'03 stalls when shifted from neutral

Mid Sptember I bought an '03 VFR 800. A couple weeks ago the bike developed an annoying habit. The bike will only start in neutral, idles and revs just fine. As soon as I try to shift into gear the bike dies, just cuts right out. Sometimes I can get into gear if I roll the bike while shiting into first. Never stalls again if I can get into first gear once.
Anyone else seen this problem?
Thanks

 

could be your sidestand switch is bad, so the bike thinks the sidestand is down and kills the motor to keep you from driving with the sidestand in the down position, while you are in nuetral, you are OK
the works OK rolling into first, I couldn't explain though

 

Thanks Spike,
I guess I hadn't noticed the correlation before. I now understand the reason it worked while rolling forward was that I made sure to put up the side stand first. My last bike, some 25 years ago, was a 400-4 and it didn't any such interlocks on it.
Dean

 

Ahh, so the switch isn't bad, from the sounds of it now? But yes, off the top of my head (since I have had the new VFR for only a short period of time, but multiple bikes before this). It is designed to prevent you from driving off with the sidestand down or having the bike lurch off the sidestand and crash. So you can have the sidestand down and the bike running with the bike in nuetral, to let it warm up or whatever. But, you need to retract the sidestand, before slipping it into gear. Little safety feature on most newer bikes. I just couldn't say for sure, since the habit is so ingrained in me not to do that, that I don't anymore, and didn't know if the VFR had it as well. Without running out and testing it, which I didn't do.

I almost didn't post, since your comment about rolling forward made me think it might be something else -- and I didn't know what ;-) But I figured start with the simple stuff first.

 

The switch is fine. The problem was operator error, or ignorance. I didn't get an owners manual when I bought the bike, so I'm discovering all these features the hard way.