for low speed, heavy work, trailer towing, and general "playing around" where the driving is too various to define. D2 essentially forces the transmission into too high of a gear. Good in theory, but you can't forget the centrifugal primary clutch. You need to keep the RPMs up for D2 to work right. Some of the earlier bugs are worked out, it's not as bad as the earliest ones, but it's still possible to misuse it. Good rule of thumb, D1 is ALWAYS safe and effective. D2, if you're unsure, you won't miss it. If you are sure, you'll see it's a relatively minor difference in the shift strategy. Low range throws a curve ball at the algorythms (they'd keep upshifting until it was like you'd never selected low range) so it has it's own D- range that somewhat emulates D1 with adjustments for the lower overall drive ratio, the selector can be in either position in low and it won't matter.
If you're putting bigger or more aggressive tires on the machine, my advice is to duct tape over anything that reminds you that D2 ever existed and never use it.
If the bike is stock, take it out and play with it, keeping attention to not lug the motor too much. The failure is not an overnight thing at all. You can beat the snot out of that clutch, it's tough, you can definately experiment with the gears to see what they do and have no regrets. it's more the all day non stop relentless abuse, or abuse stacked over a couple of years that eats them up.
It's also a small enough difference in the shifting strategy that many people can't even tell what mode they're in without looking. If that is the case for you, then by all means, set it to D1 and forget it. You simply can not go wrong with that approach.
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