Interesting, can you please help me understand what this will do. The bike is dead easy to hit neutral when she is cold, it is as it warms up that it becomes more tricky to hit neutral. I always thought the clunk was just a harley thing. Thank you, Kevin.

 

After you start the engine hold the clutch in for about 10 seconds. This eliminated the 'clunk' for me. I guess the clutch plates just need a little time to separate. My Kaw Vulcan was the same way.

 

 

Welcome to HD. To answer this question, and a few more that I'm sure you have: the bike clunks when it shifts, different parts in your motor rattle and bang, things vibrate, and overall, if you lent your bike to a Honda driver they would get a mile down the road, pull over, and call a tow truck because they would think the bike is gonna fly apart. Well OK, maybe it's not that bad, but these bikes all have some noises that you might not be used to hearing if you came over from a metric...

 

Wabbit,

Keeping your Clutch and Primary chain properly adjusted, and using a quality fluid in your transmission will help reduce this noise. Amsoil Severe Gear 75W-110 works well in my bikes.

 

The only time I get the hammer-on-an-anvil into 1st sound is when I don't let the bike warm up properly. So now I let it idle for a few more minutes, hold in the clutch lever for 10-15 seconds and then I'm good to go, no more clunking. Takes a little longer in the winter. I rarely downshift into 1st when the bike is moving and even when I do, no clunking noises.Changing to Redline Shockproof in the tranny was a big improvement over HD Syn as well.

 

My Softail don't first gear clunk nearly as bad as my Dyna did but like everyone said it's pretty normal.

 

If I am correct your 11 will have a self adjusting primary chain.
As other recomended use redline shock proof heavy in the tranny and something besides engine oil in the primary, I use redline primary drive in the primary but switched to modil 1 due to WalMart selling it. Wish more people would sell Redline, shipping is getting pricey.

 

I adjusted my clutch cable according to the manual, and switched to the BelRay tranny fluid...no more clunk. Shifts like butter.

 

Mine did the same thing, once I got my first service done no clunking noise.