DocShadow wrote:
Bike should always be left parked in gear.

Doc

I found that nowhere in the owners manual, and it is the opposite of what the MSF courses tell you...not to mention that if I leave my bike in gear when I shut it off, when I start it again the clutch holds slight contact and will cause the bike to lurch forward just a bit...why do you feel that is the correct way to leave the bike?

Roadkill1962 That was funny

gareva1 wrote:
I found that nowhere in the owners manual, and it is the opposite of what the MSF courses tell you...not to mention that if I leave my bike in gear when I shut it off, when I start it again the clutch holds slight contact and will cause the bike to lurch forward just a bit...why do you feel that is the correct way to leave the bike?

You don't start the bike in gear, you park it in gear. Before starting the bike put it in neutral.

Why ...

- discourages people from moving it around
- less likely to fall over when pushed (R* stand has no lock)

Doc

All, Road_Hawg was correct. It was a faulty clutch switch. A wire got severed. It's repaired and working. Thanks for all the input. As a new forum memeber I will look to this site for more help but as a newbee I won't be able to offer any.

Roadkill1962 wrote:
Road_Hawg wrote:
I understand him to mean that he is parking on a hill and he is leaving it in gear to prevent it from rolling while parked. I do that too. I believe he is saying it will not crank when he disengages the clutch (pulls clutch handle in) while it is in gear. Kickstand is up, so it must be a faulty clutch lever switch. That's my take on it. BTW, there should be no confusion about disengage and engage. When the clutch is engaged, the engine and tranny are coupled together by the clutch plates mating up with the friction plates (Clutch lever is not pulled), when the clutch is disengaged, the engine and tranny are uncoupled from each other by the clutch plates being separated from the friction plates(Clutch lever pulled in).

So...now that everyone's clear on the definitions of the clutch being engaged and not engaged, what do we call riding in the "friction zone"? Is that when the engine and tranny are "just seeing each other"?

Sorry, Road_Hawg, I'm with you & I just couldn't resist...

RK

Nice.

Roadkill1962 wrote:
Road_Hawg wrote:
I understand him to mean that he is parking on a hill and he is leaving it in gear to prevent it from rolling while parked. I do that too. I believe he is saying it will not crank when he disengages the clutch (pulls clutch handle in) while it is in gear. Kickstand is up, so it must be a faulty clutch lever switch. That's my take on it. BTW, there should be no confusion about disengage and engage. When the clutch is engaged, the engine and tranny are coupled together by the clutch plates mating up with the friction plates (Clutch lever is not pulled), when the clutch is disengaged, the engine and tranny are uncoupled from each other by the clutch plates being separated from the friction plates(Clutch lever pulled in).

So...now that everyone's clear on the definitions of the clutch being engaged and not engaged, what do we call riding in the "friction zone"? Is that when the engine and tranny are "just seeing each other"?

Sorry, Road_Hawg, I'm with you & I just couldn't resist...

RK

Now I know why they call you Roadkill, you just made roadkill out of me. Okay, I will play along. No, the friction zone is when the engine and tranny have been coupled for a while but they are having problems now. Roadkill, the next paragraph is not directed at you, it is in response to other posts.

BTW, I start my bike in gear after having parked it in gear, no problems with it lurching anywhere. Also Doc is right, the owners manual does not tell you things that are learned from years of experience, just as the owners manual will not tell you about the majority of information on the R* Clinic. The first time your bike rolls off the kickstand because it was parked on an incline in neutral, you will remember Doc's sound advice then. A lot of things are just common sense. Would you park your car on an incline in neutral? Would you park your car on level ground in neutral? Why is the bike any different in that regard? I don't always park mine in gear when on level ground, but if it is on an incline it will be in gear while parked, no doubt. And when it comes time to go, I just pull in the clutch and hit the starter, no problems. The riding courses teach to start in neutral for liability reasons, and also under normal circumstances, that is the way one would start. Life presents many challenges and we adapt in ways that are not covered in the owners manual.

As a kid I worked one summer in a truck loading terminal loading the semis. One day the foreman asks me to bring a cube around the building to load it up, but first asks me if I have driven a standard before .... I lie and say yes.

I jump in the truck and turn the key (no checking for neutral, no clutch) ... the truck jumps forward and smashes into the truck in front ..... fender dented and light broken.

The truck had just come back from the autobody repair shop so the boss was not amused.

Doc

DocShadow wrote:


As a kid I worked one summer in a truck loading terminal loading the semis. One day the foreman asks me to bring a cube around the building to load it up, but first asks me if I have driven a standard before .... I lie and say yes.

I jump in the truck and turn the key (no checking for neutral, no clutch) ... the truck jumps forward and smashes into the truck in front ..... fender dented and light broken.

The truck had just come back from the autobody repair shop so the boss was not amused.

Doc

Dont ya just hate a boss with no sense of humor ....Coug

Sometimes when I first start up the bike in gear with the clutch lever pulled in, I feel a little tug forward, as if the clutch is not fully disengaged. However, after running a sec or two the tug (slight forward tendency)is no longer apparent.

If I start it in gear, I get the same "lunging," J. I suspect that it's just the torque of the crankshaft/pistons overcoming the inertia of being at rest, and that once they are turning and purring, then everything is balanced and happy again.