Putting in Gear Cold

I tried the search function and did not find an answer.

2014A appox 4100 miles. I bought this as a new left over last June. Traded my 03fjr in on it.

If the bike sits for 2 or 3 days, when I drop it into first to leave the driveway, it slams like the clutch is not released completely.

After that first time it is fine. If I am able to ride every day it doesn't seem to have a problem. Only if it sits a couple of days. the longer it sits the worse it is. I don't remember this with my 03.

thanks

Start it in gear? (Keep the rear brake on hard. Some will moan about loading the starter motor.)

Change the oil? (Possibly too thick when cold)

Bleed the clutch hydraulics? (Insufficient clutch movement combined with cold oil)

Clutch soak? (Plates sticking because of lack of oil.)

just ride it & don't worry about it????

^^what Heidi said^^

Or you could just pull in the clutch, and before banging it In to gear, you can blip the throttle to break the clutch plates free. Wait a second and then put it in gear nicely.

Do a search on the term "kerchunk" either from the search entry at the top of the page, or from Google, Here's how

You will find that this is merely a common "endearing feature" of our beloved FJRs.

My old Concours liked to be started in gear, clutch pulled.

A lot of my vintage bikes have sticky clutch plates. Oil film on perfectly smooth surfaces can sometimes glue that stuff together.

As low mileage as your bike is, you might see what your dealer could do under warranty.

As long as it doesn't leap forward when you do it, I wouldn't worry.

Had exact same problem with my 14, clutch soak done by dealer at no cost to me solved the problem.

Mechanic said inside clutch plates looked like chewing tobacco.

My '05 had the kerchunks all through my tenure. I bought that bike used at 10k miles in 2006, and since day 1 it did it. At one point I convinced myself that it was excessive, so I pulled the clutch cover, and all the clutch plates and did the soak. Put it all back together and there was absolutely zero difference. Ar least it only cost me the price of a gasket, and even that could have been foregone.

Fast forward 8 years and ~ 90k miles of constant kerchunking with no ill effect, I upgraded the old girl to a 2014ES. From the first day I took the new bike home it has snicked into gear from neutral almost all the time. Only very rarely, maybe only after sitting extraordinarily long, it will make the kerchunk, but that is now the exception rather than the rule.

So what does all this mean? Not much really. The noise doesn't seem to bother the transmission. Other than being slightly annoying I don't think I would worry too much about it.

Did I mention yet? YMMV.

It's fun to be at a gathering of FJR's and listen to the crescendo of crashing gears as everybody hits first gear at the same time. Mine did it for over 100k and still does it for the new owner cause he called and asked about it.

My '03 did it WORSE than my '13... but they both do it when cold.

I was told ' pull in the clutch and count to 3 (slowly)(blip the throttle if you want) then snick it into gear'.

The other option (besides starting it in gear) is to up-shift to second. Always smooth, and this big girl can do most anything in 2nd!

JIMMY REB said:

I tried the search function and did not find an answer.

Click to expand...

What did you search on? I find many hits when you search on "clunk".

My '05 has 170,000 miles and still does this. My other '05 with 70,000 did it. My '14 did it....just less often or with less clunk.

FJRay said:

It's fun to be at a gathering of FJR's and listen to the crescendo of crashing gears as everybody hits first gear at the same time. Mine did it for over 100k and still does it for the new owner cause he called and asked about it.

Click to expand...

Like this?

My 2015 ES with 610 miles does this a bit, but nothing like our Beemers! Pull in the clutch for 5 seconds and there still is a heck of a clunk. The FJR is so much more refined!

rPGoatBoy said:

FJRay said:

It's fun to be at a gathering of FJR's and listen to the crescendo of crashing gears as everybody hits first gear at the same time. Mine did it for over 100k and still does it for the new owner cause he called and asked about it.

Click to expand...

Like this?

Click to expand...

Yep my 04 does it also. If I start it in neutral and back out of the garage into the driveway a bit while holding the clutch in I can slip it into 1st without too much of a kerchunk but most of the time it sounds just like that video! That was awesome!!

Kerchunk, kerchunk, kerchunk!! Very cool! LOL

My 60K ’05 clunks into first too.. it’s normal and nothing unique to FJRs.

Here’s what I do for my morning start, cold engine: fire it up and it goes to its normal high/cold idle.

I spend about 30 seconds getting my gloves on while the high idle starts to come down.

Then, I hold the clutch in for about 15-20 seconds and then it drops into gear with only a tiny clunk.

Funny thing, this does NOT work when it’s hot (at least the idle is lower).

This was one of things I had to get used to with this being my first Injected bike… I couldn’t control the high idle (previous bikes had choke lever and I could bring idle down before dropping it into first, reducing the clunk).

The other thing, if your drive way or starting point is downhill, ANY forward motion of the bike (and therefore the transmission) will reduce the clunk into first (get rolling then drop it into gear). Of course, some folks have had good results with a clutch soak too.

Regards,

Mr. BR

Mine goes kerchink. Should I be concerned?

My FJR never screams when I pull her clutch, I think she likes it!!!!

Cold, nine times out of ten, I have to rock my '15 back and forth to get it in gear and then just snicks in. After warming up it's about 50/50 need to rock it and snick or the more normal FJR ker-clunk.

My '09 behaved similar to the '15, the others were always ker-clunk.

--G