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In gear or neutral?

The rest of the right answer,,,shut down clutch in and in gear,, park it and leave it in gear incline or not. Prevents stupid things from happening like a knucklehead bumping into it and tipping it over,, Starting is clutch in,, gearbox in neutral,,, seems like common sense.
 
With the clutch pulled in, you aren't turning the mass of gears in the trans either. Just cranking the primary and clutch basket. The plates will break free.

As Glider says, start in neutral w/clutch pulled for minimum drag...park in gear to prevent bike from moving if parked on incline or some incompetent passer by'er (read "fiddling fool") playing "racer boy" with your bike, knocking it over, may serve them right if it fell on them, but you would pay the price. :devil
 
i park it in gear, as my 7 year old likes to sit on it and fire it up.

put in neutral before starting to avoid the cold clutch surge
 
Sometimes I forget and leave it in gear in the garage...I am old so cut me a break...Sometimes it doesn't seem to like going into neutral when it is cold....so I pull the clutch, start in gear. and then shift into neutral.

Question...is it better to "force" it into neutral to start with a cold bike??
 
"Force" does not give me a mental image of anything that's good for a bike. :) Rock your bike so the wheels move while shifting... or even ease out on the clutch to a wee bit of friction if necessary. The trans should shift into neutral with little effort.
 
Sometimes I forget and leave it in gear in the garage...I am old so cut me a break...Sometimes it doesn't seem to like going into neutral when it is cold....so I pull the clutch, start in gear. and then shift into neutral.

Question...is it better to "force" it into neutral to start with a cold bike??


You can do damage by forcing the trans into any position. Always just roll the bike a bit and it should drop in. Just think of two gears trying to engage and they meet head to head, all the forcing in the world will not help you but it will only damage the weakest link in the system.
 
Before I start it I engage 1st gear and rock it back in forth a few times to free up the clutch plates. I start in neutral with the clutch in and let it warm up. I shift into 2nd first to get it moving a little and then drop it into first while it’s still moving.
 
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