Is there any? Just got my new V100S, running in. 180 miles on clock, and the gearbox seems to be loosening up a bit…except that on a couple of occasions, after coming to a halt, the bike won’t shift from 1 to N - it just hangs in a false neutral and if you push the pedal down again, it goes back into 1 with a massive “clunk”!
If you move forward a bit, you can then select N as usual, but a bit “crunchy”?
Is this to be expected or does it presage something horrible?
I’ve heard of a couple of V100s that have had to go back in for warranty work on the gearbox - hope I’m not going to be another!
ride it hard, and use the gearbox a lot , that should free things up, do not go adjusting things, it is still under warranty
My Breva had an awful gearchange, especially when cold, the Engineer told me to rev it more and use the gears more
after about 5K it all loosened up nicely
My Ducati was plagued with false neutrals for the first 5000 miles or so. That was really what I was comparing the V100 to. Gear selection doesn’t seem to be an issue so far. I’ve read your trials and tribulations with a degree of concern; desperately hoping that mine won’t follow suit.
Hey, @Speedy23! I’ve started another thread about the clutch and gearbox behaviour - “Stelvio clutch for the Mandello?” - but could you say a bit more about this “too much Loctite” issue?
Also, I’m trying to visualise what you mean by a false neutral, as opposed to the real neutral. Any further details would be appreciated - I’m keen to get on top of this.
A motorcycle gearbox operates on the principle that the various gear ratios are achieved by means of selector forks sliding the gear pinions along either the mainshaft or layshaft in the gearbox. The sliding pinions lock into position by means of “dogs” machined into the pinion body.
When the motorcycle is in “proper” neutral, there is no continuity of drive from the input to the output shaft of the gearbox. The input side spins, but the output side does not. All sliding pinions have moved through the full range of movement. Neutral is “usually” located between 1st and 2nd gear.
A “false” neutral is sometimes encountered when the pinions do not fully slide along their respective shafts thus not allowing the “dogs” to properly engage, thus precluding continuty of drive. This is commonly due to wear or poor assembly, and false neutrals can be encountered in positions other than between first and second.
When these bikes were fairly new, several people (including myself) found that their bikes would not select neutral from first and that the gear position indicator would wig out.
When the bikes were repaired under warranty, Piaggio stated that the cause of this particular fault was that “too much loctite” was applied to the selector mechanism at first assembly.
I suspect that my big-end failure was caused by an oilway that was blocked by a lump of this surplus loctite, possibly liberated during the initial repair, and the fact that the engine and gearbox share a common supply of oil has only stoked my suspicion.
AS FAR AS I KNOW, there have been no other big end failures in this engine, but as I say, its as far as I know.
While all this was going on, the gearchange was not too bad - it did not require excessive force to change gear and apart from the neutral issue it was fairly normal for a shaft-drive bike.
Thanks. This is the bit I was thinking about. I understand how false neutrals appear between gears, such as 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to 4th, and so on. As you say, if the pinions don’t slide far enough to engage the dogs then you have a false neutral.
Where I’m struggling conceptually is between 1st and 2nd, where there is already a “real” neutral. How does that differ from the “false” neutral you reported between 1st and 2nd?
Don’t forget I wrote that after just getting the bike. I only had about 150 miles on it.
What I meant was that the bike was in “a” neutral beween 1st & 2nd but that the selection didn’t feel “right” and the gear position indicator would either show “2” or toggle between “1” and “2” without the lever being touched.
And the selection around that part of the box was a bit “crunchy”, IYKWIM.
But a visit to the dealer sorted it out…with the “excess loctite” story being proffered.
All was well, until the engine dropped the big-end.
