Backed the bike out of the driveway this afternoon and noticed that the shifter felt funny. I shifted into 1st and noticed that the shifter didn't return to the neutral position. Shifted to 2d and had to push the toe shifter down with my foot to shift to 3rd. Unfortunately, I need to ride the bike tonight as my son must use my car to get to school (I'm refereeing a High School soccer game an hour away). The stealer can't see me until Friday.

Can any of you wrenches out there help me out. What the heck happened? Is the linkage bent? Did I take a pebble in the linkage somewhere? Did the return spring either break or detach?. Is this an easy fix or PITA? The stealer said that the bike should not be ridden today (yet it's o.k. to ride it to the shop on Friday!). Is he right??

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

<><Peace

 

It sounds like the same old problem of a greased shifter shaft needing greasing. Disconnect the foward end of the shift rod that goes back to the trans (one nut) and see how loose the shift levers are then, it should flop around like a dead chicken. If you find that it is binding, remove the shaft and clean/grease it and reinstall then. Very easy thing to do. You didn't say what bike this is so take a look at how the shaft comes out, either the nut on the rear of the shaft (towards the motor) will remove it with the shift levers still attached or the front end shift levers have to come off to remove the shaft. Measure where the levers are so you can get them back in the about same position on the splined shaft.

 

also check the rear shifter arm if a touring model...located were the shaft ends ..shifter arm attached to motor/trans. allen bolt for shifter arm becomes loose many times..