They are designed to be a high RPM bike.

The maximum continuous RPMs spec is 8,500.

If you are really determined to change the gearing, the crown wheel and pnion from other K bikes will ,fit, I think its the R1200LC is the tallest one about 2.57. I do have a list I got here, of all the ratios and its doable. You have to buuy a matched pair but it can be done. They will fit both the Paralever and the monolever.

I changed my K1100 drive gearing and to be honest it was not worth the time, just get used to the higher RPM.

I have no idea of how aggressive of a rider you are but anything you give up in RPMs you also end up giving up in torque and acceleration.

Despite my age, I still like to pretend that I'm 18 and chop it down to third gear when passing on my K1100RS. It's fun.

Ok, alot of good information here. Perhaps im still struggling with some "mechanical sympathy"    Going all out in 5th gear on a windy bridge scared the bejesus out of me, tilting over like a sailboat from the wind, and some heavy vibration feeding thru the saddle. But i was loving the bike when i did a full blast up a long hill in 3rd!

I went through the "looking for 6th" stage when I first started riding Bricks.  After a year or so and 10,000 miles I began to notice that at 60mph(100kph) I was still in 4th! 

These engines are designed to run at fully loaded redline for 24 hours.

Vaderbrick wrote:Ok, alot of good information here. Perhaps im still struggling with some "mechanical sympathy"    Going all out in 5th gear on a windy bridge scared the bejesus out of me, tilting over like a sailboat from the wind, and some heavy vibration feeding thru the saddle. But i was loving the bike when i did a full blast up a long hill in 3rd!

I am well used to sailing and on a strong cross wind you can ride the K100RT/LT and K1100LT in a straight line despite having a 10-20 degree lean. Its well balanced aerodynamically with respect to cross wind. I find them more stable in such conditions compared to the K100RS.

I always enjoyed how the RPM and indicated speed (km/h) were registered as both pointing straight up on the needles of the dual clocks as I motored along on my 8V K100RS. As I recall it was about 100 km/h and approximately 5,000 rpm. 

I, too, searched for an extra (top) gear when I first began riding K bricks, but it soon never concerned me. At 80+ mph (130 km/h), it settles into a steady hum and eagerly gives more when asked.

While K bikes could never be called 'fast' or even quick handling as compared to most of their head-on Japanese or Italian competition at the time and in their heyday, they certainly had plenty of grunt, and were more than capable and better than most others over the long-haul. I would often walk away after a thousand click day feeling quite rested and relaxed. This, I believe, was BMW's design trait and philosophy for Airheads & Bricks from the start.

They are designed to do lots of miles quickly .. I know

here is all you need to know - see 'Gear sets':
http://www.largiader.com/articles/gearing/


and yes, I do agree: driving @ 4100 rpm (which corresponds to our official speed limit on highways) becomes slightly annoying after three hours.
Luckily, in the country I do live in, we do have a traffic jam every fifteen minutes or so. Full stop, all quiet.