Neutral Position After its in gear?

[SS Adrenaline]

Ok now Im not sure if this is correct or not but I figured I would ask.  I can not get my GS into Neutral after I put it in gear unless I shut off the engine.  Is this normal? A Safe guard?  I dont have a problem with it, its just that on my other older bike I can get it in neutral anytime.  Thanks.

[Big Rich]

How long has it been doing it? Most likely your clutch cable needs adjusted.

[gsJack]

Well both my GS500s have done that to different degrees at different times over the 13 years and 170k miles I've ridden them.  Just tend to jump back and forth right over neutral when your trying to shift into neutral.  Put a quarter million miles on four old Hondas before that and don't remember any of them having that problem.  Some have said it was almost impossible to hit neutral after the oil was hot and the oil was a bit overfull, no reason for that but I've experienced that too.  As a matter of fact I've taken to just shutting the engine off in first gear by putting the sidestand down when riding about and making stops the last couple years.

[tialloydragon]

I also have trouble getting it back into neutral after riding for a bit (except for when I don't want to, like occasionally shifting into neutral when I'm upshifting to second.)  My clutch cable is adjusted properly. 

I just think of it as a way to keep myself from developing bad habits (like shifting to neutral while at a standstill in traffic.)

[FredSled]

Some bikes are just hard to get in neutral, some are easy. My GS500F is somewhat of a pain, maybe a little harder to find neutral than my brothers Ninja 250R or my other brothers Ninja 650R, but not much. The Suzuki TU250 I had was a breeze to put in neutral. My old Honda CB125 was about the same as my GS.

[bsheppar]

my 05 gs is sometimes stubborn as well. Goosing the throttle a bit seems to help find neutral for me.

[burnchassis]

Any bike that has an improperly adjusted clutch will act the same way.
-CS

[SS Adrenaline]

good suggestion. And how do I go about adjusting the cluch?

[burnchassis]

How many miles on your current clutch??

This is copied from this site,and covers all basic clutch adjustments ..for all bikes((just some other clutches are in other areas).

First pull back the boot at the handlebar clutch lever and loosen the lock wheel and turn the adjustment all the way in and lock.  Then loosen the locknut at the other end of the cable where it goes into the front sprocket cover housing and turn the cable adjustment in to give much more freeplay to unload the pushroad adjustment.

To adjust the clutch push rod freeplay remove the little cover on the sprocket housing held on by 2 phillips screws.  Loosen the locknut with a 10 mm socket and back out the slotted adjustment screw it holds with a screwdriver a turn or two until it's free of the pushrod.  Then while holding the locknut turn the screw back in until it contacts the rod and back out 1/4-1/2 turn to set freeplay and hold screw with screwdriver while locking down the locknut.  I clamp vicegrips on a deep 10 mm socket to tighten the locknut while holding the screw with the screwdriver inserted thru the socket.

Finally turn the clutch cable adjustment out of the housing to get proper clutch freeplay and tighten locknut.  The clutch lever adjustment at the handlebar will then be available for future freeplay adjustments.
-CS

[SS Adrenaline]

Im at about 10k.  Good info, thanks.