Why not lock it in first???

[BrianG]

Four reasons (for me anyway):

1: The first gear has a OWB as people said, so you have to find a way to grab the shaft in both directions if you want elec brakes.

2: The input gear is smaller so there are fewer teeth. I figured fewer teeth would see more wear than a gear with more teeth.

3: You need a fairly large pinion and small spur to make up for the low gearing in the tranny if you want decent top speeds. Locking in second allows you to have more gearing options and uses eay to find pinion sizes.

4: Second gear has three options; narrow, std, and wide ratios. This allows for a little more adjustability inside the tranny.