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1999 R1100RS hard shift from 2nd to 3rd

skotlyc

skotlyc

New member
Good morning all! I've been riding my 99 R11RS for about 20,000 miles now (it has about 63000 on it currently) and I've just recently noticed that my shift from 2nd to 3rd gear has gotten a little rough. It feels like there is a step in between gears that I have to make sure I get past to get into 3rd gear. Ive trained myself in every other gear to make the thing shift very smoothly, but 2nd to 3rd is pretty rough. Preloading and high RPM's dont seem to make a difference. It does however seem to go away when its cold. Going down from 3rd into 2nd is no problem, in fact up and down in every other gear is nice and smooth (for a BMW) but 2nd to 3rd is the problem child. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Scott
 
Also, I forgot to mention, I just changed the tranny oil too thinking it would fix my problem, which it didn't. I put Bel-Ray 80W-90 Hypoid oil in.
 
skotlyc said:
Good morning all! I've been riding my 99 R11RS for about 20,000 miles now (it has about 63000 on it currently) and I've just recently noticed that my shift from 2nd to 3rd gear has gotten a little rough. It feels like there is a step in between gears that I have to make sure I get past to get into 3rd gear. Ive trained myself in every other gear to make the thing shift very smoothly, but 2nd to 3rd is pretty rough. Preloading and high RPM's dont seem to make a difference. It does however seem to go away when its cold. Going down from 3rd into 2nd is no problem, in fact up and down in every other gear is nice and smooth (for a BMW) but 2nd to 3rd is the problem child. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Scott
Click to expand...

skotlyc said:
Also, I forgot to mention, I just changed the tranny oil too thinking it would fix my problem, which it didn't. I put Bel-Ray 80W-90 Hypoid oil in.
Click to expand...

This could have been written by me, including the Bel-Ray 80W-90 Hypoid oil. Cold fine, but when hot it requires that I preload the shifter and make a quick shift. Been like that since I got the bike at 71,000 miles and continues now at 105,000 miles. When the spline lubes were done, I asked the mechanic to check for this shifting problem but I was told nothing was out of order. When you find a solution, please share the information.
 
Paul_F said:
This could have been written by me, including the Bel-Ray 80W-90 Hypoid oil. Cold fine, but when hot it requires that I preload the shifter and make a quick shift. Been like that since I got the bike at 71,000 miles and continues now at 105,000 miles. When the spline lubes were done, I asked the mechanic to check for this shifting problem but I was told nothing was out of order. When you find a solution, please share the information.
Click to expand...

This model does shift poorly between 2nd and 3rd. On the bright side BMW transmissions tend not to break.
 
A few bikes ago, I bought a new '97 1100. Since Day One, I was complaining that the shifting was crunchy between 2nd and 3rd, up or down. Trying three different tranny oils made zero difference. At about 20,000 miles, it actually started to reject the shift and drop into a false neutral between the gears. My shop was able to verify this every time. Finally BMW replaced my transmission under warranty (thank you!). We never got any word back as to "why" it happened, but apparently this run of trannys did indeed have this issue, mine wasn't the only one.
 
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