Ive been noticing that the gear shifting on this bike a bit clunky sounding/feeling. When I put it in first is the worst. Is this behavior normal on this Bike? I read a review from 2000 and they say how smooth the shifting is so Im curious how others F4i shift?

 

Clunk into first is very normal.

As far other gears...I guess you can consider it kinda clunky. If you really dislike it...u can get aftermarket shift star...I think that's hat its called which makes shifting a lot more crisper .

 

Thanks for the reply M8.

OK, I wont worry about it. Just trying to be sure the noises are normal

 

My bike does it too, and first & second gear seems to be the worst. Good to know it's normal I guess, since my bike only has 4500 miles on it.

 

Changing your oil might help a bit. I've found that Repsol makes my bike shift much smoother than any other oil. That Honda GN4 garbage is by far the worst I've used.

 

Although my bike has fresh oil in it I was thinking about changing it out, and putting Repsol 10w40 back in. I was kinda thinking that it may help smooth things out a bit, I guess we'll see.

 

Just throwing this out there...Check your chain slack. Some people misinterpret a slack chain as clunky shifting

 

It's just a typical noise for us. It's because your gears aren't changing as smoothly (cause you're not moving). But it's totally normal. Watch any other bike, they have the same 'clunk' down into first.

I noticed that new oil does help, but only for about 2-4 miles.

 

I really appreciate the info fellas. This forum is great for new riders. So far all of my (dumb) questions have been answered either by the FAQs or by the helpful netizens.

I had an issue where my Headlights just stopped. I could have spent hundreds at the Honda dealer but within about an hour of searching this forum I found the issue is the Starter Button. I would have never even considered the started button and my local Honda dealer advice was to change the bulbs

The oil was changed about 600 miles ago and IIRC the work order said they used the Honda Oil.