neutral between 4th and 5th???

Hey guys, i went for a ride yesterday on my zx9, first time in a while, im in melbourne, i went up around cardinia reservoir to emerald, then down to beaconsfield and back into the city, it took about 3 hours (including lunch) and i was taking it pretty easy, sitting in between 80 and 100 for most of it... NEhu! on the way back, i was sitting at about 70 and the revs were at about 3 1/2 grand and i tried to put it up into 5th... i was feeling lazy =P i kicked it up but nothing happened. the gears didnt grab so i knocked it back down and there was a big clunk, then everything was fine again... was this entirely user error? it was a pretty hot day aswell, probably close to 40 with heat off the road, i dont know if that could be a contributing factor. Anyway, any thoughts would be helpful, cheers guys!

IF you didn't kick it up far enough....... operator error , knocking it back down without the clutch will cause a clunk too
However, the 9's do love a little care and attention to the pivot points on the gear lever - if you haven't done it yet, then it's worth stripping the linkage, cleaning and greasing the pivot points

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yeah, i may have not put enough effort into the gear change... ah well, live and learn.

As far as giving the lever a clean, should i pull it all apart, or can i get away with just removing the lever and a few bolts... im a hands on guy but i havent done it before and im pretty paranoid about putting everything back together the right way... the less i take off the less there is for me to scew up! =P

(thanks for the diagram too! handy)

Mine also gets smoother with more revs, at 3500 it may not need the next gear

Rossi you should publish a revised manual ........."for mechanically void riders" that denoted graphic is what most need to try minor tasks if not sure of their ability ........gotta be market there

While riding mine i went to kick it up from 4th to 5th yesterday at roughly 3500 too. Neutral.......... no clunk though, i clutched it and waited for the revs to drop before selecting 5th again.

What time was it? Perhaps it was an organised event that all 9's would refuse 5th at 4:50pm yesterday.

Might just be a Kawasaki thing. No shit, mine did the exact same thing yesterday afternoon too.

this woulda been at about half 2... maybe 5th went to the dentist?....

those ball joint type things with the clean and grease red lines. Also check that where the are fitted to the levers that they are not loose, just had my six apart and they had worked loose so just peened the rivits over and it shifts better now, a lot less sloppy.

Rossi you should publish a revised manual ........."for mechanically void riders" that denoted graphic is what most need to try minor tasks if not sure of their ability ........gotta be market there

I'd love to take the credit for it, but I got it from somewhere else (buggered if I can remember though) & knew it would come in handy to explain to someone else

Pretty common with the Z1000 also. I don't know if it's the same transmission but tthe engine is the same. I use Mobil one fully synthetic plus Jim Beam and unless I short shift I have no sober moments.

Chain might need adjusting or be in need of replacement, sometimes you get dodgy gearchanges when they aren't 100%

stop being so gentle, bang em into gear, they aint women you know.

Could be a host of things, oil, selectors, gear shift links, clutch adjustment, idle adjustment, chain being to tight (as mentioned), not enough boot polish, speedo incorrect, same with tacho, nah just kidding it has to be the nut holding the bars