Please Help - Gear Box Concerns

[dadicool59]

I have a 2002 R1100S which was a recent acquisition.
Beautiful bike, 30,000 ks.
Selecting gears on this bike feels dodgy. 1st to 2nd has the usual clunkiness that I can usually eradicate by running 1st up to about 4,000rpm. 2nd and above is OK.
Selecting 1st from neutral is worrisome. It doesn't feel like it has gone all the way into gear and unless I let the clutch start to take up while I have my foot pressed down on the gear lever and then I feel it fully drop in.
I have been caught out a couple of time by not following the procedure at a set of lights and then embarrassingly having it jump out of 1st into neutral when I attempt to take off.
I have recently changed to gear box oil to Synthetic and it has made no difference.
Have any of you guys had and or solved this problem?

[shreddr]

welcome dad, post an intro when you get a chance and some pics of your bike.

my BCR did it, but a change to synthetic in the gearbox helped immensely. the R12S shifts like butta!

[Bob Hancock]

Unless yours has particular problems this sounds about right. When initially going into first, pull clutch and immediately engage first with clutch on its way in. (Don't do the clutch in, hold, poke lever granny thing.) Sometimes....maybe 15% of the time I had to release clutch just a tad to turn the dogs and try again. The R12S still does this but way less.

Shifting up. Load the lever and fan the clutch with a partial amount of off throttle. It's almost a power shift but with less throttle.

Technique is everything with the 11S.

Hope this helps. If it persists I'm out of ideas without a trip to the dealer.

[AZ-Twin]

Based on my years of experience reading this forum I can tell you this, if you can select a gear, and the bike moves, your don't have transmission problems.

Welcome to the forum.

[ckcarr]

Most are imagined or self inflicted.

[bikerfish1100]

all upshifts happen better above 5K.
however, your problem is entirely one of incorrect technique for this bike.
do a google search, there are a ton of threads explaining in detail the smooth way to shift these donkeys.

[wswartzwel]

Welcome to the board. Where are you located? Maybe one of the members here is nearby and you can compare shifting with another bike. The BMW gearbox likes you to get a little aggressive with it.
preloading takes a bit of time to learn, but soon you will be doing it subconsciously.

[dadicool59]

Thanks guys.
I'm not unfamiliar with Beemer box's as this is my seventh.
I'm familiar with the preload technique however it is the selecting of 1st from neutral that I'm less than comfortable with on this bike and it feels like the selector fork isn't doing its job.
From the feedback that I have received here it sounds normal, I don't ride this bike much as its not my main ride and I bought it as a potential keeper.