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Ive had my 2003 A for about a month now, I bought it with 9k miles,runs perfect but when shifting from 1st to 2n i get a heavy clanking noise all other shifts are fine, Should i be concerned?
Probably not. 1st and 5th gearsarehelical cutand 2-4 are spiral cut. What causes this is the transfer between two types of gears, but it seems to occur only when moving slowly. They (H-D) say it is natural in all of their bikes to have the "clunk" from 1st to 2nd.
I get the same "clunk" from 1st to 2nd, more so when I'm gunning it but it's no worse than my mate's BMW R1200 in fact his shifts sound like you've just trodden on your grannie's false teeth! I had
dark thoughts about my clutch which feels quite rough in slower traffic especially when feeding it in but I guess that's down to me not being in the correct gear for the roadspeed and conditions, my riding technique may need adjusting to the feel of the Hydraulic clutch.
My 06 VRSCD Does that too. 1->2 shift makes a pretty solid thunk. I think it has more to do with 'transiting' neutral than the gear cut types. Indeed my '06 isn't the only bike I've ridden that does that.
Well it's not the gears clunking anyway. They're constantly meshed, just like in a modern car transmission. The noises all come from the dog gear/dog collar as it slides into the gear face. 1->2 might not have a synchronizer in it which is what causes the extra noise if the engine speeds aren't very close to the new gear speeds (there's always some clutch drag). The transmissions are all synchromesh but may or may not have gear synchronizers between the gears....that I don't know because I don't know enough about harley's drive system heh. I could probably ask one of the mechanics over at the dealership next time I'm there and get an affirmative answer.
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