ya its def. the tranny, and getting worse, it wont stay in 3rd anymore past 5k, even tried holding it in 3rd with my foot and it kicked the force of my foot back. i think im out of comission for a while unless i ghetto rock it from 2nd to 4th every time i ride.

 

i worked on a kawi a while back that was doing the same thing...had a chip out of the shift drum

it would only drop from 3rd to 2nd, everything else was cool

 

lol sweeettt. as for now im leaning toward a bent shift fork, but it should be apart within the next 2 weeks so well see

 

The F4i gearbox is funny...Im starting to think it wasnt desgned so well, esp in the first year 01's, mine seems to have very loose tolerances...BUT then again if It never loses a gear completely then I guess its just the characteristic of the loose gearbox! Mine with ONLY 11k on the odo gives quite a bit of "kick back" when shifting...and Im preloading and NOT pissy shifting it...especially 1-2...I cant tell you how many times I smack her up there high in the rev range in 1 and no matter what I do she goes into neutral...I mean it is a literal kick back on my foot...its like the bike is sayin "uh uh" Im not ready..and somethings in the way

SO far, knock on wood, she hasent popped out of gear or just refused to go into a gear though...you just have to get used to what the gearbox likes, its characteristics and how to work it...like any female

And to the poster about the kawi 2nd gear going..it must have been a 636...theyr notorious for the 2nd gear going out!

 

well, i replaced the shift drum, i should have everything back together by friday at the latest, and well see if it solves my problem

 

didnt solve anything, back to the drawing board......

 

swapped the trans gears, after looking at the old ones, the cogs were rounded off. idk how someone destroys a bike like that but at least its fixed and in better hands now. first time really tearing into a bike and i successfully did a trans swap. im happy.