Clutch questions. When or if I should replace things?
 

So long story short, it’s a 21 year old bike with a little over 2000 miles. It’s been stored in an enclosed heated garage and all of the rubber looks good yet but I am questioning if I should be replacing clutch springs after having the clutch slipping yesterday, after I changed the clutch fluid I had an air bubble, it was slipping for about a half an hour on the way home, I re-bled the lines and it’s not slipping anymore but I question if the plates got glazed or since it’s 20 years old with low miles if the clutch springs haven’t sagged out just sitting, also should I be replacing all of the rubber gaskets in the clutch master and slave cylinders? The clutch doesn’t engage until nearly the end of the lever travel, but I see that is somewhat normal on these bikes.

Change the engine oil and filter with regular but decent quality dyno 10W-40 and ride it reasonably hard after checking the tires, etc. Flush and bleed the brakes too; are you using a vacuum bleeder? Hand pumping brings the mc piston o-rings deeper into the cylinder where they don't usually go and where corrosion and crud live waiting to tear up rubber.

The clutch on my two 98s and every decent condition VTR I've ridden has a relatively wide engagement range for a hydraulic system. Do you see leakage and corrosion around the bleeder nipple or piston when you remove the cover?

The stock VTR clutch is bullet proof but does NOT like high rpm speed shifting. It also does not appreciate clutch-up wheelies!

My baby's all original clutch is still doing fine after a bit more than average mileage (knock on plastic).

Do regular oil changes and switch to full synthetic after 4k miles. Shell Rotella T6 10W-40 is fine.

Take care of it and it will do the same for you.

It's a Classic now, treat it like one!

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Thanks for the reply, I just ordered new galfer brake and clutch lines. The problem arose after pulling the sprocket cover and forgot to tie the lever to the handlebar. That’s when the clutch started slipping, I saw that I probably got air in the line and use the hand vac, it seemed OK in the morning, but was slipping again in the afternoon the next day. I then cracked the banjo bolt at the master cylinder on the handle bar and bled by hand it improved again, but there’s still a late engagement I think I still have an air bubble, I went through the slave cylinder and everything looked good. I have not gone through the master cylinder yet. I am currently running on a fresh oil change Quaker State 10 W 40 non-synthetic as a test out extremely well and wear testing.

Agree with Skokie - clutch should be good.

I just got mine back on the road last month - after R/R went.

My clutch is slipping a bit under hard accleration went passing slow cagers - also a 2002 - but not too concerned. Just turned 72k miles