Hello all, Took my first riding lesson yesterday...,,, im sure glad ive been driving a stickshift all my life or else i think it would have been more difficult to learn.... anyhow...it was a lil rocky taking off in first, but today i seem to have gotten the hang of it.. far from mastering , but enough that i dont jerk and stall everytime off the line......however i seem to run into a lil problem...maybe cuz im a noob at this ... this morning for practice..i would take off in first..get up to maybe 3rd or 4th then practice braking then .come to a complete stop....take off....((repeat)).......sometimes when im stop i will shift into neutral , most of the time it goes....but sometimes,,, icant seem to find it??... depress all the way , bring it up one , but still nothing...... i would have to kill the engine , and then i can press it down and up one to bring into neutral......Can someone please tell me what im doing wrong??...or if theyve experience this problem///.....i dont know anyone with a bike or just motorcycle knowledge around here.....pretty much learning from the internet...so any help would be greatly apprecitated!!!,,,,,THANKS!

GO Blue team!

 

Going into neutral is more of a half a click. Its harder to go into while u are moving, but it can be done. After u get the feel for the half a click u will be a master shifter. lol

 

Gotrice is right about half a click. Sometimes, when I have trouble, I go down to first gear, then tap it up (soft) to find neutral. Practice makes perfect. And practicing on a bike includes everything. If you were in the MSF course, they would even have you practice puting on your blinker on and off. So even if you have to sit there and practice neutral so be it. Right?

 

right right..... thanks for your help gotrice.....practice practice practice....

 

well put LD Thats my little devil [sm=teetertooter.gif]

 

I sometimes have the same problem down shifting and have a problem finding nuetral. I usually have the problem when I am sitting still or just riding in the parking lot by my house. I don't have the problem while riding in traffic. It just takes some getting used to. Don't worry the more you get a feel for the bike, the easier it gets. My 250R is my first bike and it only has 140 miles so far. I am still getting used to the feel of it and it is already getting easier for me to find the right gear. I am having the problem less often now.

 

your right i only have that problem practicing in the parking lot.....riding in traffic i had no problems....except when i was about to turn left i accidently down shifted to far thought i was in second but it was first....the bike skid a lil side to side..i thought i was gonna go down for a sec..kinda scary ...but my bike loves me and didnt throw me off..........only managed 19 miles on it so far...do you really have to keep it under 4000 rpms for the first 500 miles??........thats a damn long ways away!!!!!

 

Practice, practice. I noticed you guys seem to have the problems at low speeds for nuetral. When you try to shift into nuetral, exspecially at a stop, make sure there is no applied resistance to the drivetrain. when you're stopped, and you're holding the brake, it might be kinda tuff to get into neutral, just because the brake is holding the tranny in a bind. Try letting off the brake, or not stopping with just the front brake might help.

Good job holding that thing up BLU!! You really should keep her in the rpm range specified. Grab an Ipod, and take off. Do it all in one day and get it over with!!! lol

Congrats on the new bikes guys, that's awesome!!

 

thanks bigrig.....i might really condsider your idea..........get the damn thing over with ..LOL

 

Kawasaki positive neutral finder. You can click all the way down to first gear then stop. Once stopped the full click up will find neutral for you (while stopped).

By the way, just wondering, why would you want to go into neutral for? I'm always in a gear once on the road, even when stopped always sit in 1st gear in case you need to zoom out of the way.

Anyways, remember that squeezing all the way on the clutch will provide a "neutral" for you while still in gear.