Very Specific Oil Question
 

The KLX is the only bike I own currently that it becomes almost impossible to shift into neutral when hot. I have noticed that the oil brand/model/type does make a difference. My question is is, "have you used a brand/model/type of oil that made it easier to shift into neutral?"

Mine shifts into neutral fine, using CastrolGTX I believe.. it's Castrol 4T Motorcycle oil, cheapest one they had at Canadian Tire when I went.

Pretty sure you have other problems - not the oil.

But for oil, I only use 100% extra virgin olive oil.

+1 on the EVOO. I only will use the finest imported brands. In a pinch, Rachael Ray's will work.

Now go outside and adjust your clutch cable properly so that you can find neutral.

bought a gallon of yamalube semi-syn for $20....using that...

Rotella T 15w-40.


But yeah, sounds like you have other issues than oil.

Are you putting the oil in the motor or just on the shift lever? Gonna try the EEVOO on my shift lever tonight with some ocimum basilicum. I put Rotella T 15w-40 on the inside. I've read that crud can get into the shift star area and make shifting hard. May be worth a peek if nothing else is working for you. Shifting one gear at a time while rolling solve my hard shifts woes.

The clutch is adjusted properly and the bike shifts perfectly smooth hot or cold. Finding neutral is no problem when the bike is cold or warm. When the oil gets hot, it becomes hard to find neutral at a dead stop. I have tried different oils since I've had the bike and so far the best result was with Pro Honda HP4. The worst was with the Maxima. I was wondering if anyone used a specific oil that seemed to yield better results.

How many gears are you trying to go through at a stop? If you're trying to go from 3rd to N at a stop, you will have problems. You may not realize you are doing it. I didn't. Motorcycle gears like to be moving when shifted. Make a conscious effort to be in 2nd before you come to a stop. You won't have any issues getting to N then. If you are trying to drop 2 or 3 gears while at a stand still, the gears will fight you. I just went through this myself. This bike likes to shift while moving. I thought something was up with the my bike. I tried a few different oils as well. Once I figured out the problem was me and changed the way I rode it, the issue went away.

I'm having the same isses with shifting when hot and it has nothing to do with how or when I down shift. I have been using lucas synthetic motorcycle oil and it has 2k miles on it. I also am having some clutch slippage on a bike with around 5,000 miles on it. And yes it is in perfect adjustmet. This is weird as I'm a Honda guy and I haven't treated this bike any differently that the 30 or so Honda's I've owned but it seems to be failing prematurely.