[gwaihir]

I had a dead battery on my Mean Streak and wanted to start the bike rolling downhill. Being not successful in 1st, I wanted to try 2nd or higher. It was not possible.

With running engine shifting to 2nd is not as smooth as I have it on other bikes.
However I got used to it. I already adjusted the lever, it got better but still not perfect.

It there a way to improve it further ?
Should it be possible to shift into 2nd while engine stopped ?

 

[andyvh1959]

Yes you should be able to shift the bike into 2nd gear with the bike stationary and the engine off. But, Vulcans feature a positive neutral finder. When the bike is stopped in 1st gear, it helps the rider get into neutral with just a lift of the gearshift lever. Perhaps on your bike it is slightly more stiff in operation. Does your bike have very low miles? Perhaps the shifting will improve with additional miles. Perhaps consider using synthetic oil?

When you say you adjusted the lever I assume you mean adjusting the gearshift lever linkage to take out excess play?

Could also be the clutch. If the clutch is partially engaged even with the lever fully pulled in it will make shifting with the bike stationary difficult. Is the clutch fluid level correct?

 

[gwaihir]

The got the bike with 26000km last year. I replaced all fluids including clutch.
I adjusted the gear shift lever play and position. I found that my foot did not release it before adjustment.
I could check the clutch. Normally I would expect that the clutch is more a problem while the engine is running.
I had such trouble on another bike. There I couldn't switch to neutral because the clutch wasn't completely released.

My oild is semi synthetic, as I heard, that full synth may cause trouble on some bikes.