So my bike had been playing up in recent months, slipping out of gear, making horrible rattly noises which stopped when I kicked the gear lever upwards. It still worked so I wasn’t too bothered - had similar issues with my previous two bikes (Yamaha Virago 750 and Suzuki Bandit 1250).
However in the past week the noise has been more noticeable, then last night on my commute home it made a big bang sound, after which I lost second gear. The other gears work but there’s clearly debris in the gearbox casing as you can hear it rattling around. I guess the second gear cog has broken.
I made it the 18 miles home back to Caterham from Westminster but VERY slowly, in case the debris got caught up in the works and the transmission seized.
I’m assuming open heart surgery is now needed on the bike which will cost more than the bike’s worth - I bought it for £4k three years ago. Unfortunately it looks like the engine will need to come out etc so a lot of labour costs, and of course the cost of the replacement bits.
I’ve provisionally booked the bike in with my excellent mechanic but the soonest he can do it is 17 August. Not keen for anyone else to fix it that I don’t know - had a lot of nightmare experiences with mechanics and Ollie’s the only one I trust.
So putting this out there in case anyone who reads/googles this has experienced the same thing and has words of wisdom to offer or learn from my experience, or in case someone wants a project like this and take it off my hands, it’s a nice looking red and black GSX-S1000 with upgraded Nitro rear suspension, aftermarket Brembo brakes, quickshifter (which I never use) and a cool number plate reflecting its K6 GSX-R roots.