bike not shifting smooth anymore

[trey]

Ok, i only have about 1k miles on my amsoil motorcycle oil and i'm noticing that its very clunky shifting, more then before. Even at a stoplight when i try to put it in neutral, the tranny keeps shifting from 1st to second and keeps skipping neutral. I thought amsoil was a smooth shifting oil?

Should i go back to mobil 1 mx4t?

 

[Chris]

In my bike the M-1 bike and car oil shifted very poorly. Just filled with Amsoil so I will see if it is any help. Are you sure you oil level has not dropped? What is the bike?

 

[thedawk]

It may be that your bike and the Amsoil just aren't a good match. I'd give it a little bit of time to see if it smoothes out though. I know that my bike was working fine with Honda oils, then I used Silkolene for one cycle of oil change and it did the same thing you are seeing with your bike. Then I switched to the Amsoil and it works fine in my bike now. So if you were happy with the Mobil 1 then stick with that.

thedawk

 

[tom slick]

how much free play does your clutch have? if it is too loose it will do exactly as you describe. there should be about 1/8" freeplay between the perch and lever at the splitline furthest from the bars.

 

[gb506]

quote:

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Originally posted by trey:
Ok, i only have about 1k miles on my amsoil motorcycle oil and i'm noticing that its very clunky shifting, more then before. Even at a stoplight when i try to put it in neutral, the tranny keeps shifting from 1st to second and keeps skipping neutral. I thought amsoil was a smooth shifting oil?

Should i go back to mobil 1 mx4t?

---

What kind of bike is it? Ducati and other bikes w/ dry clutches will have difficulty finding neutral when the clutch is nearly shot.

 

[trey]

My bike is a honda 929rr

 

[road_rascal]

Make sure the chain has proper tension and I would also check for proper rear wheel alignment. The slotted marks on the swingarm are notorious for being inaccurate. If you have the $$$ check out the wheel alignment tool by Muzzys:
http://www.muzzys.com/catalog/tools.html

For the cheaper crowd (which I also use) Motion Pro has a pretty decent chain alignment tool:
http://www.motionpro.com/Docs/chaintools.html

My Honda gets clunky shifts once the chain slack gets beyond 1.5 inches. For some reason my Kawasaki couldn't care less if the chain was piano wire tight or dragging on the centerstand

.

 

[KW]

If you have been riding it hard you might have some warped steals in the clutch pack. That will cause clunky shifting and neutral hard to find.

 

[trey]

cool, thanks for the replys, i'll check the chain tension even though i just did not to long ago.

Also i guess i have been beating on it a bit, hopefully i didn't mess up the clutch that way.

 

[Chris]

I am just a few miles into some Amsoil and it seems to be shifting a bit better but time will tell. I could not stand the M-1 15-50 any more, poor shifting, and had to dump at a tick over 1000 miles. The MX4T was just as bad although I lived with it for 2000 miles. Got 4 bottles of MX4T non-ss for sale!! $20. Kept in doors...

 

[2003TRD]

trey my bikes transmission has always felt clunky, I have used Hondas GN, Mobil 1, and currently amsoil. Out of all of these I would have to say that the amsoil made my CBR954 shift the smoothest, but I am convinced its just a clunky gearbox and will never be completely eliminated

 

[Chris]

quote:

---

Originally posted by trey:
Even at a stoplight when i try to put it in neutral, the tranny keeps shifting from 1st to second and keeps skipping neutral.

---

Here at least on My Honda 600, it seems at a stop after I go down to 1st a lighter pull up with the foot gets it in neutral more reliably. Seems all bikes I have had at times neutral was hard to get in to.

 

[Michael SR]

i tried both M1 10w40 and amsoil 10w40 in my RC51. the switch to schaeffer's 7000 20w50 transformed the tranny shift feel/quality. it does say on schaeffer's tech sheet that the 20w50 oils are recommended for motorcycles, btw.

-michael

 

[arkainzeye]

i personally feel it has nothing to do with the oil at all. just cables and such. My bike did the samething. and here is was fixed by adjusting the cable on the lever. that simple.

 

[Propflux01]

Pennzoil 15w-40 LL works real good on the gear issue, also. And Yes, Oil has alot to do with the shift smoothness.

 

[tweeker43]

my bike shifts much better after i switched back from the kawachem oil to the golden spectra blend. i dumped in 2 quarts of 10w-40 and 1 quart of 20w-50 and it really smoothed things out.