Picked up my Rally today.......question

[Rob Rodriguez]

Picked up my Rally today and rode it about 100 miles. I noticed when "coasting" (no throttle and no brake) for a longer distance down steep hills and on flat ground to a stop sign the bike physically clunks. Clunks meaning, it will surge in speed like its freewheeling, then slow quick like the transmission catches, then surge like its freewheeling, or to put it another way. If you have a manual transmission vehicle and don't give it enough gas and pop the clutch the vehicle will jerk along. Now this only happened a couple of times. Other than that the bike was completely fine.

When the RPM on the engine drops to below CVT engagement the belt becomes lose in the clutches and this lets the bike "freewheel" so to speak. What could be happening is the belt is lose in the clutch and then tightens for whatever reason and then loosens again and this is causing this jerking action. Might be why its only happened a couple of times and on longer coasting distances? This can/does happen on a snowmobile sometimes when coasting down a long steep hill. I'm riding tomorrow and I'm going to try keeping the RPM higher (right at engagement) until I stop at the sign on the same long hill it did it on today. See if it does it again.

Just to clarify this hasn't happened during from a stop or while rolling acceleration and it doesn't happen if I let off the throttle slow down a bit and then give it more throttle and accelerate. It's just when I do a longish coast to a stop (stopping with the brake at some point not letting it coast to a stop)

My question is.......Has anyone else had this happen to them? I have the feeling there is nothing wrong and this is just the way the bike is but wondering if others have experienced this?

[srx660]

I noticed that effect on my ryker when it was new. As i put more miles on mine the effect has seemed to go away. It still happens once in a while now, when i am coasting down a slight hill and the road levers out. Just a little clunk here and there. Actually when i am slowing down in traffic i use the cvt to slow down coming up to a light, then lightly hit the brake when the speed gets too slow. I do try to not on/off the throttle very much as that causes some clunking also.

[SuperG]

You have to wonder how the CVT's clutch engages while coasting. With a centrifugal clutch, it's the engine speed that engages it, so, if you're coasting down hill, you've got no engine brake function until you hop on the gas....

[old Timer]

Those of you that have either limited or no ATV experience are now experiencing a non computer controlled CVT belt vehicle drive system. Add a lot more money to the system like in a Car, or a Suzuki 650 Bergman Scooter or an Aprillia Mana Motorcycle and you will eliminate 90+% of the characteristics of the Ryker tranny system. The Ryker Tranny is perfectly OK.

[KC61]

The Ryker Tranny is perfectly OK.

Yes it is, just different. And for under $11k it's quite a bargain

[BryanSD]

I don't have a Ryker, but as others have pointed out this sounds like a typical behavior of a CVT transmission. My son bought a 2018 Toyota Corolla with CVT and it has some of the same behavior. Everytime I drive a car with CVT I spend my first 15 minutes asking myself...is this normal?

[Rob Rodriguez]

A couple hundred miles today. Clunks here and there. Not a big deal. I just wanted to make sure it was normal. Sounds like it is.

As a side note. Don't let any fuel drip on the black plastic panels. It discolors them. :(

[nchangin]

This seems to change with the mode your in, the de-acceleration properties of the CVT. Maybe it's me but there seems to be a difference in how it acts from ECO to Rally? When de-accelerating.