696 Sporatic Shifting Issues

[Amlethae]

Hey guys,

At the moment this is simply more of an annoyance than anything else, but I figure I'd post about it and see if anyone had any thoughts.  Every now and then... completely unpredictably... my 696 will have trouble up-shifting out of 2nd gear.  It'll take me up to 5 up shifts before getting into third and the only way I know I'm still in 2nd is when I let the clutch out.  The shifter pedal feels like I should be shifting, but I'm not.  It's rather crazy.  Also this may be the case on my ride in to work/school in the morning and not be an issue at all on the ride home, and some times it's the reverse... and other times it's perfectly fine all day.  I've tried keeping track of the weather and temperature and warming up the bike etc but there's really no corellation with the problem and any external forces that I can see. 

Sooooo any thoughts?  Anything I should check on the bike itself?  Anything maybe I could tighten just to keep this from rearing its head again?  Anything?

Thanks for the help!

[Speeddog]

Has the bike been dropped on the left side?

I'm pretty sure you're still under warranty.
Have you talked to a dealer about it?

The internal shift mechanism may not be adjusted correctly.

[Amlethae]

I'm pretty certain that I've only dropped it on its right side... I could be wrong about that.  Been almost a year since I've dropped it -- but being my first bike I dropped it 4 times in the first month I owned it.  Next time the weather is nice enough to take it by the dealer I'll go over and talk to them about it.  Any thoughts on anything I can check externally on the bike prior to that?  Thanks for the input!

[Speeddog]

Make sure the external shift mechanism isn't binding on anything.

It's not likely that the external stuff is the problem, as you only have problems with the 2-3 shift, but it's good to rule it out.

[zLoki]

I've had some sporadic issues similar to yours but I just figured my foot was getting lazy from time to time.  Happens maybe once every 500 miles.  I've also found a neutral in between 4th and 5th, very rare, maybe four or five times in the last 5k miles

[moto]

[atomtbomb]

I've had some sporadic issues similar to yours but I just figured my foot was getting lazy from time to time.  Happens maybe once every 500 miles.  I've also found a neutral in between 4th and 5th, very rare, maybe four or five times in the last 5k miles

I've also run into nuetral between 4th and 5th a few times, and have also had an issue where I can't find nuetral at all - the transmission simply jumps between first and second.  Riding around and popping up through a few gears and then back down seems to bring things back to normal. 

[tuanogus]

I've also found a neutral in between 4th and 5th, very rare, maybe four or five times in the last 5k miles

Yep, me too. Not sure it was between 4 and 5, but definitely not between 1 and 2. Happened once during my break-in period (still < 600 miles). Other than that incident no problems to report.

Regarding the OP: not sure if you adjusted the shift lever. Just make sure everything is snug down there. Probably not the issue, though, because it would happen shifting into other gears too (presumably).

[Amlethae]

Well I just got a moment to go look at the lever on the bike and found that the bolt holding the lever to the frame had come quite loose and the lever was very floppy side to side... no idea how long it's been like that.  I tightened it up as much as I could and next time I get a chance to go riding I'll update this post on whether or not that fixed the problem.  50/50 chance at that being the cause I'm assuming.

Thanks for all the help!