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At the end of a 190 mile ride in mostly pouring rain, I noticed the clutch lever starting to feel "sticky", and noticed the revs rising with no acceleration.
As I was only 6 miles from home I continued to ride gently and didn't see the clutch slip much more, though the lever still felt sticky.

Bike had just had an Oil & Filter, Spark Plug and Air Filter change at an Aprilia dealer, I had probably ridden over 400 miles before this problem surfaced.

I only had time to have a quick run on the bike the next day to see if the problem was still there. Everything seemed fine lever was nice and smooth and clutch didn't slip even under hard acceleration.

I have heard that Fully Synth oil can cause the clutch to slip, but that wouldn't cause the lever to feel "sticky"? Would it ? ':smt017'

Anyone else had the same type of issue, got any ideas ?

Try a little greace on lever pivot pin at the handle bar.

HisNibbs wrote:Try a little greace on lever pivot pin at the handle bar.

Plenty of grease still there, first thing I thought off!

Yes I was going to suggest cleaning and re-greasing the pivot - having had to do that myself in the past.

I have heard of the clutch push rod sticking (the one pushed by the slave) but I've no experience of this myself.

kaisermuldoon wrote:
I have heard that Fully Synth oil can cause the clutch to slip, but that wouldn't cause the lever to feel "sticky"? Would it ? ':smt017'

Anyone else had the same type of issue, got any ideas ?

a long shot ! possible if the synthetic did make the clutch slip, and the plates get thinner, the push rod will push the slave back, if the master is full there is no room for expansion and the whole system goes all tits up
(Ive only seen this once on a race car but the master was over filed and the vent hole bunged up) poss you take off the res cap and see what appens

dave

davebms wrote:

kaisermuldoon wrote:
I have heard that Fully Synth oil can cause the clutch to slip, but that wouldn't cause the lever to feel "sticky"? Would it ? ':smt017'

Anyone else had the same type of issue, got any ideas ?

a long shot ! possible if the synthetic did make the clutch slip, and the plates get thinner, the push rod will push the slave back, if the master is full there is no room for expansion and the whole system goes all tits up
(Ive only seen this once on a race car but the master was over filed and the vent hole bunged up) poss you take off the res cap and see what appens

dave

I only saw the clutch slipping 5 or 6 times at the most, so I don't think that would make the plates much thinner. I did open the reservior cap after I got stopped, maybe that helped. Cheers ... Kaiser

Just done the Hizzy Run today - 160+ miles no problems, master cylinder is just on max level! As Toyah said "It's a mthytery"