Bike would not go in to gear

[tntnj]

I had a hard time getting the bike in to gear after going for a ride , I went to the gas station turned the bike off, filled the bike and started the bike up and it would not go in to first. I turned off the bike and started up and it still would not got in to first from neutral . It went into reverse then it went into first. Any thoughts? Or has this happened to someone else?

[ARtraveler]

Occasionally I have had an E pop up on the tranny. They were all gas station incidents. Am guessing it was shut down to fast, or not allowing enough time to boot up before shifting into gear.

If it's back to working "right" I would not worry to much about it.

I used to say...it's just the Spyders way of showing us who is in control.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

I had a hard time getting the bike in to gear after going for a ride , I went to the gas station turned the bike off, filled the bike and started the bike up and it would not go in to first. I turned off the bike and started up and it still would not got in to first from neutral . It went into reverse then it went into first. Any thoughts? Or has this happened to someone else?

If you have an SE trans . .... you must have the brake applied ..... I'm sure you know this , but I can't think of any other reason based on the info given ..... good luck .... Mike

[tntnj]

Brake was applied and bike was running . SE TRANS AV you may be right I may have done the start up too fast. Anyways it was good to get a ride in today 78 DEGREES Here in NJ . Thank you AV and Mike

[ZuluEcho]

I had exactly the same scenario happen to me (2019 RTS). Brake applied, all that jazz. I also noticed that the "lawyer warning" (prompting to push the mode button) was not coming on, so my guess is something was not allowing the computer to boot properly. When I finally tried reverse, then I was able to get it into first. So, same exact problem, which means this is a problem, somewhere in the software...

[Peter Aawen]

I had exactly the same scenario happen to me (2019 RTS). Brake applied, all that jazz. I also noticed that the "lawyer warning" (prompting to push the mode button) was not coming on, so my guess is something was not allowing the computer to boot properly. When I finally tried reverse, then I was able to get it into first. So, same exact problem, which means this is a problem, somewhere in the software...

That 'lawyer warning' won't come on at start up if there's been less than about 8 mins passed since you last shut the Spyder down (could be 5 mins, might be 10, I can't remember & I don't think it's necessarily exactly the same time every time anyway!! ) Have you noticed that for a short while after you turn the key off, the lights stay on & there's a slight hum from something electrical somewhere?? That's at least partially because the computer takes a little while to close itself & everything else down in an orderly fashion. I believe this is (or was) mentioned in the User Manual somewhere - basically, the computer hasn't had time for it to do its 'orderly shut down process' completely enough for it to warrant doing the entire re-boot process all over again, so it simply skips the 'lawyer warning' & probably some other (invisible to you) bits of those early 'computer wake-up' processes and gets right on with starting.

As for the 'not going into gear' bit, I don't believe it's a problem either, it's simply the nature of gearboxes!! Right up until you shut down, there's gears et al inside the engine & gearbox that are spinning away happily, when suddenly the driving force keeping them spinning is removed - so they gently 'spin to a stop'.... Now, you need to bear in mind that because the bike has been in gear & moving, there's gears on both the driven side and the engine side of the gear box that are likely to be spinning or at least moving a little, right up until shut-down & maybe for a tad longer too!! Some of those gears will invariably spin on for juuust a bit longer than others; some will probably stop a bit earlier than others because their teeth might begin to mesh with another set of teeth & the forces trying to stop them increase; and some might stop in JUUUST the right place & alignment to stop you from easily selecting first when you try to start up again. It might not happen EVERY time, but it could; it might not happen often at all; but it could - it's simply the nature of getting gear teeth to mesh cleanly & sometimes, those gears will stop partially meshed while at other times, they will stop partially mis-aligned! No biggie tho, just so long as you NEVER try to force it into gear, cos all you need to do to move one or both of those gears slightly out of that 'blocking or partial mis-alignment' position is to select another gear or rock the bike back & forth a little as you try to engage a gear!

