Adj. the Gear Selector: Settle a Debate

[pbbeck]

So I'm chatting with a friend of mine today out in front of the coffee shop. We both ride GS's -- his an '07 and mine an '06. By coincidence, we both want to adjust our gear selector levers, and we both happened to ask a tech at two different dealers yesterday how to accomplish this.

 

The tech at BMW of Ventura said to simply loosen the retaining bolt on the lever, remove it, and reposition it on the notched mounting post. It's kind of what I thought, but I wanted to ask before messing with anything. He said this is why it was designed the way it was, to allow for rotational adjustment up or down.

 

The tech at Long Beach told my friend to adjust it from the connecting rod up behind the selector lever, and to NEVER remove and rotate the selector lever.

 

Who's right?

[Boffin]

I always believed you make small changes with the adjuster on the linkage and large ones with the splined shaft. Unless you tell it, the gearbox doesn't know which one you've done.

 

Andy

[BMWSTeve]

Boffin is right, but make sure you have clearance to make the shift after your adjustment. I am not familiar with the R1200GS, but I have seen where the shifter is adjusted too far, preventing down shifts because the shifter now hits the headerpipe. YMMV.

[Ken H.]

Your freind buys the coffee next time! It is indeed that easy.

[skyking44]

Private message sent.

[GelStra]

I dropped the lever by one tooth, so that it is level with the bottom of my boot. No issues other than the sidestand hitting the lever. Ptth. Big deal. I remember seeing, but can't remember where, how to adjust the linkage itself. Way more work than I wanted to put out for the same result.

[Chuck Hatcher]

The plot thickens on the R12GS Adventure. The peg on the shift lever is adjustable, leaving you with three ways to adjust the shifter. With so many ways to go wrong, I was tempted to just leave it the hell alone. In the end I rotated the lever on the splines. It was a good excuse to buy a FEMALE TORX SOCKET! Now come on, BMW, was that REALLY necessary?

[GelStra]

Silly me. I forgot about having to crowbar the wallet for the female Torx head!

[pbbeck]

Thanks for all the feedback.

[scottd]

A true BMW GS rider wouldn't settle for anything less than this:

http://www.advworkshop.com/hammerhead_shifters.htm#leversize

[Joel]

It was a good excuse to buy a FEMALE TORX SOCKET! Now come on, BMW, was that REALLY necessary?

 

Might be different on the GSA, but I've sidestepped that with this helpful tidbit (~1/2 way down).