I’ve been having some clutch related problems this year, and have already adjusted my clutch cable twice in 2017 according to the ‘clutch mantra’ on an SV riders forum
Last night, I was coming off the M25 and changing from 6th to 5th I hit the biggest false neutral of my life. The clutch lever completely locked and it took my 5 seconds or so to get out of it, stood up, stamping on the lever with the roundabout fast, fast approaching. When I finally got it to move I of course shifted up, released the lever, then shifted down to avoid a wiggle.
I think it’s worth mentioning that I wasn’t ragging it at the time, but because I was running late to training I may or may not have been cruising at 120 for the previous 20 minutes or so directly before this happened. Then after the roundabout, there was a downhill section and went to shift from 3rd to 2nd to give more engine braking and the very same thing happened on a twisty section where front brake was no option and I had no drive going round a corner. That wasn’t pleasant I have to say. Engine temperature was fine throughout. After training I rode home, less briskly but not hanging about either and had no issues.
I’ve ruled out rider error because I simply cannot believe that I’d have missed two shifts in the space of maybe 2 minutes
My previous experience of clutch related problems has also been a locking gear lever but only when stopped and inability to shift into first gear, when rocking the bike a little bit gets it to move. Never had a problem on the go (except when the bike had a habit of randomly falling out of second into neutral)
Anybody had previous experience of the same thing happening?
No idea of the mileage of the bike, I did an oil change only 1500 miles back. The odometer shows ~20,000 miles but it’s a different front end to the original (previous owner put it down the road).
I’ve had it for 10k miles, k3 sv650
My previous experience of clutch related problems has also been a locking gear lever but only when stopped and inability to shift into first gear, when rocking the bike a little bit gets it to move.
Instead of rocking the bike, what helped me a few times in this exact situation is fully releasing the clutch lever, and then pulling it in again. I don't know if that's something you've tried with the problem you had at speed?
Before releasing the lever I wanted to be sure I was back in a higher gear, didn’t want to release it only to actually now be in a low gear at speed
But I do hear that works, I’ll try it if it ever happens again while stationary
The frozen lever is a bit of a worry, no?
Just to be clear it was the gear lever that was frozen, not the clutch lever? In the first post it was a bit fuzzy.
Now that I think about it, I did hit a false neutral once going from 5th to 4th. I normally completely release the clutch lever almost instantly when changing gears. So, when I hit the false neutral my clutch lever was already fully depressed and the engine revving like crazy. At that point I pulled the clutch in and downshifted again without issue.
By the way, I had a speedometer replaced on my bike as well by the previous owner. However, if I check the MOT history of the bike online, the year it was changed there is a note about it and how much miles was on the old speedometer.
Just to be clear it was the gear lever that was frozen, not the clutch lever? In the first post it was a bit fuzzy.
Now that I think about it, I did hit a false neutral once going from 5th to 4th. I normally completely release the clutch lever almost instantly when changing gears. So, when I hit the false neutral my clutch lever was already fully depressed and the engine revving like crazy. At that point I pulled the clutch in and downshifted again without issue.
By the way, I had a speedometer replaced on my bike as well by the previous owner. However, if I check the MOT history of the bike online, the year it was changed there is a note about it and how much miles was on the old speedometer.
Slacker
I'll check that MOT history online good idea
No gear lever itself was frozen
Gear lever shifts fine the rest of the time, not sticky or stiff
