I bought and then rode my first bike home a few days ago, and suffered my first mechanical difficulty the next day. As this CB350 is my first bike, I thought I'd ask for a bit of advice to help me get it back on the road - my Clymer won't be here for a few more days. What follows is a description of what happened, I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction, or at least tell me which steps I should take first.
I attempted to adjust the clutch cable tension woth the tensioner at the base of the clutch lever. This seemed to go smoothly. I took her out for a quick spin to test, everything was working properly, and then the clutch cable seemed to "snap" - insomuch as the lever went completely slack, with no tension on it at all. I got it home, took off the clutch cover plate, adjusted the tensioner on the plate and the tensioner on the base of the cable. This seemed to get the clutch lever working properly. However, when I jumped on to give her another spin, she refused to sift from neutral to second - she will only shift in between first and neutral, and will not go any higher.
I've determined that the issue is not the orientation of the shifter (I thought I may have oriented it too low when I put the clutch plate back on, therefore not allowing enough upward pressure to shift).
Can anyone help me? What should I do first, as I'd very much like to be riding this weekend?
Hi Nathan,
From the symptoms you describe it does sound like the shift lever linkage is the problem. Try rotating the shifter joint one spline counter clockwise on the shift spindle shaft and then if necessary adjust the shift linkage rod to get a proper shift lever height. I hope this works for you.
Happy riding!
Tom
