[Alastair]

Bought a Duke 890 r a couple of months back which, fundamentally, I love; it's a massively enjoyable bike, but I'm struggling with the quickshifter. I have a Translogic shifter on another bike, so it's not like I have no experience of using them, but on quite a few instances, I find it'll give me the gear I'm asking for for a fraction of a second, give me a false neutral and rev to the redline, and then drop me back to the gear I was in before!
Has anyone else had a similar experience? Am I expecting aftermarket performance from a "stock" (though not enabled) product?
More importantly just now, could this issue be damaging the gearbox?
Thanks in advance.
Alastair.

 

[Ak47bravo]

I have not had anything like this with my Duke. I just had a track day and was using the quickshift the whole time for upshifts and downshifts with 0 issue.

 

[thesoapster]

Yes, I've had this happen before. It's funny that I find downshifts to be much more simple/smooth. How many miles do you have? I feel like it gets better with more mileage. In fact I was told by my dealer when I picked it up that KTM recommends not touching the quickshifter at all during break-in...then they (the dealer) kind of shrugged it off. So, yeah, one of the first few times I tried upshifting, I hit a false neutral and got some big revs. Keep riding it, keep your chain tension in spec...it should improve if you have lower miles (I'm at about 4300 for reference). I have also found that for upshifts to really go well, I need to be more aggressive all around.

 

[DerBrizon]

Inhad a false neutral and fell back to 5th trying to shift to 6th 3 times now.

My experience is that they all happened in low RPM, low throttle, and I was not being very spirited in my attempt to shift. In fact it was a downright lazy shift each time on the highway.

 

[Day Trippin]

Am I expecting aftermarket performance from a "stock" (though not enabled) product?

Are you saying you don't have the QS enabled by the dealer? So are you trying to use it like a quickshifter without the software enabled to actually make it work that way?

 

[davemon]

Mine has the quickshifter enabled and it works great. I did have some fails on upshifts on track though. Pretty high revs with the bike coming up from full lean and try to grab a gear... not fun. OUt of one tight 1st gear corner, I started using the clutch as a little on my lap time isn't worth making some poor person crash into the rear end of my bike because my shifter failed. It works flawlessly on the street at 75%. I will experiment more on track.

 

[nosurrenda]

Although I've got an SDR, I can report having similar issues as the OP when I first bought it. I have a Translogic on my GSXR 1000 and only requires a tap for it to work seamlessly. KTM's, on the other hand, require a much more complete shift. In the end I put a reverse pattern kit on my SDR which has significantly improved the QS. In street pattern I had no confidence in it whatsoever.

 

[kevxtx]

Try lowering your gear lever a few mm, this will allow for a deeper gear engagement.

 

[redline675]

Should I get the duke 790 for $7.5k (KTM's currently running a rebate deal) or the 890 for $12k? (11.7k msrp plus tech pack)

 

[davemon]

I did play around some more with my quick shifter under high load, and it's really good. The main issue is 1st to 2nd shifts under full throttle track style use. Recently, I tried a fix and haven't tested that yet. I'm wondering about the torque for the nut holding the shifter lever into the transmission should be and if it's a thread locker application. Has anyone got that info?

I saw this elsewhere (790 forum?) as folks said the shift lever attached to the gearbox should be at 90 degrees compared to the shaft coming up from the shift lever foot control. In the pic above, mine was close (at about 75-80 degrees), so I adjusted it to 90 degrees. When I opened it up, the "D" mark and the notch in the splined shaft were lined up perfectly, so now those are off by a bit, but I have 90 degrees between the long shaft and the lever attached to the transmission.

 

[K-Mac]

You could take the bike to your dealer and ask them to do the quick-shifter calibration procedure with the KTM diagnostic tablet. I had mine done for the same issues you are having, and it fixed it. Hopefully, your KTM dealer knows how to do the procedure correctly.

