Clutch question - Neutral only from second.

Hi everyone, first post here hope you are all doing well.

I've got a 1200 from 2013 that I purchased last year in September with around 35k miles.

I've since put about 3k miles into it and can't say anything bad about the bike.

My question is regarding the gearbox, for me its basically not possible to get the bike into Neutral from first if the bike is stopped.

I can always do from second to neutral without any issues and am just wondering if that is a common thing?

I know the mileage is getting up there but not sure if that means I should just get the clutch looked at / plates swapped ? ( I hear thats more at around 50k ? )


Some more information:

While the bike is moving I every now and then do shift into neutral when trying to go to second (I guess I am very light on and not really "kicking" it up).

Bike has been fully checked and serviced by the dealer and had a full history and is in general in excellent condition.

Just wondering if I should just pre-emptively do the clutch or if this is nothing to worry about.

Thanks so much for your time !

First welcome to the forum, and enjoy your new bike. Is yours the GS or a GSA ? If it’s a GS it will more than likely be the water cooled, if it a GSA it will be a camhead. I have a 2015 GS 1200 and it’s easier to find neutral from second than it is from first, but I can always find it, I just have to pay more attention to what I’m doing.

The 2013 was the first year of the all new totally redesigned from the ground up GS 1200, and I believe that the gear boxes were clunky, but every year after, they seemed to improve year on year. Mine is not as smooth as the 16, 17 years bikes for example.

As for the clutch, I would not worry too much 35 k is nothing on a well serviced GS.

The water cooled engines have a wet clutch, where as the previous cam head engine had a dry clutch, but both are very reliable, I have not heard of anyone having a clutch problem on the GS/A

There was an issue with the early 2013 bikes; I had one; and it had this problem. BMW issues some revised parts one of which was the pushrod to activate the clutch:I think one issue was the amount of oil being supplied to the clutch via the hollow push rod which made selecting neutral difficult if not impossible.

Hey guys, thanks so much for the replies.

The bike is a GS and it's liquid cooled, the earliest model year.

I can find neutral when the bike is moving as I mentioned but at a standstill from first it's impossible, very reliably from second down to neutral.

I guess I'll not worry till I put more miles in, just wondered if I should get it done pre-emptively for upcoming tours / training.

Cheers

I’d be surprised if your bike hasn’t had the updated pushrod as most were done during the warranty period as part of a service. If you do find it has the old type I have a spare updated one you can have. It’s very slightly longer and has 1 oilway instead of 3 to reduce clutch drag.

Thanks for the offer spoonz, I think it would have been done.

There were 2 owners before me, one did a few thousand miles on the bike and took it to the dealer for all servicing under warranty and the other serviced the bike religiously himself after but am pretty sure all recalls etc were checked when I dropped the bike off for the big service last year.


I think I may give my dealer a call and see what they say.

Cheers!