Topic & description says it all, mods move this if I'm in the wrong forum. 2004 VFR, 18,7xx miles, I change my oil every 4,000 miles and it's a blend of Shell Rotella T Synth , 15w40 & a quart of Honda GN-4, 20w50, filter is a Purolator Gold (or whatever they call their top spec filter) and the oil always comes out a color close to what went in. I believe the level is right in the middle of the sight glass, I'll have to check again. This has been happening for a while, maybe forever, the shift up into 6th can be really notchy but not every time. Last night on the last few miles of a three hour road trip the thing was a bear to completely shift, like the shift fork mechanism was really having to overcome some mechanical obstruction to slide the fork home completely. I got curious and just started shifting down to 5th, back to 6th, maybe a dozen times. Of those dozen, three of the shifts were extremely notchy, three were so smooth it was like silk on butter, and the other six were what I'd consider normal compared to the other gears in the box.
I've got most of a year's warranty left, but does this condition necessitate something drastic or is this "just normal"? I'll be changing the oil in a couple weeks, should I try something different and see what that affects? I know that straight Rotella & this bike's shift quality do not work well together, just throwing a quart of Suzuki 20w50 (it was left over from a previously owned GS500) in with 2.33 quarts of the Shell stuff made the shift much nicer. Thoughts?
[image: View Post]pres589, on May 24 2009, 01:20 PM, said:
Topic & description says it all, mods move this if I'm in the wrong forum. 2004 VFR, 18,7xx miles, I change my oil every 4,000 miles and it's a blend of Shell Rotella T Synth , 15w40 & a quart of Honda GN-4, 20w50, filter is a Purolator Gold (or whatever they call their top spec filter) and the oil always comes out a color close to what went in. I believe the level is right in the middle of the sight glass, I'll have to check again. This has been happening for a while, maybe forever, the shift up into 6th can be really notchy but not every time. Last night on the last few miles of a three hour road trip the thing was a bear to completely shift, like the shift fork mechanism was really having to overcome some mechanical obstruction to slide the fork home completely. I got curious and just started shifting down to 5th, back to 6th, maybe a dozen times. Of those dozen, three of the shifts were extremely notchy, three were so smooth it was like silk on butter, and the other six were what I'd consider normal compared to the other gears in the box.
I've got most of a year's warranty left, but does this condition necessitate something drastic or is this "just normal"? I'll be changing the oil in a couple weeks, should I try something different and see what that affects? I know that straight Rotella & this bike's shift quality do not work well together, just throwing a quart of Suzuki 20w50 (it was left over from a previously owned GS500) in with 2.33 quarts of the Shell stuff made the shift much nicer. Thoughts?
Many of us use Rotella T (blue bottle) without mixing and it doesn't cause any problems. I would think that mixing is bad, but not really sure. The shift problems into 6th don't sound normal to me. I have a 2005 with about 17k miles.
[image: View Post]pres589, on May 24 2009, 01:20 PM, said:
Topic & description says it all, mods move this if I'm in the wrong forum. 2004 VFR, 18,7xx miles, I change my oil every 4,000 miles and it's a blend of Shell Rotella T Synth , 15w40 & a quart of Honda GN-4, 20w50, filter is a Purolator Gold (or whatever they call their top spec filter) and the oil always comes out a color close to what went in. I believe the level is right in the middle of the sight glass, I'll have to check again. This has been happening for a while, maybe forever, the shift up into 6th can be really notchy but not every time. Last night on the last few miles of a three hour road trip the thing was a bear to completely shift, like the shift fork mechanism was really having to overcome some mechanical obstruction to slide the fork home completely. I got curious and just started shifting down to 5th, back to 6th, maybe a dozen times. Of those dozen, three of the shifts were extremely notchy, three were so smooth it was like silk on butter, and the other six were what I'd consider normal compared to the other gears in the box.
I've got most of a year's warranty left, but does this condition necessitate something drastic or is this "just normal"? I'll be changing the oil in a couple weeks, should I try something different and see what that affects? I know that straight Rotella & this bike's shift quality do not work well together, just throwing a quart of Suzuki 20w50 (it was left over from a previously owned GS500) in with 2.33 quarts of the Shell stuff made the shift much nicer. Thoughts?
