[corksil]

I've been playing with a lot of ideas lately. Help me think this one through and spot anything that I may have missed.

Attracted to a 450 four-stroke single honda (XR450) street legal with turn signals and plates. Water cooled, fuel injected. This would be the base model for the next bike build-up.

Install a big brake kit up front with dual calipers and large twin rotors ala supersport style. For road riding, the bulk of the braking comes from the front wheel.

Pick up a set of aftermarket rims, install the same big brake rotors up front, and put on some radial slick street tires.

Keep the original rims/tires set up with knobbies for off-road riding.

In the rear -- original rims could have shorter gearing rear sprocket aimed toward torque/acceleration.

Rear aftermarket rim (street tire) would be set up with taller rear sprocket aimed toward top speed/high-way cruising.

The plan is to use one bike for off-roading with the knobby rim/tires, and on-roading with the slick street tires. I'd need to adjust the chain as necessary when swapping wheels due to the different rear sprocket sizes.

Why wouldn't this work?

--sprockets/chain should ideally be mated together for life to prolong wear. Riding on the street for extended periods of time would cause the chain/rear sprocket to wear consistently together, so swapping to rear rim with off-road tires/sprocket could potentially exaggerate chain/sprocket wear.

--brakes pads would need to be broken in each time I swapped rims. Brake pads and rotors wear at different speeds, so if I used the street wheel setup for a while and then switched to the dirt wheels, I'd have to do a few high-speed stops to get the brake pads properly bedded into the different rotors.

What else am I missing? There could obviously be an argument about having the suspension set up for road riding and how swapping to dirt tires would make the road suspension setup improper for the traction differences between dirt and tarmac.

As for gearing differences, they wouldn't be ideal for either dirt or tarmac -- but with the power of a 450 I think it would be a worthwhile compromise.

A big brake setup on the front tire would be a little excessive if riding on the dirt, but if it was well put together/designed, it should have enough 'feel' to be manageable.

Feels like I'm overlooking a tiny but very important detail.