I went ahead and took my bike (03 DS 650 purchased new in November-10 hours) to the dealer to try and resolve the problems I had with the cooling fan (never comes on) and the transmission (trouble going into neutral-occasionally pops out of second gear). Turns out that the motor for the cooling fan was bad and needs to be replaced, so they have ordered the part and it will be covered under the 6 month warranty. So, as it turns out, I rode at Glamis a few weeks ago for four days in 70+- degree temperature without the benefit of the fan. The red temp light never came on either (assuming that it is working correctly), so I guess the motor never ran too hot?

As I had predicted, they could not duplicate the tranny problems I was having at Glamis in their parking lot. They were not at all interested in removing the motor and splitting the cases for what I think may be a bent shift fork or broken gear dogs. They told me to give it time, that the bike was still not broken in, and to keep riding it to see if the tranny problems continue. Supposedly, we now have a paper trail that will allow Bombardier to cover this problem even after the six month warranty expires.

I also had them do the entire 10 hour initial sevice, including adjusting the valves. As long as my cooling fan motor is installed, I will be at Pismo over President's Day weekend to see if the tranny problems continue.

 

jusrlax, I doubt you damaged your bike in 70 deg temps. Before I put on shrouds my fan would come on only after hard climbs or lots of tight slow trails.
I think that glitch in your tranny is pretty common, I've talked to a few people who said they have the same problem. My bike needs a firm engagement from 1st to 2nd. It definately doesn't shift as well as the hondas I was used to.
You may try removing your shift lever and lowering it 1 tooth which will give you more leverage into second. Every now and then you may find a few false neutrals in between gears as well.

 

Yeah, for a while I thought I was a complete moron (some may still dispute that though), kept getting neutral when I did not want it. Realized that you need to hit the shifter a little harder. Any ideas how to possibly fix?

 

I don't think that his problem was getting it into gear (if I remember right), I believe that his problem was it coming out of gear. I suspect that the problem won't be replicated in a parking lot, but that it will only be observed when climbing steep hills under LOTS of power. Kind of hard to replicate it in the parking lot, as your going through gears FAST and you can't put too much power to the ground or you'll be on your backside.

The bike should NOT come out of gear! I too have the common problem of coming out of nuetral - got to give it some intimidation. When I'm under power and shifting, my size 18 does a pretty good job of making sure it's in gear.

BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL UP THE HILLS ESPECIALLY BY THE RAZOR BACKS. DON'T WANT ANY HURT MEMBERS OUT THERE.

Keep us up to date on your findings.

Good Luck!

 

My tranny seemed to have two problems (don't get me wrong, the problems were not constant but happened maybe 2-3 times each over 3-4 days of riding):

1) Had trouble getting into neutral. This happened both with the motor running and the motor off.

2) Popping out of second gear. I would be climbing a dune in second gear. It had been windy, so there were sharp edges at the top of most dunes, i.e. a possible razorback. So I needed to slow down going over the top, but I dislike shifting down to first gear. Near the top, I feather the clutch (pull it in halfway) which gets the revs back up, and at the same time slows me down. Meanwhile, my momentum gets me to the top of the hill. When I see what is going on at the top and on the other side, I let go of the clutch (which throws a massive roost behind me) and start the process all over again. But a few times, when I let out the clutch when reaching the top, I would be in neutral and the motor would rev like crazy with no movement.

Does this make any sense?

 

It is possible that when you are feathering the clutch, that you are inadvertantly knocking the shift lever or the bumpy ride is knocking you out. As most have told you, this is NOT common. Trouble getting into nuetral is also NOT a major problem for most. Let us know what happens in PISMO.

Big Daddy

 

I am not sure what you mean. Do you mean that the way I am riding is really hard on the clutch, and that it will wear out soon, or do you mean that a bad clutch is the entire cause of my problem?

To all of you sand dune riders, am I doing something wrong and particularly hard on the bike?

 

No way are you abusing the bike. I've been rock crawling for hours on my bike and duning... I probably have about 50hours on the sled. I'm 6'10"/310lbs. I KILL clutches! I'm still on my factory clutchs with NO visibal signs of wear. Something is wrong!

 

You need some Pami clutch springs. They dont slip! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

when I said you might try to lower your shifter down slightly, this was so you can have more leverage to lift the shifter and go from first to second. You can be in second gear but the gears are barely engaged. The load of hill climbing keeps the tips of the dogs in position until the load changes and pop you'reout of gear. The fact that you seem to have trouble getting neutral means you may have too much slack in your clutch cable. You see it may be slightly dragging stopping you from completely engaging or releasing gears. How far can you pull the clutch lever back before you feel the clutch disengaging? iIdon't have a manaul but the tip of the lever should'nt have to move more than 3/8ths to 1/2 inch. These are just my guesses but the cheap and easy things that you should be trying first.