Rolling to stop & can't down shift

[mellofelow]

This happens to me on occasions. I come to a fairly quick stop from 4th or 5th. Light turned yellow suddenly for example. While barely rolling, the bike won't down shift into gears. I'd step on the lever and can't feel the click... all the while with the clutch in. After shifting down a little harder 5 to 6 times quickly, I think it's stuck in either 3rd or 2nd. Now I'm at a dead stop but it can't get into first gear. I almost have to either stall the bike or let the clutch out to hear a gear clunk. And then quickly get down to 1st. Kinda annoying... but doesn't happen too often. Usually I down shift each gear for feedback and that would work just fine.

Do I have a gear problem? It's a fairly new bike. Is this common?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[hobbs]

sounds like your not leting the shifter reset between shifts. you should be downshifting to match the road speed as you slow down.

 

[towa]

Had the same experience. However try relase load on the pedal between gears and it won't happen.

 

[Nelly]

sounds like your not letting the shifter reset between shifts. you should be downshifting to match the road speed as you slow down.

+1 on what hobbs has just said, just need to get your timing right and the right gear for that stretch of road. If your anticipating a stop you should really be down to about third.

Try the same ride again but in a lower gear to see if the problem is still there.

Nelly

 

[Raid The Revenge]

The clutch is designed to allow perfect shifting when the gears are rotating. It's kind of like a bicycle; you can't shift the chain easily when the gears aren't moving. The same goes for an FZ6, except the chain never changes position in that regard, because only the cogs do.

One thing you can do is downshift while "blipping" the throttle. You give the throttle a flick, slightly release the clutch (to the point where it barely connects) and pull in to shift down. This will reset the gears!

 

[snowmannn]

I read about motorcycle transmissions recently (How Motorcycle Transmissions Work and other similar documents). What you've described seems completely normal to me. When you pull the clutch and the bike's not moving, the gears stop rotating. This means they are not moving and practically you can't switch to a lower or higher gear because there's no motion which is needed for gears to engage. See the above document (the link at the top) - without motion the dogs cannot go into the holes of the golden discs as shown in the document.

I experience the same too when I do not downshift in a timely manner (i.e. before coming to a stop). To solve it I do the following: move the bike slightly forwards and backwards and try downshifting again. Usually 1-2 attempts are sufficient to move to a lower gear.

Hope this helps! Good luck

 

[cashcrzzy]

I read about motorcycle transmissions recently (How Motorcycle Transmissions Work and other similar documents). What you've described seems completely normal to me.

snowman is right on It happens to me at times also ..
You cant always time it exact ,What I do is apply a little throttle and just let the clutch out slightly and the gears fall back, then tap it the rest of the way back to 1st
Greg A.

buy the way is not a bike trans failure its user error and normal

 

[VEGASRIDER]

What I do is apply a little throttle and just let the clutch out slightly and the gears fall back, then tap it the rest of the way back to 1st
Greg A.

This happens to me as well. But when I'm at a stop, and notice that I'm having difficulty putting my bike in the right gear or trying to get it in neutral because it's stuckl, I just simply let out the clutch very slowly until it starts to grab, then I pull the clutch back in and I usually can shift back into neutral or whatever gear I want to be in.

 

[dako81]

Sequential transmission has to be in motion to operate. Like others have said above. Not like a transmission in a regular car, etc...

 

[tuningfork]

my fzr600 goes up/down through the box at a standstill...but when I took my first ride on the FZ6, the same thing happened to me as happened to you, I was poking along at low rpms and lost track of the gear I was in and had to come to a stop at a light. Now that it's getting more broken in, I'm running it in lower gears and haven't had the "issue". Seems like if you are in 3rd or lower it will drop down fine at slow speeds, but in a higher gear it won't. The manual suggests some speeds for shifting up/down, I don't think it is necessary to downshift gear by gear (clutching in and out) as you slow, but you want to be back to 3rd or 2nd by 15 mph IMO. I still really resist going back to 1st when the bike is rolling, that just seems harsh...unless it is really slow (like 5 mph)...

I wouldn't worry too much about it, but at the same time if it does happen don't kick on it too hard, try the tricks the other guys mentioned to load/unload the gears so they will click into place.

 

[ozzieboy]

If you do get to be stopped in 3rd or 4th just slip the clutch slightly with the front brake on (don't need much slip) then clutch back in to click down. Repeat this until you are in first. Only a problem if the light goes green just as you plant your foot to stop...lol.:thumbup:

 

[Kilbane83]

I agree with all the posts here about having problems at a stand still and shifting the tranny just isn't designed like that.

But, I have had a really wierd issue with the tranny not downshifting into first after a really long ride, even while rolling. It simply would not shift down no matter how many times I clutched in. It went up easy enough but wouldn't go into first. I attributed it to having low PSI in the rear tire maybe causing the tranny to overheat, and only having 8k miles on the bike. We're talking 500+ miles at 75+mph non-stop. I stopped to warm up, fill up, and air up and it worked fine after about 20mins of resting.

It works fine now and I haven't had the issue since then, but it did worry me quite a bit a the time. Taking off in 2nd gear sucks a bit.. especially when your hands are freezing and you can't feather the clutch very well.

 

[cv_rider]

Inability to downshift to 2nd or 1st from upper gears when coming to a quick stop has happened to me three times. Twice on the highway in stop and go traffic, which is unnerving to start backing up traffic. It hasn't happened to me since I saw similar threads that recommended allowing the engine to engage slightly and then downshifting. So at least I know what to do when it does happen. Seems the key issues is downshifting to match road speed, which is just a good habit so you can get moving again if necessary.

 

[opds9091]

engage the clutch and the disengage the clutch

 

[VWci]

It happens to me often. As they are said previous posts i move bike the front and backwards or release the clutch a bit to shift to lower gears. But i must say it is annoying.

 

[opds9091]

and you checked your oil right. If not take to the STEALER and see if they could help. Do you still have a warranty on it?

 

[luk2004]

This happened to me as well. I've got an 05fz6 with 6900 miles. At first I thought I was just missing the gear shifter but when slowing down say from 40mph in 4th gear clutch in and while slowing down trying to select 3rd-2nd-1st without letting the clutch out simply results in the gear selector being pushed down but no 'click' to engage the gear. I'll have to also try letting the clutch out slighty. Is this really normal?

Both times this happened at the end of a ride (200 or so miles for the day).

 

[cv_rider]

This has happened to me four times. The first three times it was traumatic because I didn't know how to get started again. Twice it was on the freeway in stop-n-go, and I was afraid of getting creamed from behind when traffic started moving again. The fourth time, I knew what to do from this thread. Just get engine into friction zone a bit, pull clutch back in, and drop to 1st. Easy.

 

[KensFz6]

I engine break then shift to 3rd as long as nobody is behind me then hold the clutch and shift down the last 3 clicks with a short pause between while breaking.

If it's an emergency stop, sometimes restarting the engine can help. I found that one out my first emergency stop after locking up the rear tire and forgot to shift all together.:squid::spank:

 

[D-Mac]

Seems normal to me. Every bike I've owned did this to some extent.

I notice that some bikes seem especially unhappy about going back into 1st when it's time for an oil change. Could just be me, but I really do notice a difference (more on others bikes than the FZ6).