Roadside bodging (first and second gears not selecting)

[Fazerider]

[quote author=Fazerider link=topic=13507.msg169830#msg169830 date=1413118887]
[quote author=ChristoT link=topic=13507.msg169826#msg169826 date=1413117092]
Bloody hell, what do you do with your gear lever?!?  :eek

Just out of curiosity, you do ride with your foot well clear of the shifter, right?

If you keep a bike for a few years without writing it off, it's what happens... just normal wear and tear.
Though admittedly my MOT tester seemed to accelerate the process somewhat.
This engine has covered about 80,000 miles, about the same as my original one did  before the second gear selection issue raised its head.
[/quote]

Bit catty, aren't we?  :b

I understand normal wear and tear, but as an engineer, I can't see why your shifters are failing compared to other high mileage bikes. My only conclusion is that you're either REALLY heavy-footed, that there's something wrong with the part (but two in a row?), or that you are putting the part under a certain amount of repeated strain. Hence my question about riding with your foot on the lever.
[/quote]
Even if I did ride with my foot on the lever, which I presume nobody does since it's likely to result in unintended gear changes, I don't see that it would cause undue wear. As for the second shaft also succumbing within a few thousand miles... I've no idea how many miles it had done prior to my acquiring it nor how brutal its previous owners were. The fact that the mechanism clashes with the pins of the selector drum once the claw has a millimetre or so's free play and becomes an "end stop" long before the proper end stop comes into effect points to a design fault.