I was following to close behind a car and it stopped short, and I dropped my baby ?.
The cosmetic damage is minimal--mainly a little scuff on the muffler on the left side. But now my bike isn't shifting correctly. More specifically, if I downshift from third to second, the gear shift lever does not always return and click into its neutral position. As a result, if I try to then downshift into first, nothing happens; I have to slightly move the shifter up to click it into place so I can the downshift. It's mainly just annoying, but it would really do whatever it takes to fix it!
I took it to the dealer for its first service and happily paid for basically a $227 oil change because I thought they would be able to fix this shifting issue (for even more overpriced labor of course), but they just said it was fine. They tried to tell me I wasn't shifting properly, but I had never had a problem before I dropped it! If I am super careful to very quickly take my foot off the lever when I downshift, the problem doesn't happen (usually), but this doesn't seem like a proper solution.
Any idea about the issue? Could there be a spring that has been screwed up? You can see a little gouge on the transmission cover where the shifter got over rotated and hit the cover. The lever doesn't seem bent but I guess it probably is? I still feel like there has got to be something else screwed up causing the lever not to return far enough on a downshift. Help!
I just got mine back from a low speed crash, where sure enough, the shifter took the brunt of the fall. It was stuck in neutral and when they opened up the tranny, a shifter fork was bent and had to be replaced along with the rod. Challenge the dealer or perhaps go to another?
I sort of designed one for myself (old style air cooled Bonnie).
If your shifter peg bolt is the same as this one?:
When done up the force of a drop is transferred along to the shaft and not taken at the peg. That bolt can't move because the shoulder is tight up against the arm:
Here is my mod, parts used:
As you can see I'm basically replacing the original bolt with a softer standard SS bolt that bends easily as you can see on my test bolt. :smile2:
Here are all the parts put together, the rubber tube expands and holds the rubber peg in place and provides back pressure against the bolt when being tightened up:
And here it is ready to mount:
I used a fair bit of lock tight to ensure it doesn't/didn't come undone.
It doesn't and has been in place for over 6 months now.
Of course I've not tried it out yet in 'real live' so no real feedback on whether it'll work or not!
Wow--absolutely ridiculous about this design flaw! The mechanic at the dealer said that they had replaced the shaft recently on another bike but that "this one is not so bad" and he treated me like I didn't know how to shift correctly. I mean if I am careful to quickly take my foot off after a downshift, the problem doesn't happen but it seems silly to ride like that and have your mind distracted by that. Luckily he said it was a $600 fix, but that probably doesn't include parts and shop fees ?. I will definitely be yelling at Triumph customer service over this--way too fragile!
Wow, from that angle the bent part looks fairly stout. Did you change it out yourself? How difficult is it to change out? Change out entire shaft assy?
Yeah my cosmetic damage is very minor. This is very frustrating. These bikes are beautiful and I love the low end torque, but this almost makes me want to trade in for a beemer. I should hope zee Germans would not allow such an awful design
This is the one I've bookmarked as apparently the xr50's fit.
A tight fit on the spline but they go on with some persuasion.
Just haven't gotten around to ordering one...this thread has me thinking I should get it done.
There's been threads on them here.
Yes, this one for example. I'd be willing to bet the splines are the same size as the earlier twins so most gear levers suitable for small Hondas will fit:
If I had one of these bikes I'd look into machining a steel or alloy spacer, smoothly faced on both ends, that accurately fitted the gearshift shaft and filled the space between the gear lever and the outer clutch casing, the width calculated to allow virtually no sideways play but still enough so as not to add friction to the gearchange action.
The outer crankcase seems sturdy enough on that area, with the lever hole being close to the edge of the case. This way a drop would not knock the shaft and the bits attached to it into the engine innards and cause internal damage...probably...
Even if the clutch cover were damaged, it'd be easier to replace than splitting the engine apart.
The only problem I saw with those folding pegs was that they fold forward/backwards, which is assuming you are going along at the time of need.
I dropped my bike the other side while at a stand still. :surprise: If it had gone down on the left side I don't see that one of the folding pegs would have helped much as there is (obviously) no up/down free movement.
