Gear Clash on 2002 Honda Shadow Spirit

I have been experiencing some gear clash when upshifting my '02 Shadow
Spirit. How can I fix it? Am I looking at taking it to the $$hop or is it
just a matter of adjustment??? I don't know if this tranny is syncro or
not.

TIA
Davehd

 

the $$hop or is it just a matter of adjustment??? I don't know > if
this tranny is syncro or not.

Motorcycle transmissions don't have synchromesh, they are what is
called a "crash box". You can't get "gear clash" out of a motorcycle
transmission, because the gears are always in mesh. All of them, all
the time. That's why the specifications say that it is a "constant
mesh" transmission...

But, I don't doubt that you are hearing a noise when you shift. It's
the engagement *dogs* on the sides of the gears that actually engage
the gears. About half the gears in the box are pinion gears, they are
splined, or pressed, or are a physical part of the shaft they are on...

The other half of the gears are "wheel" or "freewheeling" gears, they
spin on the shafts they are on and they get pushed sideways by the
shifter forks in order to engage those dogs into slots on the adjacent
gear...

Now, maybe your shifter forkers are bent, or the monkey motion linkage
that goes from your shifter pedal to turn the shifter drum that moves
the shifter forks is out of adjustment...

You might look at the drawings at www.partsfish.com to see what I mean
when I talk about shifter drum and shifter forks, etc. Follow out what
the shifter shaft does when it goes to the ratcheting mechanism on the
end of the shifter drum. That would probably be underneath the clutch
side cover, and, if there's any adjustment possible(other than taking
all the slop out of the external linkage or adjusting the angle of the
shifter pedal), it would be under the clutch cover...

There's one other thing: if this "gear clash" you're hearing mainly
happens when you're shifting up from first, through neutral, into
second gear, the problem might be that you need to train your hind foot
into moving the shifter pedal farther on the first to second shift. You
have to move the pedal twice as far as when you're shifting from second
to third...

That's why riders miss the first to second gear shift so often...

 

Thanks. It does happen on the 1-2 upshift. But this has started after a
few miles of riding. Not there when new. I don't think it's the technique,
but I will investigate that further (if winter weather permits).

Davehd

 

More often than not, gear change problems are related to
clutch adjustment. Play around with that and see if the
situation improves. Please note that both too much slack
AND too little slack can give shifting problems. Do not
trust the adjustment instruction in the owners manual,
you have to find the best adjustment yourself. Just be
sure to have some slack, or you can burn the clutch
plates.