Whats wrong with my clutch?
 

Hi,
Was out on the bike the other day, on way out it was spot on. Turned it off, came out an hour later, started up, pulled away ok, then several sets of traffic lights later the clutch snatched really harshly when i went to pull away again. It was almost that it got stuck then suddenly dropped in!! Nearly lifted the front wheel really badly and almost went flying off it!

This happened again on a roundabout.

Any ideas??

Bikes got 20k miles on it.
Paul

Too many revs while slipping the clutch? This is normal for the VTR.

nope. at least its never done it before! Are they weak clutch springs then?

I had the same problem. Originally I could drag race all night no problem then after doing some work on the bike I bled the clutch and used DOT3 fluid. After that I could only get one run in before it would grab hard popping the front wheel off the ground. It could have been air and/or inferior fluid in the system. DOT4 is better for high heat applications. When I re-bled with DOT4 the problem went away.

i had the same problem with DOT 3 fluid, but when i used DOT4 the bike is now ok.

I used dot 4 when I changed the fluid a few weeks ago.

I stripped off the sprocket cover on the advise of someone on a uk firestorm forum and it was badly caked in gunge from the chain. It seems this was causing the problem as Ive cleaned it all up including the clutch plunger and all was ok for 25 miles yesterday.

Thanks for your help.
Paul

Reviving this old thread . . .

My bike is a pain to launch if the revs are over about 3K (the clutch grabs violently, so feathering the clutch at that RPM is pretty much impossible), and it sounds like most if not all superhawks have the same issue. Has anyone figured out a way to get the clutch to "slip" more smoothly when launching hard?

I've heard people blame it on the fact that it's a hydrolic clutch, but I've ridden a few other hydrolic clutches on other bikes and didn't notice the same problem. Is this just something we have to live with as Superhawk owners, or can something be done to fix it?

that usually helps alright , ive never eliminated it completely tho always very careful on a quick getaway s

the clutch on my rc51 (sp1) does this when it's colder, you can slowly release the cluthc to the friction point and take off smooth with minimal slipping, but i you abruptly and quickly le thte clutch out to the point where ti should just be slipping it is very grabby and the bike lunges, it almost feels like the clutch is playing catchup to what you are actually doing with the lever, let it out fast and pull back in and it feels like the clutch is delayed and is on/off, this is very hard to describe and might not make any sense, but it feels very odd.... nothing ever resolved it.... bleeding, inspection of all clutch components etc all came up normal....

another solution posted elsewhere suggest that the anti judder spring sometimes gets fitted back to front and wears a groove in the seat in the back of the basket so making it grab.
Change fluid, then clean under sprocket cover and if still doing it look at this solution.

I have a set of stock spring that I took out of my hawk I could barter with you. I upgraded to the barnetts!

The anti judder spring is a different beast to the springs you see at the front of the basket.
Have a look at items 7 and 8 at the back of the basket
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