Last night, a friend backed into my bike and it tipped over. Luckily, most of the bike landed on the grass. The only noticeable damage was to the lower fairing.

As my bike rolled over, the shifter caught the edge of the driveway, and shifted the bike into 2nd gear.When that happens, does it cause any excessive stress on internal transmission components? Or is the shift linkage the weak link in the whole equation?

 

you should be alright, most bikes can shift out of neutral into either direction while not running

 

Yeah, you shouldnt have any worries.. that shifter lever will fail longer before anything in the trans will.