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NC700x manual shift - downshifting issue?

outdoorman144

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Hello, I have about 1100 miles on my NC700x now. I brought it to the dealer about 2 weeks ago to have an oil change done. Now this has happened to me twice now. When I come to a stop, I go to downshift and it won't shift down. I move the bike a little bit forward and then it will shift just fine. The first time it happened I just dismissed it, but then it happened again another day in the same week.

What I'm wondering is if anyone else has had this problem, and if I should be concerned about it? I believe the first time it wouldn't shift from 2nd to 1st, (or neutral for that matter). Then the second time, I believe I was in 4th or 5th, and it wouldn't go down until I moved a bit. Any suggestions? Thanks.
 
No need to be concerned. A bike transmission is different from a manual of a car. Down shift into first while still moving and you will never have a problem.

If you want to shift into first at a stop put downward pressure on shifter and let the clutch out very slowly and it will drop in gear
 
No need to be concerned. A bike transmission is different from a manual of a car. Down shift into first while still moving and you will never have a problem.

If you want to shift into first at a stop put downward pressure on shifter and let the clutch out very slowly and it will drop in gear

Thanks for the response. :) Glad to hear I don't have a problem.
 
I have problems with natural sometimes.i just do what was said let out on clutch a little till it moves. it usually works.
 
I downshift and find neutral just prior to my stop, grab first gear when i am ready to go. Never had a problem with the gearbox...
 
any time you are slowing down, or coming to a stop you must be in the correct gear. at a stop you must be in first before stopping or you will have problems trying to shift threw the gear box from a higher gear, without the rear wheel rolling. dale
 
any time you are slowing down, or coming to a stop you must be in the correct gear. at a stop you must be in first before stopping or you will have problems trying to shift threw the gear box from a higher gear, without the rear wheel rolling. dale

Is this right? I never had issues if I stop at a higher gear and then kick the gears down while stopped.
i know sometimes the gear seems stuck but a small blip of the throttle clears the jam.
I refer to all my other bikes previously owned too. No such thing as difficult to downshift while stationary.
:)
 
Is this right? I never had issues if I stop at a higher gear and then kick the gears down while stopped.
i know sometimes the gear seems stuck but a small blip of the throttle clears the jam.
I refer to all my other bikes previously owned too. No such thing as difficult to downshift while stationary.
:)
REALLY man over here in America it is next to impossible to shift more than one gear if not moving. Yes you can blip throttle half engage clutch and work your way down. Just glad I get down to first as I roll to stop.
 
The transmission gear set teeth are always meshed, all the time (constant mesh transmission). When shifting, you are not engaging/disengaging gear teeth, you are engaging dogs on the sides of the gears, similar to this example:transmission_geardog.jpg
The dogs that engage one gear to the one beside it are quite large. If you are at a stop with the engine running, not in neutral, and the clutch disengaged (lever pulled in), then neither of the two transmission shafts is spinning. If you want to shift up or down and the gear dogs just happen to line up, it will shift. More likely, they wont line up. So, you can put light pressure on the shift lever, and either move the transmission mainshaft a bit by easing out the clutch lever, or you can move the transmission countershaft a bit by rolling the bike for or aft a few inches/cm. When the dogs align, the tranny shifts to the next gear.

You avoid this issue, as mentioned, by completing your downshift just before the bike rolls to a stop.

Google how motorcycle transmissions work for more info.

Greg
 
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Ok, forgive me for asking, as this is my first manual gears motorcycle,...well actually my first motorcycle :) how come that I never had issues doing down shifting when stationary or upshifting? And it happens often to me as an inexperienced driver, to end up on the traffic light in 3rd and need to go down, or going from first to second, back to first, then second, in a failed attempt to find neutral. This morning had to do some emergency stop on intersection in 4th. Again no issue going down to first.
Oh, never for me means 1400 km, as that is my "mileage" :) city driving mostly. And the motorcycle has total of 6200 km.
 
