frogman
'74 CB360, '71 CB450, '75 CB550SS
Using automotive type oil will cause the clutch to slip, they don't like the additives that make the oil slippery, wonder why? I've gone to diesel truck oil now mainly because its cheap and has more zinc which is good for air-cooled engines. Rotella 15w-40 is what I run year round.
Now the 1,2 gear thing. That's a common problem with 450 engines, they will all suffer from it eventually. Most of the issue has to do with the shift drum stop parts wearing out, simple easy fixes if you can find the parts. The rarer issues come from the older engines that had soft shift forks, which would bend with repeated use which then causes wear on internal trany parts.
Both can happen any time in the bikes life, just depends on how much shifting you do.
Instead of typing it out, I'll just link a recent discussion on Honda Twins about this exact issue. Its fixable and if you are lucky the engine doesn't have to come out either.
http://www.hondatwins.net/forums/55-engine-discussion/29852-infamous-2nd-gear-popout.html
And if you haven't spent any time looking at the Twins forums, you will not find a larger amount of 450 information and expert advice anywhere.
Now the 1,2 gear thing. That's a common problem with 450 engines, they will all suffer from it eventually. Most of the issue has to do with the shift drum stop parts wearing out, simple easy fixes if you can find the parts. The rarer issues come from the older engines that had soft shift forks, which would bend with repeated use which then causes wear on internal trany parts.
Both can happen any time in the bikes life, just depends on how much shifting you do.
Instead of typing it out, I'll just link a recent discussion on Honda Twins about this exact issue. Its fixable and if you are lucky the engine doesn't have to come out either.
http://www.hondatwins.net/forums/55-engine-discussion/29852-infamous-2nd-gear-popout.html
And if you haven't spent any time looking at the Twins forums, you will not find a larger amount of 450 information and expert advice anywhere.