5th to 6th sometimes drops out?

Got an oddball problem, not sure if it's me that's causing it.
98 VFR, fresh clutch fluid and oil change.

My clutch lever feels odd when you clutch in, change gear, release slowly, and re-apply throttle.

When letting it out, it seems like the last tiny little bit of clutch lever movement delays a little bit.

So the clutch at the engine feels like it slips for a small second, then applies fully. Is this normal and am I the one causing it with how I am using the clutch? I apply throttle just as I am releasing the clutch to give a smooth transition.

I haven't noticed it if I am gearing down so might just be the way I'm operating the clutch.

The other issue I am having is occasionally 6th gear will not engage no matter how firm I am with the shifter. It will engage always on the second try and occasionally when shifting, it will engage 6th, click/chatter and re-engage 5th. Another clutch/shift and it engages properly.

Only noticed this over the last 12000kms and it doesn't happen too often. 43000km on the bike so far.

I don't accelerate hard, but that doesn't mean that the previous owners did...

 

Bleed your clutch hydraulics just to rule out that as a source of potential problems. As far as the 5th-6th interchange, its one of the very few sour points on these bikes. Your not the only one who has had the bike kick out of sixth, mine has done it a few times. Be extra deliberate when shifting into 6th and it wont give you any troubles. A technique I learned to improve upshifts is to preload the shifter slightly prior to pulling the clutch in, it impressed me with how smooth it made the shifts.

 

Been a while since I've had the chance to post.

Bled the hydraulics mid season and it fixed the sloppiness in the clutch lever.

Still occasionally drops out of 6th just after shifting and releasing the clutch. It's almost like 6th gear didn't fully engage and I can tell when it's going to kick out of 6th and I usually catch it and reapply the clutch lever and reshift from 5th to 6th. It's a pain after accelerating back to highway speeds. But, once it's in 6th, no problems, just really dislike the chattering/grinding that it occasionally makes when it's not cooperating.
Preloading the shift lever helped smooth out the shifts and made them really easy to change gears, but still does it when going into 6th even when preloading.

Is there anything that can be done to make 6th gear shift stop chattering and feel more firm? When shifting into 6th (when it plays nice), it seems pretty soft compared to the rest of the gears.


Bike is now up to 59000kms :wink:

 

Glad I'm not the only one who sometimes has a false neutral between 5th and 6th. Usually if I shift back down then give it a good boot into 6th, it does the trick, and it's never popped out of gear on me.

 

Not gona be doing alot of riding up North now eh. I have had a few false 5 to 6 gear changes over the years on my gen 3 bike. I have a Factory Pro shift-kit (stiffer spring and upgraded detent arm.)

Your main problem is you are not carrying enough RPMs to shift into that 6th gear. Its really almost like an over-drive. I shift into 6 gear at anywhere from 90 mph to 100 mph, it goes in like butter without so much as a sound. Mis-shifting happens sometimes. Try riding in that 4 and 5 gear and only use 6 for when your going to light speed, see how that goes.

 

That would make sense. I followed the owner's manual shift points. Every 10kph or so I would shift gears. 10-20kph, 1st-2nd, 20-30-3rd, 30-40 4th, 40-50 5th, 60+ 6th. That's at around 3500rpm. I'll try it with a bit more speed for shifting. My normal commute is in the 80-90kph range.

 

Regardless of false neutrals or what the manual says, I think you're lugging the engine a bit by shifting so low. Mine starts to feel sluggish under 3k, and I usually shift at 4-4.5k, downshift at 3.