normal to need to feather the clutch to get out of N?

sometimes i can't shift out of neutral unless i feather the clutch lightly. is that normal, or is something out of whack?

Shift out of neutral

Hi HC,
Since I've had my bike I usually shift into first by hooking the shift lever with my heel, it allowed me to give it a stiffer pull. However, recently
I have found if I pull up with my toe and feather the clutch alittle I can feel it slide into gear. As for being normal, who knows????

GB

It is normal for any box to work better when you use a light press in the direction desired before releasing the clutch. If everything is adjusted right clutch, chains and or belts and not forgetting the hairpin spring inside the cover, Your Commando should shift as well as any modern bike. Sounds like you may want to try some Bel Ray gear saver 90wt. I notice it smooths things up some.

It does seem to be worse when cold, as far as I understand it, is generally caused by oil drag between the clutch plates and also between the gearbox bushes, gears and shafts when the oil is cold (and therefore thick) when the oil warms and thins out then the problem seems to go away or at least improve.
It should be remembered that the gears in a normal motorcycle gearbox need to be rotating at *slightly* different speeds (or one slightly moving and one not) in order that the dogs on the two engaging gears (or dogs and holes) on the same shaft can slide past each other and find a space to drop into, if the dogs hit 'head on' then the two gears cannot engage with each other, and feathering the clutch can rotate a gear enough so that the dogs then engage.

I always found that selecting neutral while still moving made it a lot easier. once you've stopped a dragging clutch or stiff oil seems to make it a lot harder to get neutral. Never tried feathering the clutch though.

Scooter

I second the oiled up clutch plates opinion.

Mine used to do that...but now I have the clutch rod seal conversion and the difficulty getting it out of gear and into neutral, has gone....no more problems, and so easy to break the clutch free at startup..... :wink:

when i start up in cold weather, i generally break the clutch free just by shifting into gear while also giving the bike a little bit of throttle... it seems to work fine... i guess that isn't the most gentle way to do it tho'...

HC said:

when i start up in cold weather, i generally break the clutch free just by shifting into gear while also giving the bike a little bit of throttle... it seems to work fine... i guess that isn't the most gentle way to do it tho'...

Click to expand...

You must be the Wheelie King of Brooklyn then ? About 7000 r.p.m. and bang it in ought to do the trick

heh, i guess i'm lucky my clutch hasn't gotten that stuck yet!