"neutral" between 5th and 6th!?

[brandiwine]

can anyone shed some light on what might have happened?  speedo around 80ish and i was in 5th.  went to switch to 6th and i was in neutral so to speak.    i know that there is no neutral there but it scared the crap out of me.    i don't know the mechanics of how the clutch works so when i tried shifting again up to 6th could it have slipped down a few gears?  it was a scarry thought to wonder if i'm letting out the clutch at 80 and it be re-engaging in 2nd or 3rd gear.  thanks...

brandi

[zoltan]

you can sometimes find false neutrals between gears. if that happens just put in the clutch and shift again.

[threatrockone]

yeah.

being a new rider, i had the same problems.

i think i was letting go of the clutch prematurely or something; hasn't happened in a while....

but it does sound pretty cool when the tach goes racing upwards without any power to the wheel (and with power to the wheel for that matter)

[glenn9171]

Checked your oil lately?  Too much or too little can cause shifting "abnormalities".

[Blueknyt]

i had that problem alot on my 82 GS750E, it was a nasty mechanical problem that took weeks to fix....My left foot, i was getting into lazy shifting. so, i aimed the shifter down a couple more teeth and fixxed it.

[Gisser]

No, being sequential, the tranny can't jump from 6th gear to 1st or 2nd without going through 5-4-3.  Shift drum limits the movements of the forks.  Catching an occasional false neutral between 5th and 6th is a characteristic of the GS twin.  I suspect the cause could be narrowed down to the shift track.

[JamesG]

yup false neutral. Happens sometimes to all sequential gearbox designs, usually when you don't nudge the shifter enough to throw the shift cam all the way over.

Usually all you do is zoom the engine to the rev limiter. I've never heard of or seen a transmission slip "down" any gears. It usually stays "between" the two gears you were trying to shift.  All you have to do is try to get the revs back to around where the wheel is and shift again. The bike might show its displeasure by grinding its dogs a bit, but usually will go into gear. The trick is to do all that and still concentrate on riding.  Lots of fun while leaned over in mid corner!

[Casimir]

I had the same thing happen last night. Got a little timid on a shift and only went half way. I just pulled the clutch in and finished the shift and all was well.