Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech A strange "plink" sound, and not-so-crisp shifting

These 2 things may or may not be related. I posted earlier about the noise, but here goes again...

First issue: I get this odd sound when I stop at a light or sign. It's kind of a "plink" or "plunk", as if somebody tapped something metal with a small wrench, and I can feel it in the grips. Seems to be coming from forward left side, down by the header or maybe clutch cover. It happens just after or just before I'm completely stopped, so I usually (maybe always?) have the clutch pulled in. Doesn't happen every time, I can't make it happen on purpose (I've tried). It is NOT repetitive, just one "plink". It kind of reminds me of a car's ac compressor clutch kicking in. I thought it might be expansion/contraction of exhaust components, but I believe I have ruled that out; got the bike nice and hot and hit cross-over, header joints, welds etc with freeze spray, and couldn't get a peep out of it. I had the mechanic at the dealership ride it, and he either didn't hear it or it didn't happen.

Second issue: When I shift gears upward, I feel the shift lever "pop", then "pop" again, like it didn't quite get all the way into gear the first time. This happens quite often. I try pulling up harder, but I still notice it sometimes. There's no noise associated with it, just the feel of the shift lever. Does this sound like normal behavior?

I don't have any reason to believe these things are related, other than that the noise might possibly be coming from inside the clutch cover.

Any ideas?

Nobody? Anyone else have the two-step shift thing going on?

I get the first one.....

Not the second one.

had the clutch apart this weekend and all looks perfect....still get it but have seen other mention it as well.

Thanks Tony. Good to know I'm not the only one. I was planning on pulling off the clutch cover this weekend. Guess I'll wait.

your pipes must not be loud enough if you can hear this stuff...haha

Of course I sometimes wonder how many little "warning sounds" im missing with louder pipes...one day my bikes gonna explode and it'll be my fault cause i didnt hear that ticking the timebomb was making...ahha

wish i could help

I get the 'false neutral' every once in a while on up shifts. I've learned to firmly shift up to make sure I catch the next gear. Some days the real neutral is almost impossible to find.

Brokenfixed, if it happens any time other than at a complete idle, I'm probably going to miss it.

I had the problem on my way down and back from the GA rally in 07.

When I got back home CT I took it over to Triumph of East Hartford and they found the clutch springs were not torqued right they backed everything off and retighten with the proper torque and I never had the problem again.

John