[Fergusson]

Hi.

Week old bike and have done about 200 km. Transmission behaves strangely.

When shifting with clutch from 1st to 2nd does not stay in second gear. As soon as the clutch is released, the bike transitions from 2 back to N. Sometimes it takes many attempts to get in gear.

It happens only with warm engine using clutch. Shifting 1-2 with quickshifter without problems.
I have adjusted gear select lever position and tried different boots, changed driving position. Doesn’t help.

I have turned to dealer with this problem. After couple rounds in parking lot, they say that bike is OK so must be user error. It is hard to believe that this bike needs special gear shifts. I have owned 5 different bikes and ridden many more (including KTM). Never have had problems changing gears.

Any suggestions?

 

[BernardV]

No such problems, just sometimes from 5th to 6th I fall in a kind of neutral with or without quick shifter. I think it is because I do not have a firm or complete movement to lock the gear box. I feel some improvement since the first maintenance (1.000 km).

 

[wardog327]

Hi.

Week old bike and have done about 200 km. Transmission behaves strangely.

When shifting with clutch from 1st to 2nd does not stay in second gear. As soon as the clutch is released, the bike transitions from 2 back to N. Sometimes it takes many attempts to get in gear.

It happens only with warm engine using clutch. Shifting 1-2 with quickshifter without problems.
I have adjusted gear select lever position and tried different boots, changed driving position. Doesn’t help.

I have turned to dealer with this problem. After couple rounds in parking lot, they say that bike is OK so must be user error. It is hard to believe that this bike needs special gear shifts. I have owned 5 different bikes and ridden many more (including KTM). Never have had problems changing gears.

Any suggestions?

If you've had that many bikes/experience and they said that to me, I don't know may of went off...

 

[doughyrax]

If you've had that many bikes/experience and they said that to me, I don't know may of went off...

That seems to be a favorite response of a lot of vehicle dealerships they don't want the bother of anything remotely intermittent ...they want something to be outright physically broken or F U I had a brand new car once the dealer never would make right and I just did not have the time to fight it anymore...it would slowly pump oil out of a breather... finally I fitted a long tube that went up and then into a catch bottle (a baby bottle) and about once a week I poured the contents back into the motor...was like that the entire 2 years I owned the car...stuff like that is a pisser..seems like sometimes it has to affect enough of a model run that a manufacturer addresses such with either a service bulletin or recall otherwise they very well may fight you tooth and nail

 

[Vyk]

You are not alone. I've been hearing this from a few people. So far I no one has been able to resolve this yet. I'll post something if that changes.

 

[Cherokee]

Hi.

Week old bike and have done about 200 km. Transmission behaves strangely.

When shifting with clutch from 1st to 2nd does not stay in second gear. As soon as the clutch is released, the bike transitions from 2 back to N. Sometimes it takes many attempts to get in gear.

It happens only with warm engine using clutch. Shifting 1-2 with quickshifter without problems.
I have adjusted gear select lever position and tried different boots, changed driving position. Doesn’t help.

I have turned to dealer with this problem. After couple rounds in parking lot, they say that bike is OK so must be user error. It is hard to believe that this bike needs special gear shifts. I have owned 5 different bikes and ridden many more (including KTM). Never have had problems changing gears.

Any suggestions?

 

[Cherokee]

Hi.

Week old bike and have done about 200 km. Transmission behaves strangely.

When shifting with clutch from 1st to 2nd does not stay in second gear. As soon as the clutch is released, the bike transitions from 2 back to N. Sometimes it takes many attempts to get in gear.

It happens only with warm engine using clutch. Shifting 1-2 with quickshifter without problems.
I have adjusted gear select lever position and tried different boots, changed driving position. Doesn’t help.

I have turned to dealer with this problem. After couple rounds in parking lot, they say that bike is OK so must be user error. It is hard to believe that this bike needs special gear shifts. I have owned 5 different bikes and ridden many more (including KTM). Never have had problems changing gears.

Any suggestions?

I’ve experienced the same issue after I washed the bike the first time so lubricated the chain and adjusted the free travel on the clutch lever and it resolved the issue

 

[DiegoHPB]

Hi.

Week old bike and have done about 200 km. Transmission behaves strangely.

When shifting with clutch from 1st to 2nd does not stay in second gear. As soon as the clutch is released, the bike transitions from 2 back to N. Sometimes it takes many attempts to get in gear.

It happens only with warm engine using clutch. Shifting 1-2 with quickshifter without problems.
I have adjusted gear select lever position and tried different boots, changed driving position. Doesn’t help.

I have turned to dealer with this problem. After couple rounds in parking lot, they say that bike is OK so must be user error. It is hard to believe that this bike needs special gear shifts. I have owned 5 different bikes and ridden many more (including KTM). Never have had problems changing gears.

Any suggestions?

This happened exactly to me (without using the quick shifter) and right after the 1000km service. I went back to the dealer and asked for repositioning the shifting lever a click downwards (I guess the bike is set for offroad boots), the dealer also reset the qickshifter software and the issue disappeared almost completely, before doing this it happened 8 out of 10 times, now it can happen around 1 out of 10…. Best wishes!

 

[SydsTub]

Yeah, mine has done that but I’m new to this bike, so learning how it behaves. My 2005 KTM does the same thing, usually if I’m gunning it and don’t make a clean shift, it pops back into neutral. I guess the quick shifter knows what to do so can do it without issues

 

[DiegoHPB]

You are not alone. I've been hearing this from a few people. So far I no one has been able to resolve this yet. I'll post something if that changes.