Hence my mod which I believe will fold any which way long before any other part gets screwed...... Well I hope....... :wink2:
Good point! Folding pegs were designed for dirt bikes and the tip folds to the rear to prevent damage and bumping out of gear where hitting a rock or tree stump in a rut on a climb could be VERY exciting IIRC.
I think you may want to use 1.5 cm washers so they can stack right up against the clutch cover. Maybe two 1.5 cm against the clutch cover and two 1.1 cm washers against the shift lever.
I'm thinking that washers aren't going to help much. The mechanical forces of an accident are still going to be transmitted to the gearbox internals, but now the transmission case is also at risk.
The shift lever and shaft are probably as strong as they need to be. It's probably good that usually, only the shifting forks are damaged.
Case guards might prevent damage to the gear box, but then I'd worry that they'd tweak the frame, possibly totaling the bike.
Two M14's and two M12's provide just the right "fix". The M14's lay up on the clutch cover. The gear shift lever should break without transmitting any undue stress into the gear box internals.
Is there any chance that a spring could just be what needs to be replaced? I know that will still involve a decent amount of labor. But I feel like the shaft is probably okay because the shifting problem is not terrible, it's just that the shift lever does not always spring all the way back into place after downshifting unless I am super careful to quickly release pressure from the lever after downshifting--although this only seems to happen after downshifting from 3rd to 2nd--in other words it only seems to be a problem sometimes when I am then trying to downshift to 1st after having downshifted to 2nd.
I was following to close behind a car and it stopped short, and I dropped my baby ��.
The cosmetic damage is minimal--mainly a little scuff on the muffler on the left side. But now my bike isn't shifting correctly. More specifically, if I downshift from third to second, the gear shift lever does not always return and click into its neutral position. As a result, if I try to then downshift into first, nothing happens; I have to slightly move the shifter up to click it into place so I can the downshift. It's mainly just annoying, but it would really do whatever it takes to fix it!
I took it to the dealer for its first service and happily paid for basically a $227 oil change because I thought they would be able to fix this shifting issue (for even more overpriced labor of course), but they just said it was fine. They tried to tell me I wasn't shifting properly, but I had never had a problem before I dropped it! If I am super careful to very quickly take my foot off the lever when I downshift, the problem doesn't happen (usually), but this doesn't seem like a proper solution.
Any idea about the issue? Could there be a spring that has been screwed up? You can see a little gouge on the transmission cover where the shifter got over rotated and hit the cover. The lever doesn't seem bent but I guess it probably is? I still feel like there has got to be something else screwed up causing the lever not to return far enough on a downshift. Help!
The same thing is happening with my bike after a drop. The dealership replaced the shift lever for $150 and told me the bike is "shifting flawlessly." When I went to pick it up Saturday, however, the bike was still having trouble getting from 4 to 3 and from 2 to 1. In other words, nothing was fixed by their replacing the shift lever. They, in essence, told me I was crazy (although I'm positive that I had none of these issues prior to the drop). I'm not sure what to do, either.
Lame! I am about to leave my bike with the dealer and have them actually really take a good look at it. I really hope I get some real answers. It's like--I want to pay you to crack open the transmission and fix the damn thing, so just do it and let me pay you for it. What am I supposed to do--trade in for a new bike because I dropped this one???
I even tried adjusting the lever counter-clockwise one or two notches. That made the problem happen less often, but it still happened and made getting my foot into position for an upshift kind of uncomfortable.
Thanks very much for the input. I feel like I need informational ammo in order to get the shop to help. They just don't seem to care unless there is something really wrong with the bike. I feel like they just wanted to get my 230 bucks for a glorified oil change! They didn't even lube the chain! When I asked about the chain, they said "oh it's an o-ring chain so it doesn't need to be lubed often." Maybe not as often and it's like no ****, but for a $230 I expect the bike to come back with the chain clean enough to eat off of. Tell me if I am crazy?
Any explanation why if a slightly bent shaft is the cause the issue would only occur after downshifting from 3rd to 2nd and then trying to downshift to 1st? Why wouldn't the same issue happen after downshifting from 3rd to 4th and then trying to downshift to 2nd?
