Clutch/stickey Engagement

03 VFR, 20k miles, oil change 1000k ago, clutch fluid change 2months ago.

I've been getting this problem that has progressively becoming worse. It doesn't matter cold morning or end of 8 hour ride. This can happen pulling out from a stop or shifting into 2nd, or even 3rd. The lower the gear the more noticeable, obviously.

Here's what happens:

The action of pulling in the clutch, shifting the gear, applying throttle, releasing the clutch is where the problem shows up. At some point between applying throttle and releasing the clutch it's as if the clutch, itself not the lever, gets stuck. Meanwhile I'm increasing the throttle expecting the engine load to increase, and just as revs are 2k more than I'm prepared for, the clutch drops and the bike lurches. This is very embarrassing at a stop light, not to mention dangerous as I usually go about 3-4 feet before I halt the bike down.

Any ideas as to what this might be?

TIA,
Craig

I would tend to think it is too new of a bike to have clutch basket problems. It sound excately like a clutch basket that is worn. This normally happens on dirt bike, but I've seen it on street bikes that have been ridden hard for alot of miles (like BR's, which I haven't heard any complaints). Here is a link to a pic of a bad basket I found on google. What happens is when you release pressure (by releasing the clutch lever) from the pressure plate, the ears of the friction/fiber plates start sliding along the clutch basket. If the side of the basket isn't smooth you will get a very jerky engagement. I hope this isn't the problem.

The bike is still under warranty...is clutch basket usually covered?

Had very similar symptoms, turned out to be the pivot in the clutch lever... the little brass plug that pushes on the master cylinder plunger, it rotates inside the lever... The old lube had dried up and it was sticking everything together.

I think if you open the oil fill plug in the clutch cover you can see the basket with a flashlight good enough to tell if the clutch disks are digging into the basket, for this to happen I would imagine it would have had to move a lot of metal and would be noticeable.

[image: View Post]Car54, on Aug 14 2008, 08:18 AM, said:

The bike is still under warranty...is clutch basket usually covered?
My bet would be no, it's not covered. But thereisnospoon brought up a very good point that I just confirmed; you can indeed see the basket inside the filler plug.

Might be a long shot, but....

I just had the slave cylinder off for a front sprocket change, and of course the slave cylinder piston shot out. I reassembled it and bleed the clutch hydraulics. I also found the found the push rod to be dry as a bone, so I put a very light coat of brake caliper grease on it. The end result was buttery smooth shifts. Way better than before.

You may need to bleed the clutch again....it took along time before I was able to get all the air out of the system.