Transmission issues?

[goofyexponent]

I bought myself what appeared to be a really nice used Gio 125 dritbike. The thing has LOTS of power, and moves my 200 pound rearend like a cat with it's tail on fire.

However, I seem to have a really hard time finding nuetral while I am sitting still. And what's worse off than that, the bike seems to find neutral when I try and get going...like first...then it goes into neutral when I go to second....I thoght it was me missing the shift, but today I had it out for all of 15 minutes and it is now popping out of gear and going into neutral all on it's own.

I have ridden and owned bikes before, and I have NEVER had this issue...is it a Gio thing, or should I bet on a new engine and transmission within the next little while?

[Weldangrind]

Welcome!

Try a couple of things first. Change the oil to synthetic; maybe 15W40 at this time of year due to the heat. Check the clutch adjustment; there should be a little freeplay at the lever. Shoot for about 1/2" at the perch gap.

My son had one of those bikes, and neutral was always problematic. Synthetic oil and some break-in time helped.

[goofyexponent]

I was thinking on synthetic, but I didn't know if these things liked it or not...I ran it in my pickup's transmission and it HATED it! (1997 zf S5-47 in an F30) but that I think was mainly because of the syncros.... bikes don't have syncros....so you are onto something there!!

I think it might also be a break in thing as well, it only has had 3 tanks of gas ran through it (and I just put the 3rd one through it last night over the course of 3 days). Once it gets into gear and stays there, it definitly hauls the mail though!!

Why do people always knock these things? Everyone was sayign things like "nice dollar store bike" and "Get a brand name bike" and crap like that.....I was a diesel mechanic for 2 years, and currently work on a fleet of 5 tandem dump trucks (not a lot I know, but still) and I see NO reason why these bikes won't last if taken care of properly.

[makenzie71]

Welcome!

Try a couple of things first. Change the oil to synthetic; maybe 15W40 at this time of year due to the heat. Check the clutch adjustment; there should be a little freeplay at the lever. Shoot for about 1/2" at the perch gap.

My son had one of those bikes, and neutral was always problematic. Synthetic oil and some break-in time helped.

If you run with synthetic oil make sure you go with one designed for wet clutches. If you go and get the stuff made for cars you can kiss your clutch plates goodbye.

[Weldangrind]

As long as the synthetic oil is meant for four stroke motorcycles, you'll be fine. Since you speak diesel, several of us use Rotella T (some of us use synthetic) 15W50, because it is non-energy conserving. Translation: it doesn't have friction modifiers that will mess up a wet clutch.

I see NO reason why these bikes won't last if taken care of properly.

My thoughts exactly. Sometimes it takes a bit of work to optimize the combination, but they're lots of fun. As FastDoc says, they require a sense of humour.

[goofyexponent]

That works out good, because I run Rotella in the 7.3 in the pickup....damn good oil for the $$!

We even run the rotella in the 3406B caterpillar engines and the three 400 big cam Cummins engines in the trucks at work.