Posted by Bruce Clarke on February 08, 2000 at 16:31:05:
In Reply to: Gear Shift Roughness posted by Mike on February 08, 2000 at 15:33:51:
>When shifting from fourth to fifth gear, I
>sometimes feel a sticking or hesitation in the
>shift lever, i.e., a double click going into
>fifth. This doesn't always occur, and it doesn't
>seem to matter how long I've been riding. Has
>anyone else had this problem?
YES. This problem has been mentioned several times before, and is a very common problem with the five speed Savages. Mine has done this since new. I took my 650 back to the dealership where I bought it and let the mechanic test ride it. He shifted it several times to 5th on a halk-hour highway ride and told me that it only happened to him once.
After talking with the head office for Suzuki Canada, he basically shrugged his shoulders and said that Suzuki wouldn't cover the fix for this under warranty - it would involve a lot of work to take the engine out of the frame and tear down the transmission, and they just wouldn't pay for what they claimed was my "poor shifting technique".
I wasn't very happy with that response, but I've since put 13,000 miles on the bike and the problem is exactly the same as when new - no better, but no worse either. And yes, I tried shifting more smoothly, higher revs, etc. I've never had any problems with shifting on other bikes, so I think there is just some kind of flaw with the 5th gear that Suzuki doesn't want to pay a lot of bucks to fix.
>Is it a problem?
IMHO, it's annoying, but not a major problem. I've just learned to live with it.
>The dealer thinks it's just a matter of time
>before normal wear will eliminate the
>hesitation.
Well, my Savage has about 13,000 miles on it and it still does it, so I think you can tell your dealer he's wrong.