 

[davemon]

You could take the bike to your dealer and ask them to do the quick-shifter calibration procedure with the KTM diagnostic tablet. I had mine done for the same issues you are having, and it fixed it. Hopefully, your KTM dealer knows how to do the procedure correctly.

I will certainly do that next. I figured to fiddle with this as getting the bike to the dealer is not easy for me and it's hard for them to schedule the work while I wait.

 

[DerBrizon]

From the top of my head, the repair manual calls for the low strength (yellow?) Loctite on the shifter bolts. I cant remember the torque, but with loctite it nk probably isnt super critical.

 

[davemon]

From the top of my head, the repair manual calls for the low strength (yellow?) Loctite on the shifter bolts. I cant remember the torque, but with loctite it nk probably isnt super critical.

Cool. Thank you. I have the weaker blue version I use on brake parts, I will use a little of that and torque enough to make that stuff do its magic crystalization thing.

 

[DerBrizon]

Yea, you'll be fine with that.

 

[nwreed]

Bought a Duke 890 r a couple of months back which, fundamentally, I love; it's a massively enjoyable bike, but I'm struggling with the quickshifter. I have a Translogic shifter on another bike, so it's not like I have no experience of using them, but on quite a few instances, I find it'll give me the gear I'm asking for for a fraction of a second, give me a false neutral and rev to the redline, and then drop me back to the gear I was in before!
Has anyone else had a similar experience? Am I expecting aftermarket performance from a "stock" (though not enabled) product?
More importantly just now, could this issue be damaging the gearbox?
Thanks in advance.
Alastair.

I'm dealing with the same issue on my 890R it seems to be fine on the street but on the track, the quick shifter is giving me the exact same behavior. I've had it into two dealers now to have it calibrated and it still hasn't fixed the problem. I called KTM USA and they said having it calibrated would be covered under warranty but the dealers still charged me for it. shrug The last dealer I took it to for this problem told me I needed to learn how to use a quick shifter and to always pull the clutch lever in at least halfway before using the quick shifter......yeah about that...just no. None of the other bikes I've had with up/down quick shifters have had this problem. Between that and the fact that it decided to puke all its oil out this weekend at the track, I'm starting to get a little jaded. But hope somebody finds a solution to the qs problem.

 

[Don Lopez]

I’m glad the mechanic at my dealership isn’t stupid and actually believes you need to touch the clutch. I used to hit neutral occasionally going from 1st to 2nd, so now I just wait until going to 3rd. Mine QS doesn’t care where the throttle is going up or down, shifts fairly smooth, and I don’t touch the clutch. I do keep traction control on always. I’m on a 790 Adv R.

 

[joshboy2]

I got a 2021 890 R from the dealer a few months ago. Got the QS tech pack I've put 600 miles on it. Not once in those 600 miles have I been able to get the bike into neutral. Impossible. Unless the bike is turned off then it finds neutral easily. I took it to the dealer and they said "yeah 890s are like that, it's normal" but I've ridden bikes for 10 years and I've never experience anything like this. I mean literally impossible to find neutral. Dealer also said, "make sure you're rolling to find neutral" --No. Can't do it rolling either. I'm not an idiot, the bike can't go into neutral. What should I do?

 

[obobo]

on my 890 R, I find neutral easily. your dealer tells you nonsense

 

[MXT]

I got a 2021 890 R from the dealer a few months ago. Got the QS tech pack I've put 600 miles on it. Not once in those 600 miles have I been able to get the bike into neutral. Impossible. Unless the bike is turned off then it finds neutral easily. I took it to the dealer and they said "yeah 890s are like that, it's normal" but I've ridden bikes for 10 years and I've never experience anything like this. I mean literally impossible to find neutral. Dealer also said, "make sure you're rolling to find neutral" --No. Can't do it rolling either. I'm not an idiot, the bike can't go into neutral. What should I do?

I had difficulty finding neutral on my 2020 790 Duke before I installed the Factory Pro Shift Kit on my bike. Now my bike is happy to drop into neutral between 1 and 2 when I'm stopped.