Bad noise/vibration..clutch?
 

I swear I've had it with this bike, I really have. :/

It started the other day. I put the bike in neutral and let the clutch out, and got a heavy vibration through my footpegs that I've never felt before, accompanied by a faint clattering noise and sensation through the whole bike. Pull the clutch in, it's gone. Motor revs freely, clutch doesn't slip, I don't notice any loss of power. I got on the highway and noticed the bike vibrates heavily in gear now. Doing 85 mph, which was about 5500 rpms in top with my gearing, my fingers were going numb.

I'm afraid to ride it. I called the local shop and they said it sound like something in my clutch is coming apart. Does this sound familiar to any of you guys?

Thanks for any help.

sounds like a well used clutch...its not slipping yet right?

No slippage. Bike only has 15,000 miles! But it's a 98.

Doesn't sound good. Possibly a broken dog on the tranny input shaft gearing. That would cause vibration just after shifting into gear and while running and not in gear.

That's exactly what it's doing Greg....the vibration is there all the time, any time the clutch is out. Clutch goes in, problem disappears.

I've never beaten on this tranny except clutchlessly upshifting, and I only do that when I'm drag racing or railing it onto the freeway. Have never clutchlessly downshifted it. Don't know if it matters but it's always been extremely clunky going into 2nd gear, and downshifting from 6th to 5th, regardless of rev-matching, has always produced a loud metallic clank.

I'm reviving this damn old thread because I've got this same issue. If I do have a broken dog on the input shaft, what kind of mess am i getting into? I've never cracked open a motorcycle engine before.

Not a SH but I have had to change an output shaft on my old FZR600 and it was a big job. If you take your time, pay attention to where things came off of (digital cameras are great for this) and put things back correctly you shouldn't have any problems.

Yeah I figured it was gonna be a big job, involving pulling the entire motor. Now next question is there a way to visually check if I have damaged an input shaft dog? Any other advise is greatly appreciated.

Industrial Endoscope ;)

I would probably start by disasembling the clutch and take a look at the basket and springs, it could be as simple as that... And then you don't need to disasemble the motor completely... But if they show no significant wear/damage it's going to be an all out excavation job...

I had something very similar that occurred shortly after I bought the VTR from the PO. I didn't rev it or run it much. The vibration was located low in the engine. At idle there was a rumble/rattle coming from the clutch area. After the dealer tore into it, the problem was determined to be the clutch basket (or something to do with the clutch, this happened ~ 6 years ago). Cost about $280 to fix it. The VTR had less than 10k mi.