My clutch is very hard to operate. After a couple of hours riding it gets quite painful. It's not that I'm weak, it just seems to aggravate the tendons in my hand. So I went to the dealers and checked out several models there - to mine, and their surprise, some were easy, some were hard. When they looked up the parts, the service guy said that the clutches are "car type" clutches and that in his experience, working as a car mechanic, these had very variable spring rates. Quality control on them isn't great and they can be sourced from different suppliers. I've done everything I can to free it up, cable is working freely and so is the the lever bushing, the problem is inside the engine. Only other solutions I can see are either to get a longer actuation lever made up or perhaps a hydraulic conversion. Has anyone suffered similar?
Hi Niglom I can't speak from experience of your bike, but what the garage guy is saying is just a load of cobblers. The clutch assembly on a bike is completely to cars and the springs are specifically rated to achieve a particular "squeeze" on the plates. He's talking out of his arse. On of the most obvious reasons a bike clutch is stiff is if the actuating rod and spring plate are not centred correctly. It tends to bind on actuation instead of sliding smoothly.
To check/correct the clutch rod/plunger centring should take about 45mins tops - it's easy access. This is a bit boring but you'll see what I'm talking about:
To check/correct the clutch rod/plunger centring should take about 45 mins tops - it's easy access. This is a bit boring but you'll see what I'm talking about:
