G'day and welcome,

you have good taste in bikes before you go up into the mountains may I suggest you get a 13 tooth front sprocket. They are listed in the part numbers sticky up the top of the forums.

Cheers

 

this is harley country, so the green meanie is an alien bike to most...and I'm from s.jersey (originally) too, so to thenatives I'm alien and the "undocumented imigrants" are the locals

seems like a number of the folks who commute have the 13t, I'm wondering how that will help on the hwy up the mountain 55 mph and a fairly steep grade

 

With the 13 tooth you will be able to better use not only 6th gear on the highway, but also you will gain some nice single track low end power. Its all good. I have the 13-45 setup and I can do 60-65 and the bike seems fine.