Q: Hi there, first of all it’s great to see the time you take to answer all of these queries, so I'm hoping you can help with mine?
I recently purchased a Honda CBR 600F3 with 45km on the clock. I think the guy I bought it from was scared of it and that’s why he was selling it, he also had very little knowledge of motorbikes and his wife bought it for him. I took it for a nice test drive and the clutch and gears seemed to be nice and smooth, but I could see some work needed doing, as any bike of this age would.
Now comes the catch. Three weeks later I started to ride her more confidently because she's lighter and quicker than my old Suzuki RF.
But when I rev it hard to 10,000 rpm it pops out into neutral, I then have to pull in the clutch and let the revs die down and then gear up.
I did a bit of troubleshooting, as far as I know because I'm no expert, and the chain doesn't seem overly tight either. I tested it again, making sure I was engaging the gear firmly and properly but still it popped out! I can cruise through the gears quite easily, it's only when the bike is pulling hard. It’s also quite hard to get up over the 170 km/h range, but I haven't tried very hard because of the gear problem.
So do you have any trouble shooting tips you can recommend, please?
I've just moved to Ballito in Durban and don't know of any mechanics I can trust down here.
Tijn
A: 45km, perhaps you mean 45,000km? Anyway, first of all Tijn, make sure the gear lever and all of it’s linkages are nice and tight on the gearbox output shaft and not too ‘sloppy’. Also try and lower the gear lever a little to provide a more positive action.
Otherwise it could be very bad news because the selector dogs are possibly worn, which will cause it to jump out. If so you’ll have to take out the gearbox and have the offending gears undercut by a reputable engineering workshop – a lot of time and work. Does it happen in all gears or just second to third, for example?
Your bike should easily go past 170km/h. I’d check out the air filter to see if it’s old, blocked and/or full of dirt, which I would imagine it is, and new spark plugs might help as well. Or, if it’s been modified (exhaust and stuff), it could be running too lean and therefore needs bigger main jets and setting up correctly.
