1971 R60/5 shifting issues

I've been having a blast riding the ( new to me) R60 but down shifting has been a bit of a challenge. It is restored bike with 750 jugs and carbs, 500miles on the engine, 75,000 miles on the clock, not sure about the tranny...
Upshifts are smooth and easy every time but downshifts are spotty.
I know the bikes are known for being notchy but it should be a bit easier than this. I've tried preloading and blipping the throttle to synch the engine and tranny speeds and it seems to help a bit but many times it goes from third into a false neutral. Today I got into neutral, with the light off, so false neutral, and then the bike would not go into gear up or down. I pushed it off the road and played with the shifter until it finally engaged and got into first gear. It worked perfectly after that for the rest of the ride approx. 20 miles of stop and go. no missed downshifts at all. strange. I guess the only thing to do is to remove the tranny and get it looked at.
Any ideas of what could be the cause?

Thank you

The picture suggests its running a little lean

Not to change the subject but the left exhaust header seems to be a little more blue than I would be comfortable with, you might want to make sure the carbs are synced, correct spark plugs and richen it up a little.

Now for the uncomfortable down shift issue. I wouldn't panic on the clunky shift and poor quality down shift especially with and old airhead. None of my /2's or airheads like the hard down shift to slow down. Even my newer bikes, 03 1100S, GSA, HP-2 E and R 9T hate to be down shifted and all clunk up shifting 65% of the time, its the nature of the beast. You simply should not run these bikes up and down the range of gears the way you would with most other bikes its not good for them.

Use the brakes to slow down and slowly and gently but firmly down shift as needed according to ground speed and road conditions.

If the shift lever is hard to move on down shifts, the transmission input splines need lubing.

roncooper said:

If the shift lever is hard to move on down shifts, the transmission input splines need lubing.

Click to expand...

+1 what Ron suggested ��

69zeff65 said:

Not to change the subject but the left exhaust header seems to be a little more blue than I would be comfortable with, you might want to make sure the carbs are synced, correct spark plugs and richen it up a little.

Now for the uncomfortable down shift issue. I wouldn't panic on the clunky shift and poor quality down shift especially with and old airhead. None of my /2's or airheads like the hard down shift to slow down. Even my newer bikes, 03 1100S, GSA, HP-2 E and R 9T hate to be down shifted and all clunk up shifting 65% of the time, its the nature of the beast. You simply should not run these bikes up and down the range of gears the way you would with most other bikes its not good for them.

Use the brakes to slow down and slowly and gently but firmly down shift as needed according to ground speed and road conditions.

Click to expand...

My concern was mostly that the transmission got stuck in neutral and would not go into any gear up or down. Does that mean there is something wrong and I should not ride the bike or is that normal? My 77 r100rs is clunky but never did this and my 1981 R100cs is very smooth up and down.
Thanks

Louie -

If the transmission is stuck in one gear, then it sounds like you have a problem. Namely, the $0.50 pawl spring has broken. Search these pages for the word "pawl".

http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/transmission.htm
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/emergency-shifting-tool.htm

Pawl spring

20774 said:

Louie -

If the transmission is stuck in one gear, then it sounds like you have a problem. Namely, the $0.50 pawl spring has broken. Search these pages for the word "pawl".

http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/transmission.htm
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/emergency-shifting-tool.htm

Click to expand...

The pawl spring problem only occurs with the 5-speed transmission.
Another possibility with the 4-speed is that the eccentrics that adjust the shift forks may not have been adjusted correctly.

Noted, Bruce. I'll have to remember that!

Thanks guys,
I got the bike to go back into gear by rolling it back and forth, engine off, and playing with the shifter. After it went into gear, it worked fine for many shifts.
I just spoke to the airhead mechanic who put the bike together and he said the problem is that I am shifting too softly. The older airheads should be shifted firmly with more force than the newer 5-speed transmissions.
He said if I am too gentle on the down shift, the gears won't engage properly and hence the false neutral between 2nd and 3rd. It is supposed to sound loud and clanky. lol.
Since it went into gear and is shifting fine now, there probably isn't anything wrong with it I'm told.
"drive it like you stole it" lol.

cheers

Louie

Drive it like you stole it generally doesn't fly well on these old machines. You'll probably find down shifting easier once you learn the engine rpm that matches the speed/gear you're trying get into.

Pre-loading the gear selector is an "up shift" technique. RPM-matching (not "blipping") is down shift; almost a necessity when dropping into first (if you're inclined to down shift that far).

Not sure, but I have found that my (R100/7) shifting worked better when I took a little more slack out of the clutch cable. This opens up the clutch a little farther and offers less "drag" on the shifting mechanism. Be careful, though, taking too much slack out could keep the clutch partially open maybe causing slipping under normal loads.