Clutch Life?
 

I was riding my bike pretty hard last night and I noticed that when I downshifted into first gear at around 50 MPH that the back end did not skid and drift like it normally does. It just seemed to slip like my clutch may be going bad. How long has your clutch lasted? Oh BTW my bike has 20000 miles on it.

Re: Clutch Life?
 

Find a suitable road to do this safely: do a full throttle roll on in 6th gear and see if it will pull continuously or if after an initial hard pull the rpm climbs but the acceleration slows.

29,000 on stock clutches.

Re: Clutch Life?
 

Maybe I'm wrong, but doesn't the SH have a slipper clutch?
I'd expect the clutch to slip downshifting into first at 50 mph.

Brian

Re: Clutch Life?
 

Hi!

No, there's not a slipper clutch in SH! If it's slipping, it's not ok!

I have still original clutch after 51500km (over 32000miles) even it has been abused on track and so on...

One thing that I noticed few weeks ago was that after three or four VERY hard acceleration (from 0 to 130mph, then stopped and accelerated immediately again) the clutch came "snappy". But after a few miles normal riding it was normal again (engine temperature back to normal)...

Some oils may 'cause the clutch to slip! I had some oil from Mobil that caused slipping under hard acceleration with 5th or 6th gear. Changed oils back to Castrol and it was ok again though!

-Janne (VTR1000F '98 & RG250W '84)

Re: Clutch Life?
 

One of my riding buddies has a 2000 SH with 40,000 miles on it. He still has the original clutch that works good. He has ran Castrol 10w-40 car oil in it since it was new.

Clutches on the SH last a long time. It is a 10 plate clutch and it is a very stout system. You might wanna bleed your clutch if you detect slippage. People on the micapeak list have more than a 100K miles on the clucth.

Re: Clutch Life?
 

Two things:
a) I do stand corrected. I went back and did some reading (having remembered reading "slipper" somewhere in my Superhawk readings form the past.) I found what I had read. The SH has short-skirt "slipper" pistons.
b) What oil are you running? I have had 3 different bikes all experience clutch slip when I used conventional automotive oil. I know some folks don't have a problem (as noted above with the Castrol) but I think part of the equation might have to do with just how hard you are working the clutch.
Many auto oils have friction modifiers that can lead to (wet) clutch slip.
Motorcycle oils do not have FMs, nor does diesel oil.
I use Shella Rotella 15W-40 in my SH. Much of my riding is very demanding on the clutch and it never slips. The back tire will slip and spin, but the clutch never does.

Thanks.
Brian

Re: Clutch Life?
 

From what I have read about oil it is just the "energy conserving oils" that have the friction modifiers that can cause clutch slipping. Most oils 10w-40 or heavier are'nt energy conserving. Look in the SAE circle on the back of the bottle, if it is energy conserving it will say so there.

Re: Clutch Life?
 

Mobil 1 makes a very decent synthetic motorcycle oil designed for wet clutches to prevent slippage. I use 5W-30. I used the car version of Mobil 1 in my Ninja 250 years ago and slippage at 12k rpm was very noticable and it felt like the way a turbo might feel in a car. I suspect this is not good.

Re: Clutch Life?
 

Is'nt the 5w-30 Mobil1 "energy conserving"? If it is you may have clutch problems down the road.

Re: Clutch Life?
 

On my old VFR750, I experienced a problem with starter clutch slipping that went away when I switched to dino car oil from Mobil 1 20W-50 synthetic car oil. The starter would give a disconcerting and expensive sounding 'clunk' when you tried to start the bike. I wouldn't have believed that could have been the starter clutch slipping if I hadn't seen it, or heard it, or NOT heard it myself. The VFR list I was on at the time told me that was the prob, and sure enough switching off the synthetic cured it right away.

If the 'slick snot' synthetic could cause the starter clutch to slip, I suppose its possible for it to cause the drivetrain clutch to slip as well. But I wouldn't know, as I no longer try using synthetic car oil in my bike (but am quite happy to use dino car oil so long as its not 5w-30, which typically has the 'energy-conserving' friction modifiers, which I wouldn't use even if it didn't, as I typically ride when its not winter, so I don't have much need for a 'super thin' weight oil in my bike).

Re: Clutch Life?
 

50 thousand km's on my bike and clutch is still great.

I'm surprised you didnt lock up the rear wheel.

Re: Clutch Life?
 

THe best way to test it is put it in high gear and do roll ons. Higher gears will have more leverage to slip than lower gears.