RiderSite.com - Motorcycle Forums

Had a good long ride on Sunday, but during the afternoon noticed that the clutch lever had over 1 inch play (before engaging). This was not normal. After a while riding it went back to normal.

I thought it may of been due to the heat, but noticed the same today. Fine this morning, but when I got on it this evening at work, the play had returned. Then disappeared again.

Clutch fluid is not low. Any ideas

Air in the system?
Degraded clutch fluid?
If you still have rubber hoses, maybe they have perished enough to expand/contract outside of tolerances?
Id bleed it a couple of times and see if that sorts it out.

Bleed through some fresh clutch fluid and that'll sort it. I do mine on a regular basis, everytime it goes really black in the reservoir and it keeps it nice n firm (ooo err!!)

HTH

Falcoholic wrote:Bleed through some fresh clutch fluid and that'll sort it. I do mine on a regular basis, everytime it goes really black in the reservoir and it keeps it nice n firm (ooo err!!)

HTH

So you bleed it about every 10 to 14 days then!
Mine starts to go quite dark within that sort of time.
Always just left it between service periods and never had a problem.
Bit confused by Gaz's fault, all the comments so far would be appropriate if the play had stayed as it was, it's the returning to normal bit that's confusing.
If there was air in the system you could pump it to make it better but it would return quickly, and need some pumping on almost every time you used it. Never worked on the Falco clutch yet, but is there a push rod sticking somewhere or even the plates themselves. Is the bike overdue for an oil change?
Trouble again with this theory is that you would probably expect clutch slip if something was sticking this way.
Anybody else had a similar problem?

The play was there again this morning. I definately remember on Sunday, when I first noticed the play, I stopped using the clutch for 10 minutes (ish) and the play disappeared.

The bike has done under 6000 miles and has had 3 services (If I remember rightly). I think the last service was March 2006, but it's only done around 1000 miles since then.

Think I may pop into my local garage (FCL at Cranleigh)

Actually, I think I'll have a go at bleeding through some fresh clutch fluid first. Nothing to lose.

HowardQ wrote: So you bleed it about every 10 to 14 days then!

Nah not quite as often as that but it does seem to go off quite quickly. Couple of times a year at the most but then I do an average of 6k miles a year anyway so probably every couple of thousand miles or so.

Works a treat too but as you say, Black in a week or so

So, you will have a nice set of instructions then