What an emotional roller coaster. My 1999 R1's engine is running PERFECTLY. I took it for the maiden voyage today. HOLY HELL MAN! It has power! The slightest thwack of the throttle and the front wheel lifts skyward with the greatest of ease. It's fast. Scary fast. Damn fast.

Now for the bad news. Much like Bruce uhhh I m an Katlyn Jenner....I have tranny issues. All th gears are there and the clutch adjustment is correct (I had a shop check to confirm) but it is an absolute bitch to shift from one gear to the next. You have to really push your foot hard to get a positive shift and even then it's a damn crap shoot. I suspect a bent shift fork. Which means I am absolutely fucked.

Do we have any first gen R1 gurus here? I really don't know what I'm gonna do with this bike now. With 19k miles it's a damn shame something in the the transmission's shifting mechanism appears to be fooked.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: stickman428,

So fix the trans, I've done several on HD's is it a PIA, sure, but it's something you can probably do yourself.

I'd bet you could find a complete replacement gear set from a wrecked bike in a salvage yard easy,

Youtube has several videos on R1 transmission issues that you could check out. Apparently it's not uncommon.

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I'd bet you could find a complete replacement gear set from a wrecked bike in a salvage yard easy,

That would be my move.

Lay an R1 down, bend the frame and scratch the fairings and it's pretty much totaled. Should be lots of engine and transmission parts floating around out there.

Hard to shift while moving, stationary, or both? I bent a shift fork (not using the clutch) and the bike was only hard to shift while stopped and running.

Bytes, it's hard to shift when stationary and when moving. It doesn't pop out of gear but it's nearly impossible to shift without at least 2-3 false neutrals each time I try to shift.

When it is in gear though it's a sweeeeeeet bike. The power delivery, torque and midrange punch is insane. This is a 18 year old bike with 130-140 rwhp. I can't begin to fathom the feeling of the newest 200hp supersports.

From what I've seen online in a brief search it looks like if it is a bent shift fork fixing it is going to be a bitch and a half.

I am considering the option of finding a new engine and dropping it in while I fix and modify the original. But then again what if the replacement engine has issues? I don't know.

It has 19k and runs great. I'm looking into a tranny tear down but it looks ahem.....involved and complicated...to say the least.

I don't think my SV650S will ever feel the same now.

Stick, is there a chance the shift arm is bent or in a bind some way? Check your heim joints, make sure there is movement there. Easy way to check... loosen the bolts on the heim joints about 1 turn... then move things around.


Last thing I can think to do is maybe get the bike jacked up, spin the rear wheel, and shift by hand to "see" what you can feel and hear. Maybe you can diagnose a little more with that.

Hope you figure it out.

I just picked up a 2004 Yammy FZ1, the R1's more practical sister. Pretty gnarly machine. Just like you said, easy to get the front wheel off the ground!

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Originally posted by mutedblade:
Stick, is there a chance the shift arm is bent or in a bind some way? Check your heim joints, make sure there is movement there. Easy way to check... loosen the bolts on the heim joints about 1 turn... then move things around.


Last thing I can think to do is maybe get the bike jacked up, spin the rear wheel, and shift by hand to "see" what you can feel and hear. Maybe you can diagnose a little more with that.

Hope you figure it out.

I just picked up a 2004 Yammy FZ1, the R1's more practical sister. Pretty gnarly machine. Just like you said, easy to get the front wheel off the ground!

That right there is some damn good advice. My bent shift fork was on an R6. Shifting with no clutch was the problem Check out everything you can before you do a tear down. My buddy that rides a "slow" CBR 600 was having shifting problems and ran some Sea Foam through his oil. It fixed the problem. IMHO, the problem with motorcycle transmission stuff is that once you have the motor and tranny torn down it's really easy (and expensive) to replace everything that "should" be fixed. Inline 4's can get expensive fast. Good luck my friend, I seriously doubt it's as serious as you think.

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I'm looking into a tranny tear down but it looks ahem.....involved and complicated...to say the least.

Open it up. It's really not that bad with a service manual and youtube.

To a novice, pretty intimidating, sure, but compared to opening up a modern automatic automotive trans. . . piece of cake.

You got this.

I'd first make sure all the parts outside the tranny are good. Some are easy to bend. And take a good look at the star gear and shift shart. But fixing a tranny is not a real mystery and all the parts are easy to get. We have to tear down my race bike motors all the time to fix 3rd gear since Suzuki didn't heat treat it enough. A competent guy can do it in hours, learning for the first time if you are not comfortable will take you a few days on/off and you will have to buy or borrow a few tools, but its not a mystery project. Lastly if you are truly scared then go find another motor these are pretty common in the salvage world and a motor swap is in the very easy category.

hrcjon, does anyone make aftermarket gears that are stronger than OEM? I hadn't heard about the Suzuki 3rd gear issue. What years are effected? I'm planning on buying a 2017 GSX-R1000R at the end of this year and noticed they did mention the transmission had been beefed up to handle the extra power.

From what I've read the first Gen R1 is prone to 2nd gear issues but everything in reading about is it popping out of gear. Mine isn't doing that.

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shift shart

I think I had one of those riding a TM400 once.



(I knew exactly what you meant, but funny is funny.)

I'm not aware of aftermarket gears for most models. I have tried aftermarket treatments (cryogenic) on the race bike parts but I haven't noticed any significant changes. In the end its just simpler to swap them before they grenade. A transmission that catastrophically fails is a real problem since what happens is the some random piece locks up the whole works and the clutch won't save you. Been tossed to the ground on that issue and want to avoid it.
I would have zero worries on a new GSXR ridden on the street.

I would also add that second gear issues is a classic issue for rounding the dogs on the gear. I would add it can happen on any bike due to the design of motorcycle transmissions. The only fix is a new gear although you can normally work around it for a long time. Some try and machine changes to new gears to make this better in the racing world but my experience is that the heat treatment is all at the surface and touching the factory part will be a negative.

Another thought on this; have you taken the clutch cover off? If you have a rear stand, you shouldn't lose much oil in the process.

The reason I ask is that on some bikes, the clutch basket can get notched. This condition is easy to "feel" on a cable operated clutch, like a motocross bike, but much harder to discern on a hydraulic clutch.

The cause is clutch abuse, sloppy shifting, etc. And the result is a series of notches in the fingers of the clutch basket - they should be smooth and symmetric. The result can be a bike that is hard to shift into or out of gear, as the friction plates can hang on those notches instead of sliding smoothly on the basket fingers.

It feels like a transmission problem, but in truth, it's not shifting correctly because the clutch won't "let go" of the flywheel.

Symptoms may also include jerky starts, or clunking noise when dropping into gear, as there is a small dwell time between the clutch engaging and the teeth of the friction plates contacting the basket.

Not saying that's it, just another idea that is free and easy to check.

ETA: deleted giagundus picture of clutch basket.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
hrcjon, does anyone make aftermarket gears that are stronger than OEM? I hadn't heard about the Suzuki 3rd gear issue. What years are effected? I'm planning on buying a 2017 GSX-R1000R at the end of this year and noticed they did mention the transmission had been beefed up to handle the extra power.

From what I've read the first Gen R1 is prone to 2nd gear issues but everything in reading about is it popping out of gear. Mine isn't doing that.

Most motorcycle transmissions, Japanese at least, are pretty stout. That bike has probably even stunted on, or some other idiotic behavior. You are gonna have to pull it apart.

Stickman> PM me and I can help you. I was a Yamaha Dealer and owned the same first year R1 when new.

desmosedeci, I shot ya an email but I'm not sure if you are gonna get it. My email said it was a invalid address.