Ladies and gentleman Had my 848 now for a couple of weeks now,and I love it. However I'm struggling with selecting gears. (not the bike it's me) I've adjusted the gear leverage to its max to give me less throw in my foot before I touch the lever. My question is would a quick shifter help at all? (I know you still have to touch the lever) or is anyone making longer shift rods or will reverse the lever work. Basically I don't want to keep selecting neutral and breaking the box. Many thanks
Try winding out the adjuster rod so that the lever is moved towards the ground a few mm. Keep doing this until the shift feels right. I had to do this on my 1198S.
I might be wrong but I think the quickshifter just works on the throttle as you change gear. I'm probably very wrong but I think it just cuts the throttle momentarily, and that with a clutch less upchange gives you the quickshift. Don't think it helps with the lever at all.
Yeah been looking into this today and your right. I would still need to give the lever a good hard shift. I must admit the honda was effortless but lacked character. However character at the expense of a broken box is not the road I wish to go down. What about reverse gear lever?
I'm really far from an expert, but it might help to describe in more detail what your problems is. I don't find any real problems with my bike, but then I may be doing something very very different. Give us some idea, and even if I can, someone else might have some ideas.
On gear changes I quite frequently go to change up and seem to get no gear and bike revs (gear not selected) I have to coast for a bit blip throttle and shift up again. I seem to do it more when I'm giving it some. I don't think it's the bike. I think it's me just not being very positive with the changes.
In my experience what you have is just the nature of the beast as far as the 1098/848 gear box is concerned. When I had a 1098 I suffered the same problem. When I adjusted the lever up to get good downshifts the the up shifts suffered and vice versa. I tried running reverse shift pattern with a lever mounted directly onto the gearbox selector shaft but it made no difference. You just have to really poke the thing quite hard to get a clean accurate shift. It is not a box that works well with a gentle stroke of the lever. I don't think that there was anything inherently wrong with the the box, it just isn't a Honda or Aprilia gearbox.
I don't have problems down shifting at all. I may get a slightly longer rod made up. So the lever rests on my foot more. Reducing the slack between my foot and lever. And shorting the throw. (in theory)
I actually get this problem when using my quick shifter sometimes, mostly when going from 1st into 2nd, it will not fully seat into 2nd gear and then spit out into neutral and redline. Pisses me off when it happens, so i usually avoid the quick shifter when going into 2nd.
try shifting gears with the bike off. You should hear them engage (and feel the resistance). It might be foot position or the pressure you're using on the upshift. It sounds more like foot pressure since you're getting clean downshifts (easier to apply pressure stomping down than clicking up). Adjust the linkage until you find you're making clean shifts. Then give it a ride and see if there is a difference. Quick shifter won't do anything except remove the need to clutch on the upshift. If you're still not engaging the gear, you'll still false netural
The simplest solution may be to rummage through your odds and ends to find something with which to make yourself a fatter gearchange foot rubber, (an old bicycle innertube you can wind round and secure with duct tape, or one of those rubbery wine 'corks' drilled though, as a trial, may do the trick) giving you more uplift as you change up, hopefully making gear engagement more positive. If that works, the challenge then is to find something that wont look like a bodge