I think I have a trick for this, not a solution though… when shifting from 1st to 2nd gear, I keep pressing the pedal up for 1 to 2 seconds, by doing this I have never had the issue of not engaging the 2nd gear, but almost every time I dont do it it happens… I am not really happy with this problem, I seriously think this is dangerous, I’ll take the bike to the dealer this week…

 

[KrillOill]

This has happened to me also and I think it's a "learning curve". It's almost like if you're touching the shift lever even a little bit, it confuses the "easy shift" system. I'm going to try disabling the easy shift function and see if that makes a difference. This is my first bike with a quick/easy shift feature, so I honestly think it's just me needing to get familiar with the bike.

 

[DiegoHPB]

I had a bmw f850gs for three months before buying the Norden, this issue happened to me eventually in that bmw but I think in those cases it was human error, but in my Norden, it happens more often…

I did 850 km (528 miles) this weekend and it happened every time I didnt keep pushing the pedal upwards after shifting from 1st to 2nd gear. I find this issue very dangerous because I have to be always conscious about pushing the pedal up, and sometimes when I have to overpass a lorry suddenly, for example, and I dont keep in mind about keeping the pedal up, it is quite scary when the 2nd gear doesnt engage…
If there’s an engineer out in this forum who knows the mechanism by which the 2nd gear is held after shifting I would like to hear the explanation!!! Because in my surgical opinion thats what happens to my bike!!!

 

[KrillOill]

On my way to work yesterday, the bike popped into neutral going to second. I flipped through the menu and deactivated the easy shift mode and it never happened again. Going to give it some more miles, but it seems the easy shift is the culprit. Found this on page 336 of the service manual, "When driving, the shift lever must not touch the rider's boot when in the basic position. If the shift lever is permanently touching the boot, the transmission will be subject to excessive load; this can cause a malfunction of the Easy Shift."

 

[KrillOill]

Went for a ride with some buddies yesterday (420+ miles). I'm pretty confident that there's no issue with the bike...it's the rider. Had the easy shift enabled and no issues all day. Tried to keep my foot from resting near the shifter. I think it's just a matter of getting to know the bike.

 

[DiegoHPB]

I am starting to think the same, as I am coming from bmw bikes, someone told me shifting could be slightly different, I’ve been trying to use the easy shifting from 1st to 2nd gear and I havent got that issue so far, and trying to get used to shift different as I did on my bmw f850gs sick!!!

 

[SydsTub]

Take the time to check if your gear selector lever is adjusted to your foot and the foot rest.
I have large feet/boots and I too was having this issue, mostly when trying to take off fast and chnage gear fast, both with clutch changes and quick shift.
I then noticed that the position of the gear leverlmis set to a standard central position.
i made the adjustment of about 5mm downwards and it made a big difference. I still think I need to ajdust down a further 5mm. Getting the occasional shift into neutral hut again I think its me. The lever itself moves around 15mm when shifting up so it has to travel that distance maybe more before engaging.
There’s detailed instructions in the manual

 

[motomojo61]

Hi.

Week old bike and have done about 200 km. Transmission behaves strangely.

When shifting with clutch from 1st to 2nd does not stay in second gear. As soon as the clutch is released, the bike transitions from 2 back to N. Sometimes it takes many attempts to get in gear.

It happens only with warm engine using clutch. Shifting 1-2 with quickshifter without problems.
I have adjusted gear select lever position and tried different boots, changed driving position. Doesn’t help.

I have turned to dealer with this problem. After couple rounds in parking lot, they say that bike is OK so must be user error. It is hard to believe that this bike needs special gear shifts. I have owned 5 different bikes and ridden many more (including KTM). Never have had problems changing gears.

Any suggestions?

Hi, I've experienced this on my Norden. My suggestion is to put more miles on your bike, 200km - It's not broken in yet. I'm waiting to get my first service done and my bike has 1075 miles (1,730km). I only had the false neutral happen a few times when my bike was new. I have made adjustments to the clutch lever and the position of the shifting lever. The dealers, quite frankly don't do anything to these bikes, they take them out of the box and sell them to you. It's the first year's production and I don't think that here's a lot of tech training going on. My local dealer is small. They delivered my bike with just the left gas tank petcock open and the right one closed and I got stranded out in the Sierra foothills on my third ride. After getting the bike home, I figured out what was going on with the help of the PDF manual (You don't even get a paper manual with bikes anymore) and the Google / Internet.
Hang in there buddy, it'll get better as the bike breaks in.

 

[Cydric97]

I get this issue all the time, almost 30% of the time if not more. Also, I experience something similar but when downshifting to 1st from second, the gear will bounce back to neutral even though I firmly down shift.

Pretty frustrating, 9000 miles on the bike right now.

 

[wardog327]

I get this issue all the time, almost 30% of the time if not more. Also, I experience something similar but when downshifting to 1st from second, the gear will bounce back to neutral even though I firmly down shift.

Pretty frustrating, 9000 miles on the bike right now.

If it's still doing this at 9K That's the why it's going to be I'd say. I wouldn't like it either...

 

[Donk]

I went through a learning curve with shifter on my 890 Adventure and have had no issue with the Norden. Have the dealer do a relearn on your quick shifter then be very deliberate on your shifts. Make sure you let the shifter return completely between shifts and don't get lazy when shifting. I never have a problem anymore and I did in the beginning. I am a test rider at a large motorcycle dealership and sometimes ride 15-20 different bikes a day so I think I know how to shift a motorcycle. That said the 890/901 has one of the most sensitive shifters ever and it will certainly keep you honest.