[image: View Post]pres589, on May 24 2009, 01:20 PM, said:
Topic & description says it all, mods move this if I'm in the wrong forum. 2004 VFR, 18,7xx miles, I change my oil every 4,000 miles and it's a blend of Shell Rotella T Synth , 15w40 & a quart of Honda GN-4, 20w50, filter is a Purolator Gold (or whatever they call their top spec filter) and the oil always comes out a color close to what went in. I believe the level is right in the middle of the sight glass, I'll have to check again. This has been happening for a while, maybe forever, the shift up into 6th can be really notchy but not every time. Last night on the last few miles of a three hour road trip the thing was a bear to completely shift, like the shift fork mechanism was really having to overcome some mechanical obstruction to slide the fork home completely. I got curious and just started shifting down to 5th, back to 6th, maybe a dozen times. Of those dozen, three of the shifts were extremely notchy, three were so smooth it was like silk on butter, and the other six were what I'd consider normal compared to the other gears in the box.
I've got most of a year's warranty left, but does this condition necessitate something drastic or is this "just normal"? I'll be changing the oil in a couple weeks, should I try something different and see what that affects? I know that straight Rotella & this bike's shift quality do not work well together, just throwing a quart of Suzuki 20w50 (it was left over from a previously owned GS500) in with 2.33 quarts of the Shell stuff made the shift much nicer. Thoughts?
I notice the same thing on my 07 RWB. The shift into 6th feels like a double click whereas the others are all very clean single clicks. I just assumed it was a 'feature' as you put it. Still I manage to awkwardly search for 7th now and then...
If I am not very positive or the motor is spinning kinda low, I have a problem going into 6th also. I hear that the shift star mod fixes this, but as it is usually my fault, I havent shelled out the dough for the kit yet.
Chain condition and tension is pretty critical to smooth gearchanges. I suspect oil is important too, as I found that the bike shifted less smoothly on Mobil 1, and when I changed the oil a couple of days ago (went from Motul 15W50 semi-synth to a mix of that and Motul 20W50 mineral oil) the gearchanges improved quite dramatically.
I have an Evo Star kit fitted, and it helped a lot with changes. I still manage to muck them up frequently, but this is because of laziness, and the shifter is mounted a few mm too high for my linking. Oh for a decent adjustable gearlever! At the moment, my only option is to take it off, heat it and bend it down a bit. After a few months, it's back to how it was. One day.... I'm going to re-engineer a VTR or CBR shifter to fit....
If I get sloppy on 5th to 6th shift, I can miss an get a false neutral. - The 5th to 6th has always seemed clunky to be a sore point on my tranny (I run Mobil 1 motorcycle oil). Mostly I just make a mental note to pay attension 5th to 6th and then I'm ok. I've considered the Factory kit to get away from it.
[image: View Post]pres589, on May 24 2009, 11:20 AM, said:
Topic & description says it all, mods move this if I'm in the wrong forum. 2004 VFR, 18,7xx miles, I change my oil every 4,000 miles and it's a blend of Shell Rotella T Synth , 15w40 & a quart of Honda GN-4, 20w50, filter is a Purolator Gold (or whatever they call their top spec filter) and the oil always comes out a color close to what went in. I believe the level is right in the middle of the sight glass, I'll have to check again. This has been happening for a while, maybe forever, the shift up into 6th can be really notchy but not every time. Last night on the last few miles of a three hour road trip the thing was a bear to completely shift, like the shift fork mechanism was really having to overcome some mechanical obstruction to slide the fork home completely. I got curious and just started shifting down to 5th, back to 6th, maybe a dozen times. Of those dozen, three of the shifts were extremely notchy, three were so smooth it was like silk on butter, and the other six were what I'd consider normal compared to the other gears in the box.
I've got most of a year's warranty left, but does this condition necessitate something drastic or is this "just normal"? I'll be changing the oil in a couple weeks, should I try something different and see what that affects? I know that straight Rotella & this bike's shift quality do not work well together, just throwing a quart of Suzuki 20w50 (it was left over from a previously owned GS500) in with 2.33 quarts of the Shell stuff made the shift much nicer. Thoughts?
Rotella t 15w40 is one of the notchiest oils you can run , same with it 5w40 cousin
If yuo really want to put the oil thing to bed, run a Motul full ester product , not going to get much better shifting than that as far as oil
End of thread · 9 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 12 Apr 2010