This seems to happen at least once on a 15-25 mile ride.

I stop at a red light in neutral, when the light turns green; I stomp down to shift into first. But the shifter doesn’t feel like it’s in the right position, it feels like the shifters position is already in first (but its not). I stomp on it, but it won’t click down.

To remedy the situation I click up to second without moving, and then click down to first which seems to engage at this point.

Is this somewhat common? Is it a symptom of another issue?

 

What is happening is that you are not fully engaging neutral and the selectors are betwixt and between. My wife suffers this when riding our Sportster. I personally have never suffered it, but partly because I engage neutral when I can, while still moving.

Is it common? It is known! Improve your riding technique, which may come as the miles roll by. You may have a little clutch drag which can add to the problem, so try adjusting it, to see if you can improve things.

 

I think that most happens when you come to a stop in lets say 3rd. Then you click a few down to neutral. Then your in the position gbrown mentioned above. To fix that be in neutral BEFORE stopping or better yet be in first at a stop. The only time Im in neutral at a stop is if I have to reposition my package or something

 

Good point Rog about stopping in a higher gear. It's no problem in a car with a manual trans, but on a bike it is best IMHO to go down through the ears while rolling, so when selecting neutral you're either in 1st or 2nd, if and when coming to a stop (if not already in neutral!).

 

It's good practice to leave it in first while at a light anyways for those "oh crap" moments when you notice that a car will fail to stop in time behind you. Leaving it in gear helps with your reaction time in launching out of the way. Those accidents happen frequently unfortunately. While at a light in gear, keep an eye on your rear view mirror until you at least see some cars already stopped behind you. Then you can put it in neutral if you like. If you have problems then, rock it back and forth a little.

 

I shift into neutral at lights unless I expect it to turn right away. Some of the lights around here take an eternity to change.

I shift down relative to my speed. Going down through 4 gears at 45mph just doesn't work on my bike. Get it into neutral while rolling and have both my feet free when I stop.

 

got same problem (lost 1st gear) when I was trying to shift down to 1st gear while the bike speed was above 20mph. With high speed, it is hard to shift to 1st gear, so I shift to nature intsead and end up I lost 1st gear. Now I only shift down to 1st gear when bike comes close to stop completely.

I got this habit to shift to 1st gear while at high speed with my honda bike. It is not good beacuse i could damage the clutch plate if I release clutch lever at the speed.