Shifting while the bike is off

While I was wiring up my xj650 maxim I wanted to test to see if the neutral switch was working so i tried to shift it in and out of neutral from 1st gear to neutral and neutral to second. For the life of me i couldn't get it to shift gears. I can hear and feel the shifter clicking trying to get in gear but it just doesn't want to grab. I dont know if this is a clutch issue or shifter issue. I was able to get it to shift if i continuously hit the shifter down repeatedly.

I just rebuilt the clutch, springs checked the baskets and it's all torqued to spec. I have oil in the bike and I haven't started the bike since may.

Is this common or should i be worried?

 

Normal operation.
The gears in the gearbox need to be moving for the meshing to take place most of the time. (ie engine running)
Turn the rear wheel with your foot or hand and it will lock in.

 

Thanks for calming my fears!

 

My old XS650 used to act like this at stoplights, even with the engine running, sometimes I had to rock the bike back and forth to catch the neutral.

 

did you ever solve the problem? i had to do that from time to time too. I always thought it was a clutch issue.

 

I didn't bother trying to solve the problem because it was intermittent on mine too.

 

Difficulty shifting at a stop is usually down to the clutch freeplay not being set up correctly, and even then it can still happen. It's just the nature of non-synchro transmissions.