5 speed box.

[10 inch Terror]

Hi all, I'm thinking of fitting a 5 speed box to my RB20, but I'm not sure which one to go for. I have a a Cyclone in my RB25, and after initial problems with the cluster ( replaced with a Supreme version ) it's now had 500 miles put through it. Most of those miles by my son in law, who is used to sports bikes, so many gears were missed and crunched with no damage (gearbox stripped and inspected.) I'm very tempted to buy another Cyclone, but with MB producing their own version, I'm in two minds. Is anyone using the MB one, and how are they holding up / performing? At £1100 are they that much better than the Cyclone at £850? Any comments very welcome. Thanks in advance Pete.

[Timbo]

I've got a cyclone with a version 1 cluster. I've not heard anything bad about the MB one and it was developed many many years ago so tried and tested. It will be interesting to see if anyone has both.

[10 inch Terror]

I have loads of MB parts fitted and love the quality and durability of them. I'm sure their 5 speed will be no exception. If they were say £900 I'd order one today. As they are £1100 I'd like to know if they are £250-£300 better than the Cyclone before I ordered one. I may just go for a Supreme Cyclone if there's no real difference in performance or durability.

[hungdog]

https://www.facebook.com/mark.bee.543/m ... 968&type=3

[a.j]

I have a V1 in my GT186 set up. Running in atm with no issues. Smoother than Telly Savalas's head.

[Toot-oasc]

I have loads of MB parts fitted and love the quality and durability of them.

You've obviously been lucky then. Not my experience and when attempting to seek an explanation and acceptance of inferior quality parts (that the very same supplier has admitted previously but decline a full recall) there customer service leave a lot to be desired.

Never bought anything from them since.

On the other hand, 15,000 miles plus on a Cyclone 5 speed box with no issues or problems. I fully recommend them from personal experience.

[Grumpy225]

I've installed both and here's what I've found.

The Cyclone can be more time consuming to install. It takes careful shimming otherwise you could break a gear. Also they tend not to play nice with the GP/DL end plate. On the 3 cyclones I've installed, all wanted to use the LI endplate and ramp set up. The last one also had a tight fitting shifter on the layshaft. I don't know what version this was but the other 2 did not have this problem. All were built on Innocenti Series 3 layshafts. It does come nicely packaged with clear instructions and all the shims etc. IF you go this route and have a DL/GP, buy the parts to convert to LI style kick start. Add at least 2 hours of build time.

MBD 5 speed dropped right together like I was building a stock gear box (it took all of 10 min and used a 2mm stock main shim). Read the install instructions carefully on the website, you need to leave out the tree shim. The shifters on these are a tight fit to original layshafts. I tried out 2 Innocenti ones I had on the shelf and neither would work with the MBD 5 speed. After a few emails back and forth (to make sure I wasn't missing something stupid) I decided to get the MBD layshaft to go with the gear box. I was assured that those fit together nicely. They were a perfect fit and is what I run in my dl now. Gears, shifter and tree all are a work of art (minus the slick box, book and foam). Does not come with additional shims. If you go this route buy the MBD layshaft. Normal build time.

To me, the biggest factor when turning wrenches is time. The price difference between the two is offset by the time saved with the MBD box vs the Cyclone. As for the layshaft, yes it sucked to have to buy another part but in the end I probably should have done it anyways since it was pushing 50 years old.



You milage may vary...

[10 inch Terror]

So, the MB is an easier fit, but add in say £100 for their lay shaft and it's £1200 total. To be honest, I think I'd rather spend longer building a Cyclone and save myself £350. Thanks for your time explaining your finding, much appreciated.

[Grumpy225]

What was the price difference with the supreme version?

[DigDug]

What was the price difference with the supreme version?

It's listed at 1150 Euro.

http://www.riminilambrettacentre.com/en ... ndard.html