2008 Clutch Lever Force is consistently "high"

Greetings All,

I'm new to the Forum and have a rookie question. I have had my '08 for 10 years now. Got it with 6K now it has 28K. I got it from a friend who bought it new so I know the bike's history and it has never needed clutch service / I've never noticed anything wrong. Recently I swapped bikes with a different buddy who has a 2000 VFR and his clutch also works well but it is MUCH lighter in terms of clutch lever force to actuate it. His is easy, mine will tire out your fist in city traffic.

How much does clutch lever load vary from one healthy bike to the next? Is there anything I can adjust to lighten the load? My hand can sometimes cramp up at the end of a day of riding when I get into some congested areas that require starts and stops etc. The lever force doesn't seem to change much if it is hot or cold etc and the clutch isn't slipping or grabby etc. The engagement points in the lever travel are fine. I wouldn't have said anything about it except my buddy's clutch is noticeably different.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance for your insight.

Cheers!

 

Varies a lot. Many variables.

Swap for better 5th gen...

 

There shouldn't be that much difference. Are your levers still OEM or aftermarket?

 

Everything is OEM, except the heli bars I put on. But that didn't influence the Clutch lever force......

 

The force needed to work the lever is a function of the hydraulics and the clutch springs working against each other, overlaid by any friction in the system specifically the master and slave pistons, the clutch pushrod and the lever pivot. Do the easy stuff first, lube the lever pivot, then work through the rest methodically. You can unbolt the slave cylinder (keep the piston in with g-clamp as it will want to creep out) without opening the hydraulics and pull the clutch pushrod right out; give that a light polish and grease. With the slave off the engine you can check the force needed to move the lever/pistons (holding the slave piston in by hand) without working the clutch itself. If you still have a stiff clutch, maybe someone has replaced the clutch springs with extra strong ones?

 

Thanks for the insight Terry,

I have to apologize for being inattentive. Got sidetracked by cold weather and a mountain of work at my day job. Difficult to admit, especially on VFRWorld forum but, I stopped thinking about it for awhile. I have another confession to make: I don't have a decent shop manual for my bike. There was a link someone recently posted (re: Valve adjustments) that I tried but couldn't get to work. Not sure if it was on my end or what. It begs the question though: Can we download a shop manual from VFRWorld? If so, please advise how to access the manuals. It looks like it should be in/near forum but I don't see how to get there. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Please and thank you.

P.S. (I use firefox as my browser with a fair amount of security, I'm going to open up the digital kimono for this website and see what happens.)

 

Try this link, manuals are under the "downloads" section.

https://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index...tec-with-bookmarks-new-cover-ocr/&do=download

 

THANK YOU!!!!

This link is excellent! Nice to have a shop manual.

Much appreciated.

 

^^ nice ? it's necessary for doing work properly.