First gear jump

[ackeric]

I am a brand new xs-11 owner just leagel tags today. this my second bike my first was a beat 73 xs-2. Any one want to buy it cheap? Any way I have already learned alot from you guys. Clean my spooge hole on my sticky rear breakes and saved me alot of worry on my slipping starter clucth. I do miss my kick. The only thing that is worrys me now, other than going way to fast, ist when the bike is started the first time it lurchs when I put into grear. So much that I have to hold the bakes hard, it even has stalled a couple of times. After the fist jump it fine and will not go anywere untill a releas the clutch. Also once it fully warm it will not do this any more. I have adjust the cable every wich way. I still convined that carbs and transmissions work on voo doo will some please builed a diesal bike. Thanks

[ackeric]

Sorry about the spelling and grammer

[mitch]

clutch

If its been sitting the plates might be sticking, change the oil and run it a bit to free it up, when you pull the clutch on an XS it is recommended to wait 4 or 5 sec before dropping it in gear, gives things a chance to stop rotating. Their is an adjusting screw under the cover where the cable goes in. You remove the cover ,loosen the lock nut ,loosen the center screw, then turn it in till you feel it tighten up , then back it off about 1/8 of a turn. Then adjust the cable so you have 1/4 in of free play HTH..........MITCH

[ratbyk]

shifting into First

Ackeric, A trick I use and several other XS'rs is to avoid putting the bike in gear with the engine running. I will start my bike in neutral, allow it to warm up then shut it off, place in gear and restart. I hold my rear brake on as I restart to prevent it from lurching ahead.
By doing this every-time I avoid that crunch going into gear that I'm sure would eventually round off the shifter dogs for 1rst. Even after the bike has been run for awhile and everything is fully warmed up I still kill the engine if I have to shift from neutral into 1'st. A bit of preventative maintenance.
Ken/Sooke
78E Ratbyk
82 FT500 "lilRat"

[bkr]

!st gear jump

Hey Ken That is the answere i was about to give. Works real good on my XJ. Mitch used to have a XJ so he knows of what he speaks . bkr

[mitch]

rpms

What is your bike idling at when warmed up, should be 1000 t0 1100 at the most , just a afterthought......................MITCH
PS: dont forget to tighten the lock nut on the adj screw LOL

[vanhump]

SURE GLAD TO FIND THE INFO IN THIS THREAD. HAVE BEEN WORKING ON AN 80 XS11 PURCHASED ON EBAY AND THOUGHT THAT I HAD A MAJOR PROBLEM BUT LOOKS LIKE IT IS A NATURAL FOR THE BIKE. THE IDE FOR SHUTTIN OFF AND PUTTING INTO GEAR CURES EVEYTHIN. THE BIKE IS ALL ORIGINAL ,PAINT FAIRINGS , SADDLE BAGS AND ALL. BIGGEST PROBLEM THE RUSTED HEADERS. LOOKS LIKE NEW TIRES ARE THE ONLY THING ADDED SCINCE LEAVING THE FACTORY.

[John]

It almost sounds to me like there may be some plate warpage going on here. I have been riding ol' Twilite for 13 years, and have never experienced the lurching problem you guys are describing. I have even swapped engines about 7 years ago. I have an XJ engine in it right now, but I have done a 1179cc Big Bore to the original engine, and it's going back in this weekend. Anyway, I do have a noticable clunck when shifting into first, but that is just the gears engaging. I only need to squeeze my clutch lever a little bit before I have total disengagement, and I don't have any slippage problem either. If you want to check, remove the clutch cover, pull the clutch, and have the steel plates checked for any warpage.

[uk1.1s]

Lurching first - crunching gears

At the risk of sounding like the bad second hand bike salesman.... yeah they all do that.

Minimising routines vary from Kens switching off to just putting up with it.

I then to hold the clutch in for 10-20 seconds first in an attempt to let the difference between rotational speed of moving gearbox parts vs unmoving gearbox parts become less (or nothing maybe. I find the gears don't crunch and lurching isn't quite so bed then.....

Another (and 've tinkered with this to no effect on my bike) - reason may be that you have:

1. a badly set up clutch (easy to adjust) .....or

2. warped clutch plates (parts changing and a couple of hours to half a day of wrench twiddling).