Topic: the Nighthawk rides again (I swear this time I'm serious!)

[eigenvector]

Finally got the bike back together - total replacement of the shifter components.

Took it out for a blue sky late winter ride - shifts smoothly and solidly, at least from 1st to 3rd and back again.  I had a tank of 18 month old gas in it, so the engine wasn't so peppy - but it shifted!

Next item up for bid is the exhaust - still way way too loud.  The neighborhood kids love it - has that sweet inline 4 burble, but just far too loud.  But it shifted!

[Killer Canary]

Sweet!
What was the problem?

[eigenvector]

I am somewhat in the dark about that.

My gut tells me that the shift shaft was just flat worn out, my other notion is that the shift drum shifter gears were slightly out of alignment - essentially they disengaged from the shift shaft before the upshift could occur and they jammed when trying to shift down.

But I replaced the internals no matter what - new shift springs, shift shaft, shift drum toggles, and shift drum stopper.