Shifting perceptions

I have recently been looking at adverts for a Honda Deauville 650. Often the ads express a problem selecting neutral, and say this is common with these bikes, but I have two and they are both okay (they are lowmileage). I was wondering if it could be anything to do with clutchless gear changes? Would it damage the gears’ syncromesh?

I have had a lot of bikes over the years and not had this problem; like many other riders I did do clutchless changes, though not any more. Have your experts got any thoughts on this, or have any other readers experienced it?

The paper is great by the way, keep it going.

Keith Hobson, via email

I almost always do clutchless up-shifts, and (touch wood) have never had a problem. However, I checked with a pro mechanic who told me: “Clutchless gear changes shouldn’t damage the gearbox, as most are a constant mesh arrangement anyway.

“The only problems that you can get is to the gear dogs themselves, as it can start to wear the dog teeth and cause the gears to separate, thus ‘jumping out of gear’. However, in my experience this is quite rare, unless the box has been abused or is very high mileage.

“The problem selecting neutral is more likely to be from clutch drag, or the wrong adjustments made to free play, but there are no known problems with that model in particular.”