first of all this hasnt happened enough for me to notice all conditions.  it has only happened to me a few times.   when shifting from 3rd to 4th or 4th to 5th, maybe even from 2nd to 3rd, it slips into a position that acts like neutral.  im not very good at explaining it, but u kno how sometimes when shifting from 1st to 2nd, and dont pull up on the shifter hard enough, it slips into neutral and when u roll back on the throttle it revs real high?  well its like the same thing but not between 1st and 2nd...

Yea had it happen to me once.  Scared the crap out of me cause I revved to like 12 grand and thought oh great my chain came off, but turned out I just hit a neutral.  Mine was from 4-5.  Push harder on the shifter when you shift and it might not happen as much, I find every so often I start to get lazy with my shifting and thats when I have run into problems.

ya lazy shifting.  sounds just like me haha.  well anyway is this indicative of a problem?  i mean there's not supposed to be a neutral btw 4 and 5...

I dont think Id worry too much, as long as nothing is grinding or anything like that.  Just work on your shifts a little better, but I have heard of quite a few people experiencing false neutrals in the past.

I've done that before.... 3rd to fourth.   It felt and sounded like neutral except I heard a slight clanking or grinding.....  like it was almost completely in neitral but binding... I'll need to be more consciencious of my shifting in the future.

Neutral exists between every gearshift...1/2, 2/3, 3/4, etc.  If that wasn't true then shifting gears would lock up the rear wheel because it would briefly be in 2 gears at the same time.  The difference with the 1/2 neutral is that they give that position a detent in the shift drum to hold it in place.  Also, notice that the 1/2 shift has a longer throw than the other gears--which is to give the gears little more clearance to avoid that gear grinding as mentioned above.  Always interesting to visualize how stuff works.

If this can be called transmission jumps out of gear, my service manual says:

1. Worn shifting gear on driveshaft or countershaft.[/list:u]
2. Distorted or worn gearshift fork.[/list:u]
3. Weakend stopper spring on gearshift stopper.[/list:u]
4. Worn gearshift pawl.[/list:u]
otherwise I have no idea. :dunno:

For my past contribution to the topic, see the 2nd paragraph in this post.

I had shifted the bike into false neutral a couple of times. Mainly in my first couple of weeks on the bike. Then I started to shift just a little bit harder (pushing on the lever) and keeping the pressure on the lever a little bit longer and it never happened again. Mind you, my bike is 2004 with less than 2000 miles on the clock. Some books recommend keeping the pressure on the lever until you let off the clutch.

I've done it once before between fourth and fifth. I wasn't trying to shift yet, I just had my boot lightly under the gearshift getting ready to and I barely pushed on it when I clutched in... it was wierd.

QuoteMost 5 and 6 speed transmissions use 3 shift forks. On a typical 5 speed, there will be 1st and neutral, 2nd and 3rd, and then 4th and 5th. Because the engagement dogs have to sit between gear pairs, you can also get false neutrals. Notice that neutral itself is considered a valid gear range in the transmission.

This is from this great article I was turned onto in a thread I posted about clutchless shifting. If you ride a bike, you should read this article.

http://www.vf750fd.com/blurbs/shifting.html