1st gear stalling upon startup - but moving into 2nd before 1st works.
 

Hi all, my 18k miles f4i has recently developed a problem. I start my bike and let it warm up in neutral. I get my green Neutral light on my cluster. I lift the kickstand up and put the bike in first gear. At the very moment that I start to release the clutch, the bike stalls. Does it every time.

I put the bike up in the air to troubleshoot. The bike stand switch is healthy, and the clutch switch is healthy. The neutral safety switch does not show continuity in neutral, but like 200 ohms -- seems high.

Now. When I start the bike in neutral, if I shift UP to 2nd gear before going through neutral down to first, the bike is fine. No stalling in first gear.

Aside from the neutral switch, is there anything else I should suspect?

thanks
John
BT

After you go to second gear...can you go to first? I had a car that I had to do that anytime I stopped.

I doubt it's electrical if 2nd works and 1st stalls. The bike has no way of knowing what gear it's in (thats the riders job).

So you can click it in 1st gear and it only stalls when you start to release the clutch even if your giving it some throttle??

Correct, once I click up to second (still with the clutch in), I click down to neutral, down to first, and I can release the clutch without stalling. This only happens when the bike is first started. If after 20 min of riding, I shut the bike down, I can restart the bike in neutral, put it in first, and ride away.

yes, stalls even if given throttle. Yesterday I put the bike up in the air (and yes, i know its not a good idea), but in proving this, with no load on the wheel (wheels in the air free spinning at <5mph), the bike would stall in 1st as soon as I would go to slowly release the clutch. However, doing my Neutral-to-2nd-to-neutral-to-first worked every time.

I agree, probably not electrical issue. thinking its the neutral switch, but was looking for other possibilities.

thanks for the replies.

neutral switch is electrical and it only knows if its in neutral or not. It doesnt know or care if its 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th, or 6th gear. its either neutral or not. What happens if you rev the heck out of it and release the clutch a little faster, and i dont mean to the point you loop it or wreck. Just more aggressively than your trying now. Sounds to me like the idle may be set a little low and your just stalling when there more torque applied to the clutch.

I will try that tomorrow and report back to you.

For S's and G's, I started the bike up, as stated above. I let it warm up, as stated above. I put it in first, get the normal clunk. I slowly release the clutch, and the bike starts moving forward (no stalling) -- so, go figure.. I will keep an eye out in the future.

Thanks.