XJ650 dropped into neutral from 2nd

Strange thing happened while I was out for a ride today. I was coming to a stop and downshifting through the gears — I like to continuously downshift so that engine braking can help with the 650’s somewhat feeble rear drum.

When I got to second, I blipped the throttle and let out the clutch. After about a half-second of engine braking, the bike suddenly shifted into neutral all by itself. The neutral light even came on. I continued riding just fine for a while after that, and it didn’t happen again after about another half hour on the road.

So, does this mean there’s something wrong with my gearbox? Or could this be caused by the shifter mechanism behind the left side cover? I’m familiar with missing shifts when going from 1st to 2nd, but never anything like this when downshifting.

 

Likely you didn’t have a solid shift to begin with, and it finally popped out of gear. It happens. Don’t buy another pair of panties just yet……

 

Ah, so this can just happen with this gearbox. During the next off season, I’ve been considering trying the performance shifter pawl modification. I wonder if that would prevent this from happening.

 

just ride it , lots of bikes will do this you probably didnt shift it all the way

 

Just today I hit neutral instead of 2nd from 1st. I hate it when I do that. Lazy shifter foot.

 

This happens to me from time to time, and I think missing shifts from first to second is normal on bikes where neutral is between 1 and 2. From third to second though, that one I hadn’t heard of before, since there’s nothing in between those gears. Hence why I began to worry for my transmission.

 

theres a false neutral between every gear, whilst shifting from one to the other, as one gear is released and before the next is engaged, it doesnt happen very often as the spacing is negligable, but there, all the same

 

I'm most likely to do this (and other head-shaking mistakes) when coming off a few rides on my WR250R. Everything is so much LIGHTER on that, it takes a few cycles to get hands and feet re-calibrated.