Dang forward shift lever striped out on the way home tonight,
droped down so I couldnt use it. Had to finish the ride home in
5th gear, what a pain in the butt. You would think the rear would
wear out before the front since it is used more.

 

it's the damn bolts they put in the levers, they are soft, the newer ones are stronger, when you replace the lever if it where me I would go to the parts store and buy a good hard bolt to put in it, and wile your at it you might want to replace the bolt where the shift linkage connects to the transmission, if that one strips it's a bitch to fix.
Terry

 

I had this happen the end of September. Front shifter dropped as I was stopped, shifting into 1st in parking lot, on my way to neutral. Fortunately it happened in hotel parking lot after 400 mile ride to Panama City and Thunder Beach Rally. However, for temporary fix (nearest dealer 60 miles away) I simply took both shifters off, and moved back shifter to front giving me just the single shifter. Used it for 4 days in Panama City and the whole 400 miles home. Just took a 1/4" hex head wrench from tool kit and did the "repair" in less than 10 minutes. No reason to ride in 5th forever... unless you only had 1 shifter. Hmmmm... another reason to keep the back one installed?

 

We seem to cover this every week. When is the last time you took the bolts out and put some locktite on them and re-tightened with a good socket wrench, really tighten them? This should be done at least once per season. You can always reach down and lift the rear to get it in a lower gear. The trans lever came loose on my friends 09 so we took the allen bolt out and got a reg hex bolt 1" 5/16 24 so it could be tighten. The shift levers have a recess for the allen so as someone else said they have stronger bolts. I'm thinking of getting just the chrome hex bolt and trying that but haven't found small enough washer to fill the recess.

 

Haven't had a problem with my shift levers since I switched to the billet ones.

 

You can also grab the linkage and use that to shift. Back to go up a gear, forward to downshift.

Been there, done that.

 

I used never seize on bolt. With a crisp edged allen wrench and muscle tightened, well. I check both up and down lever often and carried allen wrench in saddle bags until sure won't come loose.

 

Dude...not being critical here but do you ever look your bike over before you ride it? Those levers don't just suddenly strip themselves out. They have to be very loose for quite sometime to accomplish what you described. And if you think about it the front and rear levers wear at an even rate since there is a down shift for every corresponding up shift. The levers will virtually never wear out if they are kept tight. If you use blue loctite remove the bolt and apply fresh loctite before you re-tighten them or the old loctite on the threads will give you a false torque reading (it'll seem tight when it isn't). Or you can use anti-sieze as I do and avoid that issue altogether. Check 'em every time you service and they'll never strip or fall off. Mine have never loosened using anti-sieze.

 

Not true, when my wife and I went to the grand canyon this summer I stripped the heal shifter, I thought the same thing but I had to crank on the allen bolt to get it loose, so I guess the softer metal in the shifters can just ware out!!!
Terry

 

Most of the time I find the bolt(s) tight but the lever(s) loose.
The levers stretch. For this reason I suggest anti-seize on the bolt's threads and under the head so it can turn in the lever to get it good and tight without friction to stop it.
The spring tension on the lever at the slot will keep the bolt from coming loose.
Then each service check the bolt to see if the lever stretched. If so a little tightening will do the trick. If you used locktite you will not be able to check for stretch without removing the bolt and re-applying locktite each time you check it.
This procedure should also apply to the shift lever on the tranny.
HTH,
Bob