THIS IS NOT SOMETHING WRONG, nor is it a problem or anything to worry about - it's been happening in gearboxes ever since they were invented and it'll probably keep on happening in them to some degree until we do away with gearboxes completely!! In the heavy truck 'crash boxes' and car 'non-synchro mesh' gearboxes that I learnt to drive on, it happened often - so much so that it became second nature to try to select reverse or second gear with the selector lever before even trying to start the engine & select a gear, just to remove any likelihood of a 'slight gear mis-alignment' stopping you from selecting first or reverse once the engine was running and one set of gears started being driven, where forcing it into gear could have catastrophic consequences.... and even then, sometimes we still had to just slip the selector into another gear (usually second) before having another try so that the driven & drive gears for first or reverse would mesh cleanly!! Exactly the same thing applied on the motorcycles that I learnt to ride on waaay back then - we all learnt that if it won't easily go into first from neutral, NEVER try to force it into gear, simply select second then go back to first. Not a problem, nothing wrong or broken, and it works every time!

So the remedy you both mention for not being able to cleanly select first gear on start up is EXACTLY what the remedy has always been and probably will always be!! Simply select another gear then go back to first. There's no problem or inherent issue behind this; there's nothing to worry about; it's simply that when you shut down, the drive & driven gears stopped spinning in a position that wouldn't allow you to cleanly select first straight away, and moving either gear or doing anything to correct that slight 'mis-alignment' is all you need to do to safely & easily select a gear!

And because our 'Semi-Automatic' SE5 & SE6 gearboxes are actually exactly the same MANUAL gearbox as the SM5 & SM6 gearboxes, only the SE's have centrifugal or oil/hydraulic auto clutches with elctro-solenoid activated computer controlled gear selection, this can still happen to the SE's... Not so often usually tho, but still, it's the same gearbox, it can happen - only with the SE's you can't do the manual selection thing, but you can try selecting up &/or down a gear with the flappy paddles; you can try selecting reverse; or you could even try rocking the Spyder back & forth a little! Anything that will work to get one or both sides of the meshing gears to move juuuust a little in order to correct that blocking mis-alignment condition.

[tntnj]

Pete you may be right but the bike was in neutral . You can push the bike back and forth all day . I pushed my bike away from the gas pumps . I even backed up the bike. Still would not go in gear . I shut it down , removed the key and started the bike up .I tried first again , nothing , I tried reverse and it went in, then I tried first . The bike moved forward . I think I did not wait for the computer to finish it's boot up . NOTE: The neutral light was on the whole time.

[Peter Aawen]

Pete you may be right but the bike was in neutral. You can push the bike back and forth all day . I pushed my bike away from the gas pumps . I even backed up the bike. Still would not go in gear . I shut it down , removed the key and started the bike up .I tried first again , nothing , I tried reverse and it went in, then I tried first . The bike moved forward. I think I did not wait for the computer to finish it's boot up . NOTE: The neutral light was on the whole time.

Yeah, that can happen... just cos the output shaft is in neutral (so you can push the bike/vehicle around) it doesn't mean you still can't have some gears slightly mis-aligned & stopping easy gear selection inside the box.... that's partly why the 'rocking' attempt at a solution for this was never my favourite approach, not just because most of the vehicles that I drove back then were bloody big and heavy & I stood very little chance of moving them at all, it was mostly simply because it doesn't ALWAYS work even if you can move the vehicle; but the 'select another gear' method seems to work almost every time.

Note: I do say 'Almost' on purpose - in these days of increasing technology that includes micro-switches & heaps of other hi-tech stuff on vehicles & machines of every type, often also including lock-out algorithms in the computer control systems, a failure or slight glitch in just one component of all that hi-techery can feasibly end up forcing a stop on all sorts of other things too, even if the failure or glitch only involves things that are seemingly only vaguely related to whatever it is they are now stopping! That neutral light indicator and the gear position sensor are prime examples - there's a fair bit of anecdotal evidence here on the Forum pointing towards those not always reflecting the 'true state of affairs' inside the gearbox, and in some circumstances/instances, they've been 'identified' as being at fault in ways that have stopped that particular Spyder from starting &/or selecting any gear!!

Still, if it's working now without issue, and this behaviour doesn't start becoming a regular or frequent problem for you on start-up, then I'd just put it down to that 'slight gear mis-alignment' thing and ride on worry free.