2nd Gear problems

[Smugly]

Bought my 06 new. Fell in love with the bike. But after riding an 08, I thought my transmission was **** compared to the 08. Now at 50,000 km second gear is gone and so is my warranty. If any car company had as many transmissions fail like this it would be a major recall. But because it is a sport bike and we ride them hard... or appear to, we swallow it up and fix it out of our own pocket.

 

[bad4good]

I ride my bike hard never had issues with gears ('99) approx 30,000 miles.. could do with a 7th gear on it..

 

[Hayabuza]

Hi, mine is 2004 Limited Edition, riding for two years. Bought with 5800 miles, now ~ 15000 miles. Still no problems, so far so good. Very rare then have "neutral" between 5 and 6, but it happens then I'm a little lazy

 

[TruWrecks]

Move your shift lever down a bit lower and your shifts will be more positive. Most people don't have their foot levers adjusted for themselves.

 

[piratediverjefff]

My '02 never did it(totaled at 16,000 miles),but my current '03 started the 2nd gear issue around 8,000 miles(lots[lots!] of wide open power shifts may have contributed but can't say for sure).When i added the turbo i replaced the trans. with an exchange unit from Carolina Cycles and no more problems(currently at 19,000 miles).

 

[blusmbl]

Hi, mine is 2004 Limited Edition, riding for two years. Bought with 5800 miles, now ~ 15000 miles. Still no problems, so far so good. Very rare then have "neutral" between 5 and 6, but it happens then I'm a little lazy

My 02 does this. If I shift really lazily I'll catch neutral between 1st and 2nd, and between 5th and 6th. It's never jumped out of gear, though.

I always use the clutch.

 

[Taylor]

Move your shift lever down a bit lower and your shifts will be more positive. Most people don't have their foot levers adjusted for themselves.

This statement could not be more true, both my B-King and Gen2 busa both had the 5/6 nuetral, I adjusted the shift linkage down lower and its perfect now,

 

[djsin]

ride the piss outta mine and drag race it with nos....have 28k miles bike an 07...no problems....lower your shift lever down a bit and you will never miss it again

 

[Haya01B]

Don't worry! it's around the corner waiting.

 

[blusmbl]

This statement could not be more true, both my B-King and Gen2 busa both had the 5/6 nuetral, I adjusted the shift linkage down lower and its perfect now,

Thanks for the advice. My buddy is giving me his buell pegs, when I put them on I'll readjust the levers. I think it's required anyway.

 

[blusmbl]

Time to update this: have buell pegs now, adjusted the levers, and now I'm not finding neutrals between gears. It has popped out of 3rd gear though.

All 3 times it's done it, I've pinned it (to win it) through 1st/2nd, grabbed 3rd, then let off. A second later, it's acting like it's in neutral, and makes a god-awful noise when I jam it back in gear regardless of clutch application.

Should I start looking for a new trans? I can probably ride around it by shifting to 4th instead of coasting down in 3rd, but now it's going to bother me knowing that it isn't right.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[Haya01B]

This is the my first time ever hearing about a 3rd gear problem. I have a spare trans that has the 2nd gear dogs back cut. I believe 3rd is already cut from factory. PM me if interested.

 

[Nicholas]

yup its gonna be my next winter project to fix, untill then,. i count 1-3-4-5-6 no need for 2, lol

 

[street racer]

Move your shift lever down a bit lower and your shifts will be more positive. Most people don't have their foot levers adjusted for themselves.

Good advice for sure ! A very knowledgable Suzuki mechanic told me to lower the shifting lever and always wear boots or other shoes with hard toes...no sneakers. I followed his advice and lowered the shifting arm and wear a pair of hiking boots. Shifting is sooooo much better and it never, ever pops out of gear.

If there were as many complaints on a car tranny as there are on the Busa tranny there would be a recall for sure. IMHO Suzuki should have fixed it many years ago.

 

[Ft Campbell Busa]

I have been racing my much more than street riding. My second gear has been going for quite some time now. I found that when I had 16t-42t gearing that while racing, it would usually jerk while doing a second gear burnout every time in the burnout box and twice going down the track in second only above 7000 rpm and right around 9-10k. It cost me mph and et for sure. I am now 16-45t and it will only do this during a second gear burnout above 7k. I do mine in first so it is not an issue. I can power through second with out it jerking in and out of gear at wot on the strip. Now, if I street ride; it will jerk in second when I hammer on it. I am waiting on a good local or ebay tranny and I will start the swap then. I know way to many guys with this same problem and only in second for it to be a user error. I have an air shifter also and dont miss shifts. I do believe this problem started before that while racing and missing foot shifts! Worse thing you can do is miss second and then still try to keep slamming it in at high rpms. Surely caused my failure early on. Only takes once.

 

[BIG.C13]

I have a 06 busa with over 19,000 miles.. Just recently whn i'm on the highway my rpm will dropped to zero for a second or two than jump back up between 4 to 5 thousand rpm... When on the street is drives fine... Trans does not slip out of gear.. I just lose my rpms for 2 seconds than drops back up than drops back down...than it stopped for a while than did it again... Any suggestions

 

[Nicholas]

is it just the gauges or does the bike actually just turn off for a few seconds?

 

[BIG.C13]

It was the gauge and the engine..but i figured out the problem it was the number one spark plug.. I remembered i had took it out to inspect it and dropped it and forgot to regap it.. So problem solved

 

[PaulCav]

I may have posted the bottom 2 articles before in this thread but I thought I would post them again. They are about my experience with the 2nd gear issue.

One of the things I must point out with this issue is that it is not a design problem from Suzuki. It happens due to hard accelleration from shifting into 2nd gear hard (air shifting or foot shifting) in Drag Racing or 2nd gear wheelies. In nearly all of the instances I have read in this lengthy thread the people affected by it have been admittedly riding the bike hard, drag racing or doing wheelies.

We all bought a Hayabusa because it is the fastest, baddest bike on the planet (Prior to the BMW. LOL). You can't tell me that a majority of us out there have not taken advantage of that fact. So it kind of bothers me to see alot of you bashing the very bike we love because you broke the transmission. (This is not to say that some of you have had legitimate issues with the tranny. My guess is they are actually few if looked at by a case by case basis.)

Nothing can be made fail safe, my stock 02 transmission lasted 5 years under 95% drag racing usage before failing (the first 3 years it was ridden on the street only). My brother has an 01 Hayabusa that has been raced 50% of the time and the transmission is still working.

If you are going to use the bike for racing and such there are companies out there that can build your transmission to withstand the rigors of hard abuse. As mentioned by another wise soul in a previous post, even this does not guarantee survival of the transmission, although I can attest to the fact it sure has made a measurable incredible difference with mine.

Read the articles for more information.

:: DRAGBIKE.COM :: DRAGBIKE MAGAZINE :: Repairing the Hayabusa Transmission - Part 1 ::
:: DRAGBIKE.COM :: DRAGBIKE MAGAZINE :: Repairing the Hayabusa Transmission - Part 2 ::

 

[6002abusa]

08 7800 mi. few hundred 1/4mi. passes. I lost 2nd the other day on a spirited street ride. I went for 4th at about 10k. I heard a rapid ticking and then 4th hit. I thought it was pretty odd. After the next stop when I tried to run up through the gears, I couldn't get into 2nd. It's funny that the upper gears have a better feeling when they engage. They seem to need less effort to shift now. Oh well. I guess it's time to learn how to pull the motor.