98 MODEL -NOT SMOOTH SHIFTING

HI I HAVE A 98 MODEL VFR THAT DOES NOT SHIFT VERY SMOOTHLY. HAS ANYONE ENCOUNTER THE SAME PROBLEM ??? ANY SUGESSTIONS ON IMPROVING THE SHIFTING . I HAD AN RC30 AND KNOW HAVE A RC51 THAT SHIFTS VERY SMOOTHLY... HAS ANYONE INSTALLED A SHIFT KIT? DID IT HELP ??? THANKS AL

 

Try Amsoil 10W-40 motorcycle oil or Triumph's (re-packaged) Mobil 1 synthetic. The Triumph actually shifts differently with other synthetics; the VFR is helped by either one. You can get Amsoil for about half the cost of the Triumph oil, but if your problem is bad I would go with the Triumph oil.

 

When you shift make sure you give it a firm boot up or down.

 

...And make sure that your CAPS LOCK key is released.

 

The best advice for up shifting is to preload the shifter lever with your foot BEFORE you engage the clutch and let off the throttle. It does not take much. Just put some postive upward pressure on the lever. As soon as you start to let off the throttle, it will slip right into the next gear almost seamlessly. If you practice this, you can easily get to the point where you shifts are so smooth and quick you can hardly feel them.

Now if you are having trouble with down shifting, try the throttle blipping method. As you downshift, just slightly roll ON the throttle real quick, as in just a blip! This will bring up the engine speed to match the speed of the transmission and make the downshifts much smoother. When I do this, my passenger claims to not be able to tell I'm downshifting other than hearing the exhaust note on the TBR pipe blip momentarily. It takes a little practice as the size of the needed blip varies a little with your speed. It makes downshifting into corners really smooth.

Try both of these techniques just going back and forth between 5th and 6th as you go down the road. This way the consequences of a goof are not as severe as they would be in lower gears. As you get better, work your way down into the lower gears.

If this does not solve your problem, then before I'd try a full synthetic oil, give the Honda HP4 a try. It has the red cap and is in the gold bottle. That smoothed out the tranny on my 98 quite a bit. I'm not opposed to a full synthetic. I run Mobil One in my 98 now. But I am changing my 01 VFR back to non-synthetic because I am getting clutch slippage. The ironic thing is that the 98 has 48K miles on it and gets dogged more than the 01 and it's clutch never slips! The 01 has 32K miles on it and it has been slipping on and off the last 7-8K miles. Your result may vary obviously ;-)

 

Tourmeisters reply is best description I've heard of shifting the VFR properly. It's nice to hear from someone who really knows what they're talking about and can explain it. Keep posting. JCM

 

My transmission shifts a little sketchy to. Sometimes between fifth and sixth it will find another neutral how bad is that?