'05 Gear shift ..

[NightCrawler]

Well tonight when I left work I decided to get a bit more practice at launching with my new 16/43 setup. There is a long dead road nearby and that's where I went. I hit a a few times and decided it was time to go. Well I headed towards the main road where a red light caught me. I kicked it down to first, pulled in the clutch, and came to a stop. The light turns green, I make my left turn, go to kick it into second .... and couldn't! My foot was kicking nothing but air!

I pulled in the clutch, rolled to the side of the road, came to a full stop, and hit the kill switch. When I looked down I noticed I didn't have a gearshift. IMMEDIATLY all the '05 gearshift related posts came to my mind and the one thing that stuck out was that they all just dangled there ... they didn't fall off of the actual bike.

Well I placed my kickstand down, dismounted the bike, and took a look. Sure enough there it was justa danglin' away. I threaded it back in and rode home where I then made sure to slap some locktite on it.

I remember seeing so many posts of the '05s having this issue but it mostly happened within the first 1000 miles. Seeing as how I was WAAAY past that when I first read about it, I thought I avoided that issue. Guess not! 11,200 miles and it finally happened.

I guess since Suzuki made the '05s faster than every other year they figured they had to give them some sort of flaw ...

[frisbee]

I had the same thing happen to mine about a year ago . I got it back together and rode to work and when I got home put on the locktight.

[greyrocket]

that sucks my 03 with 29k not a problem my 08 with 220miles is way sweet

[twotonevert]

Wow, had not seen that issue, will check my 05 tonight!

[PDBusa]

Got me at beginning of this year too. I was going into a corner and went to kick it down when I got that "air shift feeling".
Friendly reminder to be a bit more thorough during pre-flight inspection.

[bigoltool]

Were you running stock pegs? I found out the hard way after I put on my Buell pegs that when I adjusted the shifter down far enough to get my Big ol size 14 under there that there weren't many threads left on the adjustment rod. I also made myself a custom Shifter wrench to tighten the rear locknut while the shifter is still on the bike. Just took an old 10mm box end and cut a throat into it so it can slip over the adjuster rod and slide back to the nut with little trouble. Hassn't come loose since but I did lose a circlip off the shifter the other day.

[NightCrawler]

Were you running stock pegs? I found out the hard way after I put on my Buell pegs that when I adjusted the shifter down far enough to get my Big ol size 14 under there that there weren't many threads left on the adjustment rod. I also made myself a custom Shifter wrench to tighten the rear locknut while the shifter is still on the bike. Just took an old 10mm box end and cut a throat into it so it can slip over the adjuster rod and slide back to the nut with little trouble. Hassn't come loose since but I did lose a circlip off the shifter the other day.

Yes, stock pegs. It didn't come off from the adjustment rod. The bolt which hold the circlip unthreaded itself.

Bolt #32

The adjustment rod (#28) is actually what kept it from completely falling off of the bike.

[rubber2burn]

I had that happen on my 02 it was kind of freaky trying to shift with nothing there. I will have to keep an eye on my 05 and hope to catch it before it happens.

[bigoltool]

Yes, stock pegs. It didn't come off from the adjustment rod. The bolt which hold the circlip unthreaded itself.

Bolt #32

The adjustment rod (#28) is actually what kept it from completely falling off of the bike.

Well that I have not seen. Wow that must have been an eye opener!

[Revolution]

thanks for the reminder!