[Daddy V]

Hey everyone,
I've clocked about 4k km on my interceptor 650. The 1st to 2nd shift is still hard and loud. Any of you face the same issue? Any idea what may be causing this?

[GSS]

It might be time to have your dealer or another experienced RE owner take a look.  There should be no hard or loud stuff....better to get it checked before there is serious damage to the gears.  Thanks.

[hadujorganic]

Hey everyone,
I've clocked about 4k km on my interceptor 650. The 1st to 2nd shift is still hard and loud. Any of you face the same issue? Any idea what may be causing this?

Same here, most of the time. Sometimes the shift slips smoothly and silently into 2nd but that's the exception.

[NuttyRusty]

Daddy v,  is that 4 thousand kilometres.   I recently posted a view that the GT has a more positive gear change than the Interceptor, which can only be the linkage / leverage.  Assuming that your chain is adjusted correctly ?  If owners could give us thumbs up or down on both models we could solve a common problem. As a last thought,  has anybody had a gearbox failure?

[Tuchulcha]

My interceptor slips out of second into neutral quite often when it's fully warmed up.  Annoying.
There's also a fairly loud click when downshifting from 2nd to 1st.

[darmahman]

My Interceptor shifts like butter, cold, warm, or hot.

[BRG-BIRD]

Mine shifted hard, gritty and unpleasant for the first few hundred miles. It now has 900 miles and the last 300 miles saw the shifting change over to smooth and slick shifting like they were advertised. There must be something wrong with yours

[beagle]

Does the cable need adjusting up a bit. They can stretch a bit during the early days. I usually set around 3/32" (2-2.5 mm) free play on mine. Also have a look at the linkage mount and move it around a notch for more direct leverage if necessary. You will have to readjust the screw shaft length if doing this. It may also be the oil needing a change.

[NuttyRusty]

Keep the replies coming,  this will help us establishe a pattern.

[JP33090]

I have the continental GT 650. I put about 900 miles on it before winter showed up and I have had no issues with shifting whatsoever. Very smooth.

[LongMan]

Hey everyone,
I've clocked about 4k km on my interceptor 650. The 1st to 2nd shift is still hard and loud. Any of you face the same issue? Any idea what may be causing this?

Same here, especially when the gear box is properly warmed up. Almost all the testers out there say that the 650 twins have a particular smooth gear shifting.

I cannot confirm that for my Interceptor. Issues I experience: Engaging 1st gear results in a loud "clonk" noise. Couple of false neutrals when shifting from 5th to 6th. On one occasion the bike disengaged the 6th gear into false neutral at 130km/h, driving uphill with throttle opened to hold speed. That's an experience nobody needs... Another issue is that the gear box occasionally might snap into 1st gear unexpectedly when you shifted from 2nd to neutral. The neutral light is still on, but the bike seems to have shifted half way into 1st instead proper neutral, and then snaps into 1st and stalls. This happens the more the warmer the gear box gets. Cold the gear box works almost flawless, but then quickly starts to show issues as the gear box warms up.

From my point of view the gear box selector fork needs adjustment, seems it is positioned too close to 1st gear. Hence the snap into 1st when neutral is expected, and the false neutrals between 5th and 6th. Looks as if it shifts too far when going from 2nd to neutral, and not far enough when going from 5th to 6th. My dealership however claims there is nothing wrong with the gear box.

The bike has run 3000km now, clutch cable is properly adjusted, oil level is correct, chain is properly adjusted.

[twocoolgliders]

Good point! this is important to me....all of the initial reviews were really good...but now that the bikes are out there for a while...I start to see annoying issues.....I've only owned Japanese bikes..(not all actually made in Japan..but Japanese brands)...and I have never had any issues with shifting...no false neutrals...no slipping out of gear...no ignition key messing up etc....My 55,000 mile Suzuki starts, runs, and drives like the day I bought it.  My 34 year old Honda...no issues....

I had my heart set on buying a RE this spring.....now starting to loose zeal.....hmmmm...



Cookie

Keep the replies coming,  this will help us establishe a pattern.

[LongMan]

Good point! this is important to me....all of the initial reviews were really good...but now that the bikes are out there for a while...I start to see annoying issues.....I've only owned Japanese bikes..(not all actually made in Japan..but Japanese brands)...and I have never had any issues with shifting...no false neutrals...no slipping out of gear...no ignition key messing up etc....My 55,000 mile Suzuki starts, runs, and drives like the day I bought it.  My 34 year old Honda...no issues....

I had my heart set on buying a RE this spring.....now starting to loose zeal.....hmmmm...



Cookie

Well, some thoughts:

To me this looks pretty much like an "early adopter" problem. My bike was one of the first lot sold in Germany.

Not every single bike seems to be affected, not most of them, probably not even many of them. This is just my personal experience, and my expectations were quite high after reading the positive reviews. Another rider without a particular expectation might not even consider the behavior unusual (apart from slipping out of gear/neutral maybe). But when a dozen different reviews state "butter smooth shifting" I expect exactly that - payed reviews or not (we all know how commercial Youtube channels work).

The bike does not do faulty shifts all the time, not even frequently. But every now and then, and repeatedly over a 6 month period.

From my experience with japanese bikes (mostly Yamaha) I can say that none of them did shift particularly better than the Interceptor, some were considerably worse.

I guess this is not a design flaw, but a matter of proper adjustment of the gear box. So it should be possible to get that sufficiently fixed.

I guess Royal Enfield is aware of the issue, and they probably will improve their quality assurance process to deliver consistent properly adjusted bikes. For the existing bikes they may develop an instruction for the dealerships how to adjust the gear boxes in case of bad shifting behavior.

[olhogrider]

Most of the shifting problems being reported magically disappear when the shift lever is adjusted to the riding position of the rider and the clutch is adjusted to the proper specs. In the first 500 miles I probably had three false neutrals. None since.

[BRG-BIRD]

I will add that my INT650 had many false neutrals and one time popped out of 6th to a false neutral while running 65 mph. This all happened while the transmission was notchy, stiff and unpleasant. As the transmission seemed to be breaking in the false neutrals became less and less and from memory the last 250-300 miles there were none.

When it was put away for winter it shifted like I had read they would, smooth, positive and slick.