This may be a problem that hasn't been posted before.  About a month ago, I noticed a scraping/chirping/ticking sound at the lower left side which seemed to correspond with the rotation of the rear wheel and/or drivebelt.  I never could pin down where it was; ruled out the loose-front-pulley problem, and found nothing that the belt or rear tire was rubbing against.  The noise finally went away, but apparently the root problem did not    .  
So Saturday I was out for a joy ride around my community.  At an intersection where I was pulling on to a county road, the bike acted like I had "missed a shift" (Savage riders know what I'm talking about)between neutral and first.   I verified that it was in first gear, let off on the clutch lever and got no propulsion.  I turned it around and coasted down the hill to a pull-over on the side of the road.  In experimenting with shifting while sitting still, I noticed that the shifter will go through all the gears, 1 through 5; and that when I give it a little throttle in each, the speedometer registers just as if I were going down the road; but of course I'm sitting still.  

My shrewd deduction tells me that there is still linkage from the shift peg all the way through the transmission (shaft?) to the speedometer cable connection.  But seems like there must be a drive gear and a driven gear not making contact between the transmission and the primary drive (the one which rotates the front pulley).

Does my deduction make sense?  Does anyone have experience with this problem?  If so, am I correct that I will have to split the crankcase to make this repair?

I can tell that the clutch disengages and engages, because it is at regular idle with the clutch lever pulled in (disengaged), and the speedometer registers acceleration and deceleration with the clutch lever out (engaged) and the throttle applied.  So does that mean anything?

I have always called the pulley shaft the countershaft, but I think Clymer's calls it the main shaft. Anyway, it could have a broken gear or the throw-out bearing (release plate) could be worn out. Other than that the shaft could be broken into (I've seen it on outboard motors.), or the pulley may be worn out on the shaft. Notice only the brave or foolhardy have commented on this. Not sure what category I fit into.

Serenity has the most interesting engine things happen to him, really.

That speedo take off gear is on the other end of the output shaft (the one that is connected to the belt pulley)

If he can rev up his speedo, why ain't his pulley spinning?

If the speedo is turning than the main or pulley shaft is turning.
either you've lost your splines or that shaft is sheared.
baaaaa!

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 06/06/11 at 18:56:41:

Yep.

Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 06/06/11 at 22:03:14:

I KNOW.  RIGHT??!!  It's what makes me an extinguished gentleman.

serenity3743 wrote on 06/07/11 at 05:21:10:

Or flocked!