Ok, forgive me for asking, as this is my first manual gears motorcycle,...well actually my first motorcycle :) how come that I never had issues doing down shifting when stationary or upshifting? And it happens often to me as an inexperienced driver, to end up on the traffic light in 3rd and need to go down, or going from first to second, back to first, then second, in a failed attempt to find neutral. This morning had to do some emergency stop on intersection in 4th. Again no issue going down to first.
Oh, never for me means 1400 km, as that is my "mileage" :) city driving mostly. And the motorcycle has total of 6200 km.
Now that you know it is hard to do. It will happen more often. Sometimes the less you know the better.
 
Now that you know it is hard to do. It will happen more often. Sometimes the less you know the better.

That's a big part of it.
My bit of over thinking how to do something involved, wait for it,
turning right. For the life of me I couldn't understand why turning
right was so much more difficult than turning left. I read books,
got Keith Code's video, but I still had problems turning right.

I don't know how it happened, but when I stopped thinking and worrying about it,
it eventually worked itself out without any conscious effort on my part.

Hopefully one day, the op will do something that works right naturally
and it will be smooth shifting from here on out. Mebbe it will involve something
as simple as preloading the shifter and clutching differently.
Hth and good luck.
 
Hello, all!

I have another question regarding the way the transmission works. The other day I was riding at around 40 mph, I came up to a red light. Therefore I knew I would need to completely stop. I disengaged the clutch and tried going down to 1st gear to be ready to roll when the light changed to green, but the transmission would not go into 1st gear. It would kick me back to N (neutral) I did this about 3 times, until I realized that... well just maybe the transmission has some way of blocking 1st gear when one is going at high speeds. Am I correct in thinking this? I tried doing some research but the only thing that I found was something about row shifting and how, riders should not row shift unless they are on the track. Is this correct?

Is it bad practice to shift all the way to 1st from a high gear, let's say 5th gear, when one is moving pretty fast. I do not think there would be any damage to the bike since I am not releasing the clutch lever, right?

Thank you for the feedback, I know these are some newbie questions.

Tony
 
Same issue as the OP. The dogs were not fully engaged. Feathering the clutch while shifting in that situation and it will drop fully into gear. That applies whether you are in the wrong gear or in neutral. I discovered that at my first traffic light from the dealer.
 
What you describe is common to any manual trans. Simply when not moving, there is a chance that the syncro is aligned in such a way as to prevent meshing. It also can help to click the gear to second hen back to first to move the gears a bit
 
I reported this issue a few months ago but haven't had the chance to get it into the dealer yet. I've had several motorcycles and I can reassure you something isn't quite right with the shift lever or the transmission. I'll be taking mine into my local dealer and reporting it to them. The safety issue I see is when you're slowing suddenly and need to make a turn, the shift lever sticks going down in gears quickly, you risk killing the bike by having to let out slightly on the clutch enough to get it to slip into gear. Not good at all and I have never had this problem. I've ridden for years on other Honda's, BMW's, Ducati etc. and never had the shift issue like I do on the NC. I'll also say, it only starts happening when I'm doing a lot of in town stop/go. It seems to get sticker and sticker... but then you get out on open roads after in town riding then start making some gear changes and it's back to being flawless. Very strange thing.
 
If the shift level sticks in the down position due to crap on the lever pivot could cause a no shift condition..........clean and lube the shift lever pivot.

Shift lever should move freely no sticking up or down.

All the rest is true......shifting while stopped is not the best practice, sometimes not easy......so don't do it.......just a bad habit........choose the correct gear position before stopping.
 
I'll also say, it only starts happening when I'm doing a lot of in town stop/go. It seems to get sticker and sticker... but then you get out on open roads after in town riding then start making some gear changes and it's back to being flawless. Very strange thing.

I couldn't agree more. I reported that and the reply I got was that the full set of clutch pads/plates had to be replaced @ just 8.000km. I'm totally confused, my problem was "It's hard to shift." not "It's slipping"
Could it be the case that the engine rev is lower than others? When I'm on the 6th at about 4.000rpm and start shifting down, it changes perfectly, but shifting down from 3rd to 2nd @ 2.500rmp in traffic is much harder, and even finding the neutral is an horror (even the dealer could not manage it last time :)
 
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