Beautiful Colorado morning today so I got to ride in to work again. Got to work without a problem. Went to take a lunchtime ride and grab some grub and I think my second gear grenaded or more likely bent the shift fork. When the bike is in second and I let the clutch out it just sounds like a bunch of rocks tumbling around in a coffee can. It's one of those sounds that if you have worked on mechanical things and vehicles most of your life, hurts your ears. Prior to today it would slip from second into neutral once in a while under hard acceleration, but I though it was because I wasn't shifting it with enough authority (as is a known thing I've read on these bikes).

Now I'm stranded at work, bike runs fine in 1st gear, MAYBE able to get it to shift past second in to third. All other gears work perfectly if I can get it past 2nd.

I have no way to get home and get my truck so I have to attempt to ride this thing.

Today is not a good day.

That's a real bummer, I hope you made it home ok. Nothing worse than getting stranded. Good Luck.

You'll be right you used up all the bad luck for today.

Probably too late now, but I'd have tried rocking it into third gear with the engine off, then tried (very gingerly) to start it. Hope you did get home okay.

Made it home! I was concerned that if I had actually grenaded the gear that there would have been pieces in the trans that may jam it so I avoided the highways. All of the other gears worked fine and I found that if I went from first to second, bumped the clutch just a hair, it would engage 2nd and then I could shift to third.

I made it 27 out of my 30 mile commute when things got worse.

I live kind of out in the country, so I take some rural roads to get home. I'm rolling about 55mph down a long stretch of the road. I'm in 5th gear going just fine. I hear something funny. Sounds kind of like a coffee grinder actually. I slow and pull the clutch. The bike lurched and dropped out of gear. The indicator didn't read a gear at all, just blank. Releasing the clutch, it wasn't IN a gear. I pulled it to the side of the road.

Once stopped I tried to down shift and it went into 4th. I was able to downshift into 1st and take off again. Did my little clutch trick and got it back up to about 40 and rolling in 4th. I didn't have to stop the rest of the commute, but whenever I pulled the clutch in I heard the coffee grinder noise.

The bike is in the garage, I'm safe, I have found some replacement transmissions and have inquiries out.
At this point I'm pretty sure the whole kit and caboodle is garbage. I'm actually disappointed that trans parts cost so much more than just rebuilding the one I currently have being as rebuilding a manual trans is pretty simple.

I will take this "tragedy" and turn it into an opportunity. I was going to break down the bike and do the spline lube this winter, I guess I'm just going to start that evolution sooner. While I'm at it I'm going to take every piece I am able off of the bike and clean it up (sandblast, polish, etc). The engine has the factory silver and some of it isn't in the best condition and it looks as if previous owners tried to clean the rest of the bike with a brillo pad. I will either paint or polish the parts, I'm not sure yet. 

I'm just disappointed that a bike that I've had for a whopping month with only 41k miles on it is down for the count. Oh well, it's old, it's to be expected.

Thanks all for the concern!

Sorry for the long-winded post. I like to be descriptive.

Do you know, it actually sounds like a selector fork has broken. Been there with similar symptoms on a Guzzi. And I've still got the remains of the selector fork!

I'm guessing it is a fork also, but the coffee grinder sound is what I am guessing a blown bearing. Either way the trans needs replaced.

I found one today locally from an 88 for $175 so I'm going to pick it up after work. There are some cheaper ones on eBay, but with shipping and no guarantee. I don't mind paying my local motorcycle salvage yard a few bucks more for the piece of mind that I have dealt with them many times and they will take care of me if anything is wrong.

Now I'm thinking I can be rolling again by Sunday if the womanboss lets me have the garage time and doesn't fill my weekend with home improvements!