IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT
Often the operator is blamed for a bent or damaged shift forks. "You must have been pressing down too hard on the shift lever." Sometimes a worn or damaged shift drum is found too. This damage is a symptom and caused form ghost shifting. Our Wings are designed to be shifted at "foot speed." Ghost shifting can happen so fast it puts tremendous stress on the forks, causing them to bend and crack. The shift drum will get damaged too.
FORK AND SHIFT DRUM DAMAGE IS CAUSED FROM GHOST SHIFTING AND NOT FROM YOU
Lately many blame ghost shifting on metal quality. When gears are manufactured, the metal must meet a manufacturing standard. If the metal is inferior, the gears will crack and break, or wear prematurely. Some gears do crack, but only after thousands of miles of ghost shifting abuse, while others show wear known as "cancer" or pitting. Cancer shows up as the gears are used or worn. Therefore, the metal quality theory is not true since some Wings ghost shift when almost new. At that young age, the gears rarely show signs of cracking and no signs of cancer either. As Lloyd from the UK wrote in an email he sent "I own a 2008 with 1700 miles on it, and it just started ghost shifting ..." I can guarantee that if those gears are removed and magna fluxed, they will not show signs of cancer or cracks, but, as he states, it is a ghost shifter.
NOT CAUSED FROM POOR METAL QUALITY
Often ghost shifting becomes a warranty complaint and repaired under warranty. After some of them are repaired, they become a ghost shifter again. We've corrected some of those Wings. Some state they were told their transmission failed because it was not assembled correctly by the manufacture. That is possible. Much of the assembling is "fail safe," but clips and washers can be missing, or incorrectly installed affecting a transmission's operation. The likelihood of those transmissions being corrected once repaired is likely. But what about the others? How about the ones assembled correctly from the manufacture, repaired, and ghost shift again? Were they not repaired correctly? Is there another problem? Does the transmission have a design flaw? Is it the operator, or maybe something during the manufacturing process affecting one transmission but not others? Since it is not known what really causes ghost shifting, it is known that replacing the damaged parts does not guarantee correction.
NOT CAUSED FROM FOOTWEAR, RIDER HEIGHT, OR CLUTCH LEVER ADJUSTMENT
Fellow forum members have posted surveys attempting to blame boot type or style causing the ghost shifting problem. The belief was that footwear can put the "shift foot" in a better shifting position then other footwear. In the survey, it was discovered that boot type, shoe type, and sandal type has nothing to do with ghost shifting. We've always considered the possibility that the shift problem was more likely to happen to taller riders. Like the boot thing, a riders foot position throwing the shift timing off since a taller person is more likely to have their toes pointed more towards the ground and further away for the shifter then a shorter person's who's feet may lay more flat on the foot pegs. This theory seems false too. An old girl friend, who is 5'7", bought a new Wing, and it ghost shifted while leaving the showroom. It ghost shifts on me too, and I am 6'0". Another suspicion is clutch lever adjustment. The adjustment wheel on the 3 GL1800s I've owned all ghost shifted on setting #1. The girl friend mentioned above has hers set on #5. Therefore, clutch lever adjustment can be eliminated as a possible cause too.