[SafetyFirst]

Anyone had this happen before on the EX250F?

I was making a turn onto a 2-lane divided highway on-ramp. The car down the road coming the other way turned on a nearby street, but I was already down the 1 with the clutch in, expecting a stop. I kick up to 2rd, and start my turn at speed. VROOOOOOM! $hit, neutral! Try again. VROOOM! By this time, I just wanted to get through the intersection (full of sand and loose gravel, btw) so I try first. OK, good, I have first. Pull off on the on-ramp shoulder, and try to figure out if it’s my boots being clunky or if there’s a problem.

Try shifting from 1 to 2. Keep hitting N! Try with boots. Try with my hand. How did I screw things up this bad in two weeks of riding? The shifter was really smooth!

Call my buddy. He tells me it’s probably the positive neutral. Tells me to put in neutral, start the bike, roll it a few feet, and then shift into first. Try it, and sure enough, I get into 2nd then 3rd. Pull off again, and text him that it worked, and I’m back on my merry old way.

And, of course, this has to happen 20 miles out of town, at the farthest point from any civilization in the ride.

[gsmurfette]

Has your shifter been hit from the side or had any kind of trauma (korny, I know)? Maybe the ratio/alignment are off. The only problem I had (today), I turned onto a fairly steep hill, and when I shifted into second, it popped into N after like 10-15 seconds. I wasn’t even high enough to shift into third. I tried it again (while still going up the hill), and it worked like a charm. I thought it was kind of odd, but it didn’t do it again. Sorry, I really don’t have anything else to offer.

[eternal05]

1) Like you said, the Ninja is equipped with a feature that makes it impossible to shift above neutral when the bike is stopped (or barely moving sometimes). Don’t try. It won’t work. However, you suggest that the first time you tried you were moving, so this only applies to the later attempts. Your other problem could be:

2) A missed shift. Sometimes if you don’t get the lever all the way to the next gear, or if, for some reason, you don’t clutch back in while the gear selector is in place, you can slip back into neutral. If it didn’t quite get all the way in, but you clutched out and gassed it, the pressure on the drivetrain from the engine can keep it in gear until you let off the throttle, at which point it slips out of gear. This can even happen going from 2nd->3rd, 3rd->4th, etc. There’s a really easy way to make sure this never happens. Change your shifting habits slightly:

1. Get off the throttle (normal)
2. Clutch in (normal)
3. Shift up, but keep the shift lever raised (different)
4. Clutch out, and NOW release pressure on the shift lever (different)
5. Get back on the gas

Do this and you’ll never miss a shift.

[Author]

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