First was the side stand down when you tried to put it in gear when you got home?

The fact that the fluid level went down can point to one of two (or maybe both) problems.

You might not have bled the system fully or you might have a leak in the slave cylinder.

I would start by pulling the slave cylinder off and disassembling it. While it is apart check for scoring in the bore and replace it if needed.

If it looks good clean it out real well and reinstall it.

Then bleed the system, making sure you get all the air out of the slave cylinder.

At that point you should be good to go

 

Guess I type to slow....

 

Check for brake fluid leak around the MC by the lever too (you probably would have noticed this already if it were the problem). But just in case.

I had a leaky boot once and had to pump the lever a few times to get the clutch to work properly... that was a tricky ride home!

 

haha, i did have the side stand down at first, whoops, now it will lurch forward and barely stay running, when i release the brake it drives about half the speed as it does with the clutch out with no gas. i'll try bleeding it and see if that helps.

 

How is your engine oil level?

 

Sometimes when the banjo bolt isn't horizonal and points up an air bubble can get trapped there. So once you bleed it at the bleeder on the slave cylinder bleed it at the upper banjo bolt as well to make sure you get all the air out.

 

if the bike moves forward and you the the bike in gear with the clutch in, u need a new clutch basket. The teeth are worn on the basket.

 

on a street bike, more so on a vtr, of the 99 possible things that could account for the clutch not disengaging, that would be item number 100

it's possible, but neither common or likely... now if this was a 1999 RM250 we were talking about..................


OP: on the vtr, clutch wonkyness almost always ends up being // air in the line // leaking line // seal in the master or slave cylinder..

the poster is correct in stating a severely notched clutch basket can cause issues with clutch disengagement, but it would take many miles to do so, and not come and go with length of ride.

rule out nothing till checked, but start with the other suggestions first.

 

its only got 10 thousand miles on it. the clutch wouldn't go out that fast would it? we ride pretty easy on it too.

 

NO, the clutch basket on the VTR1000F should not be worn to that point. It's not common, not normal.

 

The reason I ask about the oil level is that when I recently chancged mine, istarted it up and put it into gear almost immediately, the bike started to move forward for a second then stopped when I assume the oil was in full cycle.

 

You should not be having a clutch problem. They are pretty tough on this bike. I have 90K miles on the stock clutch (I have replaced the springs but the clutch pack is still fine) and I do ride mine pretty hard.

 

thanks guys just got to bleeding the clutch last night, that seemed to do the trick