Total Motorcycle Community Forums

After just 15 minutes or so of reading I already realize what a valuable source of information this website is going to be as I endeavor to become a 'seasoned' biker. I just bought my first bike last week, it's a 2001 Kawasaki Vulcan 500 ltd and I am in love with it. Its fits me perfectly and I feel totally comfortable and relaxed on it. My schedule doesn't permit me to take the full MSF course but I did take a private 3 hour riding lesson from a local guy who teaches the course before just jumping on a bike and driving around town. Since getting the bike last thursday I have ridden it around town a few times and today to work for the first time.

Getting down to it, I have 2 quick questions for you folks that actually know what your talking about (I humbly exclude myself from that group)

1 - I accidentally left the choke in the 1/2 way on position during my entire ride to work this morning which is about 25 minutes. Does this have any negative impact on anything?

2 - Sometimes if I stop in 2nd gear and am getting ready to turn the bike off and park, I can't get the bike into 1st and therefore can't get it into neutral. I'll shift up just to shift back down into 1st but it won't go into gear once I'm stopped nor will it go into neutral. I will just stay in 2nd gear which sucks when I start it back up to leave because I am starting in 2nd gear and I need to gas it pretty hard. Am I just being dumb because I am not downshifting all the way into first before I stop or is there something else I am missing?

thanks in advance!

-Rob

Welcome!
If it's still running fine, no. But if you leave it choked too long and run it like that (actually riding it around a lot more) you'll foul the plug. I would, to be safe, check out the spark plug. See if it's burnt or what not. As for the down shifting, i would try to get to 1st when stopping. If it's not the trans is messed up a bit. Probably a bearing or something. It's not that hard to deal with. Besides, $5 says you can launch in 2nd gear. Just feather that clutch.

Welcome to the forum!

Besides possibly fouling the plug, leaving the choke on could cause an accident. For the fellow seasoned riders reading this, bear with me a second...

I used to have an '84 NightHawk 700SC which was very warm-blooded and required generous choke when starting cold. I live only a quarter mile from the freeway entrance and one morning I fired up the bike (with the choke on fully) and took off for work. After twenty minutes of freeway riding I approached a clover-leaf exchange between the freeway I was on and the one I needed to take from there. I rolled off the throttle expecting the usual engine braking but since I had forgotten the choke was on (no way of knowing once you're cruising on the freeway) there was no engine braking since the engine was fully warmed up by then and the choke was causing the engine to idle very high. Since I hadn't foreseen a need to use the brakes I was not prepared to get on them and I ended up entering the sweeping right hand turn of the clover leaf a lot faster than I wanted to. Luckily the NightHawk is somewhat sporty and had some decent Dunlops mounted so she stuck the turn just fine, but it was enough excitement that caffeine was unnecessary that morning.

As for the first gear issue, make it a point to drop it into 1st before you stop. If you're stopped and stuck in 2nd, try rolling the bike forward or backward while shifting so the gear cogs can mesh together. You could also just start the bike in 2nd and slowly let out on the clutch...just a little bit...and then squeeze it back in and try downshifting again. Sometimes the gears just aren't lined up in the tranny and when added to some normal wear from years of use it can make for some difficult shifts between 1st, neutral, and 2nd.

Thank you so much for your responses,

The good news is I was just being paranoind and having a little of the "did I leave the oven on?" syndrome. In fact I had remembered to close the choke before I left home, I simply forgot that I had.


I figured that was what I was doing wrong with the gears and not being able to shift once I stopped. I have to get out of the whole car clutch mentality and start realizing that the two types of gearboxes don't work exactly the same lol.