BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

Anyone ever have trouble finding neutral when stopped?
It occasionally happens to me, when trying to drop from 2- N while stopped it goes right in to first gear. Then when I try to go up to N, I get 2nd. after that, it only goes, 2-1-2-1.
Sometimes the gear indicator even goes blank? Not sure what that means?
This occurs only with a warmed up bike, but very intermittent.

I have a 2012 with 20,000 miles.

My '06 RT, and previous '05 ST, were much the same - I'm pretty sure that your bike's gearbox is very similar to them. Mine would work perfectly for ages, albeit in a much noisier fashion than many bikes, and then for no obvious reason be a pig for the odd day....very strange! I've also noticed that, like yours, every now and then it will go straight through neutral from second and clunk into first when I didn't want it to!
I put it down to a characteristic of the box and bike - perhaps 'they all do that sir', but someone more learned than me might come along in a while and identify a problem. I stopped worrying about it years ago! 

Pete

raider57 wrote: Anyone ever have trouble finding neutral when stopped?
It occasionally happens to me, when trying to drop from 2- N while stopped it goes right in to first gear. Then when I try to go up to N, I get 2nd. after that, it only goes, 2-1-2-1.
Sometimes the gear indicator even goes blank? Not sure what that means?
This occurs only with a warmed up bike, but very intermittent.

I have a 2012 with 20,000 miles.

I am not suggesting this is the solution or reason for your problem, but I suspect if you clean and lubricate the pivots, rose joints, and ensure the lever on the gearbox is tight on the spline, you might improve things.

Good idea. I see on the parts diagrams there are a few linkages involved between the foot lever and gear box itself.
I'll check those out. Possibly clean and lightly lubricate those parts.

raider57 wrote: Good idea. I see on the parts diagrams there are a few linkages involved between the foot lever and gear box itself.
I'll check those out. Possibly clean and lightly lubricate those parts.

I hope this helps:

bandytales wrote:
I hope this helps:

This is a common comment. The only  way it seems, to improve this is to select neutral whilst rolling. Nothing wrong with gearbox.

Rev it a bit and let the clutch out a bit, then try again, i t will find its own centre

I just let the clutch out a bit so that the bike rolls forward a few inches.  Then it drops right into neutral every time. 

raider57 wrote: Good idea. I see on the parts diagrams there are a few linkages involved between the foot lever and gear box itself.
I'll check those out. Possibly clean and lightly lubricate those parts.

I have long been an advocate of this maintenance task and mentioned it at least a couple of times on this forum, albeit with little or no response.
Definite improvement in gear change action after strip clean and lube. So this could help with the problem. It can be a little tricky removing and replacing the spring clips (item1) so care is needed as they are easily lost. Two ball joints and two locations where the shaft runs through the support holes in the frame to clean / lube.

Our Gee wrote:
I have long been an advocate of this maintenance task and mentioned it at least a couple of times on this forum, albeit with little or no response.
Definite improvement in gear change action after strip clean and lube. So this could help with the problem. It can be a little tricky removing and replacing the spring clips (item1) so care is needed as they are easily lost. Two ball joints and two locations where the shaft runs through the support holes in the frame to clean / lube.

I suppose it depends on just how bad the gearchange action is. Some 'problems' are just characteristics of a gearbox and clutch that are, shall we say, a bit agricultural. I did the linkage on my 1200ST 3 times in my ownership - it did nothing to alter the action, or the occasional reluctance to find neutral, or the propensity to, sometimes, go through neutral into 1st or 2nd when I didn't really want it to. What did make a difference was to alter my technique. As I said earlier, I just stopped worrying about it!  Cleaning and lubing is good practice anyway, as on all accessible moving parts, and worth a try, but if it doesn't make a difference.....they all do that sir!

Pete