Hi all,
So I am currently experiencing a pulsation/jerk when I’m taking off from a stop in first gear. After some research online I am leaning towards the worn dogs on the gears.

HOWEVER, this morning I was riding my bike and now I’m thinking it might be a clutch issue instead. Because I was in stop and go traffic and in first gear, I took off from a stop at two instances and felt the jerk BOTH times. To my understanding, the gears should be engaged properly after the first jerk so then I wouldn’t feel the jerk the second time (without changing gears, only pulling clutch in and releasing). Now I’m thinking this is more of a clutch issue? Need your guys’ opinion… thanks!

bike is a 1993 sportster 1200

 

may just be gettin worse w use
thinkin gears, not clutch
if it is, more use is just f'n up more in there
easy to pull trans n have a look

 

Yep, you’re probably right. Just rode it back home and I think I could kind of hear a clunk when it jerks. Kind of a bummer cause I only had this bike for month

 

1. How many miles are on the bike?
2. Could be the Spring Plate in the clutch starting to go.
3. You may want to drain the primary/transmission fluid to see if there are any brass rivet shavings in the fluid.
4. See link below about grenade plate.
5. May want to check your primary chain tension as that will cause similar symptoms.

http://luckycyclesaz.com/the-sportst...grenade-plate/

 

The bike currently has 23k miles. I’m pretty new to the platform so I’m not sure if that’s the mileage when dogs usually wear out.

But yea sounds good, I’ll probably start with the easy stuff first before pulling the transmission.

 

Sportster transmissions are generally bulletproof.

 

Also I wanna say that the issue is more pronounced when the bike got up to temperature

 

Have you inspected the drive belt and cog sprockets?

 

That sounds like a clutch issue but until you open it up it is a guess.

 

It's not unusual for worn dogs to hop out a couple times when taking off.