Hi all-

just got my bike out of winter storage and was all ready for my first ride. bike starts no problem, but is a little weird when shifting in first. I try to put it back into neutral and it's hard to find (this is all while im sitting on the bike, not moving). I go back up into first and ride away, bump it into second (kinda sluggish feeling in shift lever), go for third and it won't go. Stomp on it and it will not go into third. Pull the bike over and try to go through the gears while stationary and same thing, will move between first and second but third and beyond is impossible.

I've never had a problem like this before. When i last rode the bike everything was fine. Before i winterized it i drove it from texas up to philadelphia in a snow storm. It got covered in snow/salt which i washed off and then i dryed it and sprayed it with a silicon spray for protection. It was on it's kickstand the whole winter and might have been left in gear. Im saying this because it might be a clue into what went wrong.

Oil level is fine, clutch cable is fine. Nothing was changed since I last rode it.

I don't think its clutch plates, I did get it up to operating temperature and rode around in 2nd for a while and nothing loosened up or improved.

Does anyone have an idea of what's going on? Any idea where to start or what I should be looking for? I'm at a loss because I've never had a problem like this and I have no idea what might be causing it.

Thanks in advance for any help or ideas!

 

Few things could go wrong and cause that problem;
1 clutch/ adjustment and plate
2 Gear selector star/brain
3 gear selector forks.

or the engine is totally fine it just the gear linkage need adjusting/ tightening. The stock gear lever I had have lots of play in there and won't select gear properly sometimes.

if not, its probably time to drain the oil and see if theres anything coming out with it; then check clutch and gear selector/shift star is working, if its not 1 or 2 then you will need to take the engine out, split the case and see whats going on inside the gearbox.

 

How old is the oil? when was the last oil change and what grade of oil was used?

Are you in Philly currently?

 

Thanks for the responses, it's much appreciated.

I'm praying that it's either 1 or 2 from above, splitting the case is beyond my abilities....

In the next few days I'm going to dig into it and see what's going on, starting with 1 and 2. As far as oil goes, last season's oil is in there (was changed and levels are fine (Amsoil) and all the levels are fine.

I'll post updates when I make any progress....

 

Oh, and yes, I'm currently in the Philly SW burbs.

 

"Last season's oil" does that mean it's more than 6 months old?

Any sign of water in the oil?

I'm near Valley Forge area, if you are close enough, I can come take a look.

 

Did anyone ever figure out what the problem was and the solution?

 

 

That sounds like shift forks. Had that happen to one of my race bikes where it wouldnt engage 4th gear.

 

Sometimes its just that the shift lever is filthy. had the same problem with mine and took the gear selector off cleaned it all up and greased the rotating part put it back on and was brand new shifted grand after that.