stewmills wrote on 08/28/12 at 10:25:20:......
1) Shifting from 1st to second quickly gives me this "ker-chunk", but if I shift slowly about 1/2 way (to the neutral spot) and then a split second go the rest of the way, it rarely makes the noise. Other gears up are fine.
2) Shifting down from 2nd to 1st quickly gives me this "ker-chunk", but if I shift down slowly about 1/2 way (to the neutral spot) and then a split second go the rest of the way, it rarely makes the noise. Other gears shifting down are fine.
3) If the bike running and I put in neutral to do something (let off the clutch for a bit) and then go to shift down to 1st, it wants to "grind and clatter" as if the clutch is not even engaged. I then have to let the clutch out and in and roll a bit and then it will slide into gear without (or with minimal) clatter. The other option is to turn off, shift into 1st, and start up and go...
4) Similar to #3, if the bike is on 1st gear and shut off, pulling in the clutch seems to do nothing. For example, right now the bike is cool and in 1st (to stop unwanted rolling). If I go out and pull in the clutch to roll the bike, it is very hard to roll which tells me the clutch is not disengaging the gear. I have to sit on the bike and roll it a bit and work the clutch to get it to jump in neutral so I can roll it. This happens about 50% of the time. Is this from stopping it hot in 1st and the clutch cooling off in a certain position that it doesn't want to come out of?.....
In my experience:
Overall: Check that you don't have too much slack in the clutch cable.
#1 - Normal. To mitigate, run 'er up to about 20 mph or so before shifting to second.
#2 - Normal. To mitigate, blip the throttle a bit when making the 2-1 downshift.
#3 - Normal. To mitigate, pull the clutch lever in and wait a few seconds before making the N-1 shift. Example: You are waiting at a red light, first in line. You are in neutral with the clutch lever out (many will say not to do this, but hey....). The cross street light turns yellow. Pull in the clutch. By the time you get the green light, the clutch lever will have been in for a few seconds which often results in a smoother N-1 shift.
#4 - Normal for a wet clutch, like ours. The plates get "stuck" together when the engine is off. A good push while in gear will frequently work to get the bike moving.