A couple of glitches - thoughts please

Hey all

As you might have noticed I went on the Essex/Suffolk ride yesterday, and had a couple of issues.

1. Before the ride I had been playing with my clutch cable adjuster, because I had started to notice that unless I had it firmly and fully pulled in, that I was creeping forward in 1st. Maybe the cable just needs replaced because it has stretched over time? No issues on the 70 miles to the meeting point, but as the day went on I had increasing issues going into neutral - eventually I just couldn't get into neutral, and either held the clutch in or switched off the engine. After a cuppa I then reversed what I'd done with the cable and selecting neutral became easier, albeit with the side effect that I had to be careful with a very sensitive biting point when moving off.

2. After I left Phil I started heading home - just head down the A12 to the M25 and follow it back home. However the rain/visibility was so bad I pulled off the M25 to go through town. Stuck in heavy traffic, the clutch issues were a major pain, and I eventually stalled the bike at lights. This is when I could not restart the bike - it turned over, weakly, but would not start. I thought that as I'd been using the heated grips I might have depleted a weak battery. However, after a 90 mins wait for the RAC, it started immediately! I rode it home....grrrr..

3. Needless to say the bike was cold by the time I got it going again. The clutch issues didn't trouble me until I was nearer home - made me think that there might be a link to the engine temp?

4. Unless anyone thinks there's a link between the clutch and the starting problems, I might choose to think I was just unlucky with heavy rain getting into the electrics and affecting the ignition (even though I rode up to Donny last month in similar conditions), and it started again because it just dried out whilst I was waiting on the RAC?

Right now, I'm more concerned about the clutch/cable

Any thoughts?

Rick

I think you are right, hopefully the restarting issue was a one off, any sniff of it again and its gen4 time .

the clutch adjustment is different on the beemers to any other bike ive had. normally about 5mm of free play but on the beemers i find it has to be cold when adjusting and you only want 1mm if that of free play. it loosens up when hot. if you adjust when hot its all most impossible to get it right and it will cause clutch drag that will affect the starting. this is the worst clutch ive ever had on any bike and its the same on all the gens ive had. ive had a 10, 11,15 and now a 17. trying to get it in gear when hot is bloody awful and easier from 2nd than 1st. The 17 has been the worst of the lot.

oh and aftermarket levers need to be fully out to allow enough pull to operated the clutch, ive even tried different ones. the HP were rubbish and the gilles FX have been the best because there thinner.

As r25sti says you need 1 mm of clutch free-play measured at the perch.
To my knowledge clutch free-play can?t affect starting, as I believe it is independent of the micro-switches.
However, insufficient clutch free-play causes slip, whereas excess free-play causes drag, as you report in the OP.
Engine temperature makes a big difference on clutch free-play, though I?ve always set it with a warm engine as I personally find doing it the other way round results in excess free-play when the bike warms up.
This wasn?t so much of an issue on my OEM clutch-pack, however since having a fresh aftermarket set of plates installed a while back I find that I need literally no free play when cold as it slackens off massively when hot. Failure to do this in my case results in the clutch issues you describe in the OP.


- Oli

Have you checked the adjustment on the engine side?

Sounds like the locking nut is loose to me and the cable is rattling lose while riding.

I have not adjusted my clutch once in 7k so don't see why it would go out so quickly.