when i roll up on a light i prefer to put it in neutral and take my hands of the bars.....lately i have been having a hard time finding neutral....it seems stuck and the force needed to move the shift lever causes it to fly by neutral and right into 2nd.....i then fiddle back and forth until i get frustrated and say f-it......if i turn off the motor it goes right into neutral......any ideas why this is happening????

 

Is this a new touchiness on a familiar bike?

I noticed all HDs have a different feel to easily finding the N.

I never have trouble on my dyna, yet on a Street Glide I was on I had to throttle slightly or roll it a little.

 

Adjust your clutch maybe?

 

Get to know your bike

 

Adjust your clutch, and put thicker oil in your tranny. I run Mobil-1 75/140.... smooth shifts... neutral is no problem.... it may help.

 

If the bike has been serviced just prior to you experiencing this difficulty finding neutral, pull the derby cover and check your fluid level.

Too much fluid can cause this symptom.

 

+1 on this advise... Same thing happened to me this spring.

 

If it feels as though it kind of clunks going into first , then you need to adjust your clutch .If you barely let the clutch lever out in first and it starts to walk, adjust the clutch. Trouble finding nuetral is always a symptom of clutch being out of adjustment.

 

+1 on adjusting the clutch. I just crossed the 9k mark and I've needed to adjust mine for about the last 500 miles.

It wouldn't hurt to check for overfull primary, but I'm assuming that this is a new occurrence on an older service since you mentioned that it's just been recently happening.

 

I've had this problem with a custom (Baker 5 speed)that I put a new clutch in so it may have nothing to do with the clutch or the fluid level of the primary.

The symptoms are exactly as you describe (both before and after the clutch change) so I'm still at a loss unless there is wear in the shifting forks which is the next thing I'm thinking of checking.