I guess it's impossible that the design of the shaft has not been compromised, since the lever got over torqued bad enough to gouge the transmission cover and it doesn't look to be badly bent or really bent at all. I tried explaining this logic to the shop, and they said "well that would be a pretty bad design if that would cause a problem." It sounds like it is a bad design--too strong of a lever and not strong enough of a shaft?
I (lightly) dropped my Tx-R at about 500 miles and it wouldn't down shift without a lot of fiddling. That was about 3000 miles ago and it's a lot better as it has seemingly self-corrected itself, but... When approaching a red light, it will go down to 2nd just great, but down from there requires a light lift of the shifter (to help that 'metal plate' catch?) and then it will go into N or 1st.
There are several of us on this forum with this issue, so there's many more out in the world with the problem as well.
Maybe it's a design weakness that merits a recall? Missing a downshift at the wrong time can put you in a fence or somebody's rear bumper.
I was able to get Triumph America to replace my Ohlin rear shocks because the Owner's Handbook is wrong regarding how to relieve spring preload, but I couldn't get them to admit it or send out an addendum to the Owner's Handbook, so not holding my breath on getting my gearbox fixed for free labor, but maybe some future models will have a beefier **** mechanism?
Should we raise a stink?
Anymore that I'm not thinking of?
Me,
gabbydad,
CapsFanBen &
that guy who's wife was sitting on it and it rolled off the side stand?
Looseparts, that is EXACTLY the problem I was having. I plan on complaining to Triumph once I find out exactly what the failed part is.
I was able to get the labor paid for because the shop initially reaaaally tried to take me for a ride. First off, they had overfilled the coolant. Not a big deal since the system isn't pressurized but it was annoying when it spilled out after having paid $200 for handling when I bought the bike (on top of the freight charge). Then I was planning on doing the 500 mile oil change myself but figured I would have the shop do it because I was having the shifting issue after the drop. But instead of fixing the problem, they just took $230 from me for what seems to have been just an oil change--they didn't even clean the chain, and they told me the bike was shifting fine and that my accident probably just got in my head. THEN, I start having trouble starting the bike and I get the ABS, TC, and check engine lights flashing on and off on me, and then on the morning when I am supposed to take the bike back in, it's completely dead. I take off the seat and some bozo has put electrical tape between the negative battery terminal and the leads. They did so I guess to hold the nut in place for the bolt that holds all the electrical contacts together, but somehow the mechanic thought it was okay for the electrical tape to taped down in such a way that it interferes with the contact between the battery terminal and leads. It was at that point I got pretty pissed and spoke to the manager...
Same thing for me about 3000 miles ago. One thing I'll point out is that mine got better with time. I was one of the first ones to have this happen I think, and I was so embarrassed I didn't want to say anything and I didn't take it to the shop. But I will say don't stomp on it to get it to downshift. If you merely lift it up a tiny bit then it will 'catch' & go back down. You just need to lift it a tiny bit until it catches and then you can downshift (not ideal if your really needing to click through some downshifts, but that worked for me. Now, it's just about 100% 'cept going from 2nd to N/1st - I hope you get yours fixed without too much expense or you just leave it like I did, and let it work itself out. Good luck.
Been reading this thread and this problem sounds like it should be a concern for all owners. Here's a thought on preventing this issue.
In looking closely at my T120, it appears that during a "drop" to the left, it's the outside end of the shifter peg which hits first and would apply
nearly all of the leverage to the shift lever.
So, why not take a hack saw and cut a notch about half way through the shifter peg (on the bottom) at the shoulder where the threads begin? I would hope this would allow the peg to bend or snap off before it was able to apply much leverage to the shift lever. And as Forchetto adds, filling the gap on the shaft between the crankcase and shift lever to neutralize any leverage at that point,... If I understand his idea correctly.
Any thoughts, or criticisms on this idea??
Someone did mention notching the shift lever, but it would seem cheaper to me to start with the peg. The substitute "softer steel" bolt idea is a good one to, but my concern would be with knowing that I had a sufficiently soft bolt.
Anyway you look at it, there apparently needs to be some protection for rather delicate parts in the shifter mechanism.
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