TOPIC:

Is this normal? When my bike is on the centerstand and in neutral, the back tire cruises along to the idle. I don't feel it when I'm on the bike in neutral, so I was wondering whether anyone else has that too and whether it means something or not?

Normal! No worries. Most do that.

That is normal, every bike I've owned did the same thing.

My B1 does the same thing...sometimes.
IIRC, I remember reading something about it on rec.motorcycles.tech. I'll have to see if I can find it, as it kind of explains why that happens.

THanks for the offer mariozappa, but as long as I know that is normal, I guess I don't need to know why. Thanks anyway.

It is because of friction of your clutch plates. Even with the clutch disengaged, the plates have a bit of friction... if you adjust the clutch to where the wheel doesn't move at all when idling/neutral, the clutch will slip badly out on the road. It is normal!

FWIW, here's what the infamous krusty kritter had to say about it on r.m.t.
However, he isn't talking about a KZ.

There is NOTHING wrong with the clutch. Your motorcycle has a constant
mesh gearbox. All ten gears are always meshed with their opposite gear
even when the gearbox is in neutral. There are NO bearings inside the
free-wheeling gears. The free-wheeling gears spin on the shafts on a
steel-to-steel mating surface. Fortunately, there is oil on the
mainshaft and countershaft. But oil has viscous drag. It's a little
sticky. In your transmission, the oil is sticky enough to make the
freewheeling gears on the mainshaft turn the pinion gears on the
countershaft. Viscous oil drag turns gears on the countershaft, even
though the gearbox is in neutral. The countershaft turns the
countershaft sprocket. The countershaft sprocket pulls the chain, the
rear wheel spins when the engine idles. Especially when the oil is
cold. If you want the rear wheel to stop spinning, put your shoe
against it, it will stop. Pull your shoe away, the spinning will start
again.

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE THIS UNINTENTIONAL WHEEL ROTATION TO LUBE YOUR
CHAIN!!!!


You'll cut your fingers off...

Actually in neutral your clutch is not causing the drag. In neutral your clutch cannot transmit any power to the rear wheel. This is why when your engine is running while you are in nuetral the bike will not move forward regardless of whether your clutch lever is pulled in or let out. You are in neutral! the clutch has no effect. Not trying to argue, just relaying the fact. If you look at your transmission gears while in idle spinning you can get the idea what is going on, you can take the clutch basket completely out of the picture. Each transmission shaft has a number of gears, some have dogs that are slid to engage other gears, some are splined to be permanantly turning with it's respective shaft. Directly next to some of the splined gears are other gears that are used as idlers that are not permanantly attached to the shaft. These are gears the dogged gears engage when you engage a gear. These gears are all held on a shaft with thrust washers and C clips to hold them where they are supposed to be. In neutral all the dogs are disengaged, the ouput shaft is turning when your engine is running, also 2 gears are always turning that are splined to it, but directly next to these gears are gears that are not splined that will not be spinning, but due to friction and the fact they are directly next to the spinning gears some drag will be transfered to these gears while running in neutral, enough to spin the wheel. The only reason I'm saying this is I had a transmission problem once on one of my 650s when it was brand new. It was a defective transmission. 5th gear and second gear are 2 of these gears held on the output shaft with clips and thrustwashers. One of these gears had the bushing not completely pressed on, effectively making the gear too wide for its space on the shaft. This caused a major drag betwen these two gears and basically no neutral. 5th and second were always trying to turn each other.
wiredgeorge wrote:

It is because of friction of your clutch plates. Even with the clutch disengaged, the plates have a bit of friction... if you adjust the clutch to where the wheel doesn't move at all when idling/neutral, the clutch will slip badly out on the road. It is normal!

mariozappa wrote:

FWIW, here's what the infamous krusty kritter had to say about it on r.m.t.
[snip] But oil has viscous drag. It's a little
sticky.

Makes sense, Kinda like a torque converter uses similar fluid dynamics.