| Author | Message | ||
     Thesmaz |
Last weekend wasn't my weekend to be riding. I was headed to Zurich, Switzerland from my home in Italy to contest The 500 miles of Switzerland which is a 500 mile orienteering ride that you must complete within 24 hrs and making all of the checkpoints are finding the secret checkpoints www.swiss500.ch Anyway, the first of my follies was dropping the bike in the front yard while rolling it out to the drive way. Not any damage other than breaking off one of my Tuono mirrors  . Later that same day, about 6 hours from home and an hour from my destination, the belt broke.... Contacted the sponsoring dealer of the event, they helped me get connected with a tow service and I had the bike trucked up so that it'd be there and work could start first thing the next morning and I could make the start for the event. Expensive tow, had a held of a time finding a hotel at 10pm and neither was cheap! Next morning I get to the dealer first thing, they check for the belt and they don't have the one for the Uly. Luckily they find one at another dealer in Zurich but it will be a while before it gets there. They get the bike fixed, I complete the event (Switzerland in Beautiful!), head to the hotel that I had booked just over the border in Germany with the friends that I met up with from Belgium after being awake for just over a day and a half! You don't can't sleep during the event, otherwise you'll miss the checkpoints. Monday morning start my ride home but decide to go through Austria before climbing up over the mountains back into Italy to avoid the boring hiway ride across the top of Italy. Everything was going great until my clutch cable broke  . I was in Austria and had just entered the Arlburg tunnel when it happened. After I exit the tunnel and had to kill the bike to pay the toll, I push it off to the side to asses the damage and figure out how I'm going to get home. I ended up putting the bike in neutral, then starting it, pushing it to get it rolling and then slam it into first then continue on my way doing clutchless up/down shifts. That method worked great until I had to stop for another toll gate that was uphill! I couldn't get it moving fast enough to keep from killing it when I slammed it into first and was about ready to call for another tow when a German guy on a Honda Blackbird stopped to see if he could help. This is where my luck changed, he had emergency cable repair kit with him that he had been carrying for 6 years and never had to use! Using the available pieces in the kit I was able to repair the bike and get home. The ferrule had snapped off right at the end of the cable for the clutch lever and I was able to get enough slack in it to get a temp, screw on ferrule attached. After readjusting the freeplay I was on my way. That weekend turned out to be quite and expensive one, about $1100 in unexpected cash outlay! I'm still working with BCS to get reimbursed for the cost of the belt (they cost twice as much in Europe!) and I've got the new clutch cable on the way. Although it was a difficult, expensive, maddening weekend I still had a great time. Pics can be seen here: http://gallery.mac.com/smaz.world/100109 | ||
| Jwnsc |
Steve, Sorry to hear about your troubles. That is some beautiful riding country. Is it possible that the earlier fall damaged the clutch cable? | ||
| Thesmaz |
Nope, bike fell on the right side.... Nothing on the left was damaged. | ||
| Xbimmer |
The clutch lever ferrule gets crudded up easily and if not cleaned and greased often will resist pivoting and that stresses the cable at that point. Mine at one point went one step further and the cable started to saw away at the lever. I kept greasing and adjusting the clutch but the action still wasn't smooth. When I removed the lever to clean/grease the pivot I noticed the burr in the ferrule recess. Took it down with a file, put it all back together, and installed a lever boot from a Honda dirt bike.   Cable end now stays clean and greased and smooth for thousands of miles instead of a couple hundred. These need to be stock on a $12000 motorcycle. | ||
| Thesmaz |
XBimmer, Great idea there with the rubber boot. I'll have to have a look round and find me a Honda dealer here. After last weekend I'll be adding an emergency cable repair kit to my Oh Sh*t bag and I bet that the addition of the rubber boot will really help prevent further problems. What grease are you using for the cable? The stuff Buell recommends or something else? | ||
| Xbimmer |
Thanks Thesmaz, I thought of posting this long ago but never got around to it. It's a simple solution to reduce the wear and tear at the cable ferrule. This particular boot IIRC was on several of the smaller Hondas, w/o the adjustable levers. I think it was about $7 US but I'm telling you the ferrule pivot stays clean and it's worth it. Without it grit and grime (especially for all-season riders) gets trapped in the lever and grinds away at the lever and the ferrule resists rotating. I was using Permatex syn disc brake grease for awhile for its water resistance, but after the boot I've been using Lucas Red'n'Tacky syn which is what I've been dressing my wheel bearings with. Works great, stays put. That cable repair kit is a great idea, I'll need to look into that!  |
