I have reported on here more than once about my wife's problems with her 2015 RT struggling to shift down (actually, 3 different problems caused this issue over the 5 years she owned it!).
She now has a 2021 Sea-to-Sky with only 1500 miles on it....and it has started happening again! Out on a short ride, she slowed down to a stop from 5th gear and the bike did not downshift at all. She managed to do it manually, and then limped home, having to manually downshift as required.
Thanks to our previous experience with the issue, it quickly became apparent that the cause was the famous "paddle not returning to center". I couldn't believe that a spring had broken already, and indeed it felt like the paddle was simply sticking in its attempts to recenter. As we had done on the 2015 model, we sprayed WD-40 on the external parts of the paddle - basically just the pivot - and that immediately solved the problem.
It occured to us that the only unusual thing she had done recently was participate in a funeral procession for a fallen biker in pouring rain, 2 days earlier. The bike had done about 50 miles after that before the problem suddenly started, so it wasn't obvious that this could have caused it, until......
Later that evening, she got a message from a friend who had also been in that funeral ride on his brand new RT. He was complaining that his bike had suddenly stopped downshifting, and he found that WD-40 immediately fixed it!
So it seems like the latest RT's do not like rain — a major flaw in an outdoor vehicle I think! Our dealer says he has never heard of anyone else having this issue, but he will raise it with BRP. Has anyone else experienced this problem?
She now has a 2021 Sea-to-Sky with only 1500 miles on it....and it has started happening again! Out on a short ride, she slowed down to a stop from 5th gear and the bike did not downshift at all. She managed to do it manually, and then limped home, having to manually downshift as required.
Thanks to our previous experience with the issue, it quickly became apparent that the cause was the famous "paddle not returning to center". I couldn't believe that a spring had broken already, and indeed it felt like the paddle was simply sticking in its attempts to recenter. As we had done on the 2015 model, we sprayed WD-40 on the external parts of the paddle - basically just the pivot - and that immediately solved the problem.
It occured to us that the only unusual thing she had done recently was participate in a funeral procession for a fallen biker in pouring rain, 2 days earlier. The bike had done about 50 miles after that before the problem suddenly started, so it wasn't obvious that this could have caused it, until......
Later that evening, she got a message from a friend who had also been in that funeral ride on his brand new RT. He was complaining that his bike had suddenly stopped downshifting, and he found that WD-40 immediately fixed it!
So it seems like the latest RT's do not like rain — a major flaw in an outdoor vehicle I think! Our dealer says he has never heard of anyone else having this issue, but he will raise it with BRP. Has anyone else experienced this problem?
