Problems changing gears

tk123

Hi guys as the title says I'm having a problem where the bike won't go up to 2nd from neutral without really pushing as hard as I can with my foot. I'm pulling in the clutch and it feels fine but its hard to get the bike to change gear - its like the gear leaver is too stiff?! I thought it was my chain so I adjusted it this evening - it made it slighlty easier but its still not 100%. Any ideas? The bike is almost 4 months old now btw..

murphaph

I'd be looking more at adjusting your clutch cable (assuming it's not hydraulic). Is it not still under warranty at only 4 months old?

Idleater

Hi,

I may be corrected but I think a couple of the "modern" gearboxes are designed not to go from neutral straight into second. They "prefer" to go from neutral into first then will go from there into second.

Is the First to second gear change ok?

Also does it go into neutral nicely from second?

L.

Sometimes it heps on my bike if I 'blip' the throttle when doing this. By blipping I mean giving it a short sharp burst whilst slipping the clutch.

bushy...

Ok simple usual ones first for ya ...if there is a linkage involved in the gearchange and the pivot points have dried up ( of grease) it will make changing gear difficult (esp going up the box since your foot usually doesn't have much power at all lifting the gearchange up esp if the lever is a bit high ) ,so take the lever off ,and clean up and grease the pivots.
The clutch may be dragging but this would usually make it hard to find neutral and also it would be easier to go up the gears than down.
I think your bike is a virago? they had a little problem ,one or two of the clutch springs would go weaker than the rest (sometimes in a few months) making the clutch drag (sometimes badly) but usually just new springs cured the problem (i must've changed loads of them)
anyway , try grease up your linkage first and make sure there isnt way too much play in the clutch lever and see how you get on

psicic

I'll just suggest the simple one that's easy to check/fix : if you overfill on oil, the gears become very unworkable on certain bikes, e.g. my beloved Dragstar. You can ride them, but it's a pain to get to and from neutral.

So the question is, how's your transition from second and first (you do use first, at least occassionally???) to neutral?

Tree

my vanvan was crap for gear changin but then after a few months the gear box was run in and behaved.

tk123

Thanks guys! Normally it goes down to first no probs and from first to neutral no probs. Going up past neutral is where i'm having probs. I'll take it off tomorrow and give it a clean. It is still under warranty but I'd prefer to learn how to fix stuff like this myself in case I get in a jam and there's nobody around to save me!! It's only started to happen in the last week or so - yesterday it got 'stuck' just at the top of my road and I ended up crawling down the road in 1st!! :rolleyes:

murphaph

Have you got a Haynes manual for it?

tk123

I have a manual for the 125 version (there's none for the 250) and i have a general Haynes one too..

Chunkylover

had the same problem but it was just the cable, i have 2 cable adjusters (not sure if all bikes do) , its just a bit of trial and error, normally takes me a good 10 minutes to get it sorted,if you get stuck (as was said before) blip it and should switch easier and grease it all

tk123

I sprayed some oil on the pivot points on friday afternoon(its all i had with me) and left it sitting for an hour or two before I headed home and it seems to have done the trick!

sutty

I had a problem like this with the duc, but it was going into 5 or 6 gear. I asked that ducati take a look at the gear box for me. They seen not problems in gear alinement. But just tweaked it for me a little. The problems seemed to be fixed after that. If it keeps happening. Bring it to the shop. might be the only way of fixing it. Short of taking the gearbox apart your-self

tk123

sutty wrote:

Short of taking the gearbox apart your-self

I'm not that brave yet!