New Rider, Stuck Shift Pedal

[benpaul]

Hi everyone I am new to this forum and to motorcycling. I finally got my first bike after taking the MSF course and waiting for months for the money and the right bike to come along. I bought a 2002 suzuki SV650 about 3 weeks ago and I love it. Its so much fun to ride and handles real well in LA traffic and on the freeway too.

I have a few maintenance questions. First of all, recently my shift pedal has been getting stuck and it has been hard for me to get the bike from first gear into nuetral when I am stopped. A few times I have been riding and the pedal got completely stuck and I couldn't get the bike out of first gear, I had to pull over and restart the bike. The problem is on and off so I dont think its an issue of the pedal being under-lubricated or something like that.

I did notice the other day that I had some green spot marks on the side of the bike and I think that might be from some transmission fluid leaking while I am riding and splattering the bike. Could these problems be connected at all? Hope someone can help me out. thanks a lot.

[hot_shoe_cv]

It could be a bent shifting fork inside the tranny. If you are a novice at tranny work you may want to have a dealer or other bike shop that is reputable look at it & repair/replace the fork. The green stuff sounds like coolant, Check the coolant level, hoses, cap, etc, for a leak

[Customcycleseats]

I have had that problem on my zx11, but it was getting the bike from neutral back to first. I finally found that if I just let out on the clutch a little bit, it seemed to line everything up and it would go in like butter. Since yours is stuck in first, I would be carefull letting out on the clutch, but if you let it out slow while pulling up on the lever it might help slide it into gear.

[NorthernPete]

check your clutch cable for play as well..my bike wouldnt shift from 2nd to 3rd, turns out the cable was loose.