False neutral

New Member here and need some info
I puchased a used 2003 R1150RS in september with 2300 miles. The odometer now has 4700 miles on it. At about 3500 miles I started to experience randomly( It has happened about 7 times) the transmission not going into 4th gear.It felt as though it was during shifting, I would let out the clutch during normal shifting and the engine would rev and the I just pull in the clutch reshift and everything was fine. Now I encountered a new related problem that the transmission popped out of fourth into this false neutral causing the motor to rev. Is this a sign of the problem getting worse? Has any one experienced this? I am weary about taking this to any dealer as I have read and heard mixed opinions on the quality of some dealers. I bought the bike at Bob's BMW and is still under warranty but that is a long way from southeastern Connecticut. Does anyone have experience with any New England dealers? The one near Portland, Maine I have heard good things about. Thanks in advance

Ian

I get a false neutral between the higher gears on occasion with my '03 R1150R. I've got nearly 16,000 miles on it, it's never gotten any better or worse because I feel the issue is my fault when it happens. In my experience, you've got to be somewhat more forceful with the BMW shifter than, say, some of the Japanese bikes with their sewing-machine smooth action. These trannies are just somewhat "clunky" to use a technical term. If you get a little lazy on the shift lever, that is, you don't toe it quite all the way up to the stop when up-shifting that's when I get the false-neutral or sometimes the dropping back into the next lower gear.

I hope this helps, as you can see I'm a little new to this forum as well but hopefully one of the knowledgable gurus here will chime in with their 2 cents. If you really feel there's a legitimate problem with the operation of your bike, you shouldn't be afraid to take it back to the dealership to have it checked out... especially if it's under warranty. With regards to good vs. bad dealerships, you'll never be able to form your own informed opinon if you don't have any experience first-hand. Good luck!

ah, the endless thread on "proper BMW shift techniques". now, where to begin??
bring the revs up to 5K or beyond (really, this is very important, especially in 4th and 5th gears ). prior to shifting, put very gentle foot pressure under the shifter (generally known as "preloading the shifter"). roll off throttle, barely squeeze clutch (maybe 1/2 way at most), firm pull on the lever- that means that you don't punch it into gear, you press it in. release clutch, roll back on throttle. of course, the time it took to write this you would have gone up & down the full shift pattern 2 or 3 times. it's done quickly.
you'll get the hang of it, eventually.
as to your other question- Cliff's down in Danbury is excellent. Nice people, top quality wrenches, and if you can get Francis in parts to smile, well, life is good!

i've owned 3 bmw's and they do need a bit more force to shift. i also use synthetic gear oil to help it a bit. i also noticed that some boots affect shifting too. if the boot isn't very supportive, or God forbide your not wearing a boot, i've noticed that i have to lift my foot higher to get a positive shift in. i live in southwestern ct and both the westchester, ny and danbury, ct dealers are very good. i would really try making a more positive shift or preloading the shifter before bringing it to a dealer to repair something that may not be an issue.

pete

Max's in Portsmouth is the best NE dealer.

Thanks for letting me know that caressing my sweet piece of German engineering is not the proper way to treat her. I will be a more forceful with the little vixen as soon as this little storm passes.
Also thanks for the dealer recommendations hope to meet some of you folks face to face some day and y'all can fill me in on some more BMW idiosyncrasies

Ian

PRELOAD,PRELOAD,PRELOAD,PRELOAD,and for six speeds,PRELOAD!!!

I've always had a problem on my 04 RT shifting from 1st to 2nd and having the darn thing hang into neutral. I've kind of adapted to it by doing all the right stuff and it still will catch me on occasions.

I just bought a new Suzuki SV650S last month and this bike shifts like butta so there's truth about Japanese bikes shifting well. This style riding demands more preloading the shift lever and one trick shown to me by a racer was to pull the shift lever with two fingers. If you pull the shift lever in with your index and middle finger, your last two fingers end up between the lever and the grip blocking it from being pulled in all the way. It takes the thinking out of just trying to pull it in slightly.

Good luck at the dealer. I'd be curious as to the verdict.

I don't know that "forceful" would be the operative term. Maybe firm and deliberate. You have to let the bike know that you are in charge, not the other way around. There are some machines that require constant reminders.

false neutrals???

Yup I get one rarely,seems to happen later in the day when I'm tired or having a blond moment..sooo I'm assuming its me . Synthetic gear oyl helps,lubing clutch splines helps briefly[esp. on k-bikes]..WOW somone out there operates the shift lever w/their left hand!!!I shift w/o the clutch a lot,yrs. o truckin,however if yer operating the shift lever w/yer hand ya ain't even faning the clutch lever..A tip o the helmet to you sir...

When you change gears....do it as if your life depends on it.

Cause......ya just never know. That car behind you, just might be closer than you think.......

That car behind you, just might be closer than you think.......
WHAT car behind me??

I'll occasionally miss the shift from first to second, but the higher gears are never a problem, up or down. I think you have a transmission problem, and I'd get it checked and on the record while it's still under warranty.

I just noticed that no one mentioned using full-synth. lube in the tranny.

I switched to MOBIL 1 75w/90 at my 600 mile service (read 1200 miles).

The tranny was noticably smoother shifting from that point on.

My 2000 R1100RS also finds that false neutral in the higher gears occassionally. If I remember to preload the transmission seems to help a lot I just have to rethink shifting. If you continue to have the problem of the transmission "popping" out of gear you should have that looked into. I had a 74 R90S years ago that would pop out of first gear make an awful noise I thought gears were shredded. Took it to dealer they pulled the transmission apart and found nothing wrong put it back together again and charged me appox $600.00 It still poped out of gear so I ended up taking the whole thing apart for my self thinking the dealer didn't do anything just charged me a lot of money. Well I be darn got the transmission apart and I couldn't see anything wrong either. Rats. Not being a real good mechanic I ended up taking the transmission back to dealer in box so they could put it back together again, this time they went ahead and replaced first gear and a gear selector thingy and it worked fine after that. only charged me $500.00 second time.