Clutch lever is hard to pull.

Hey guys and gals, I went on a long long ride last weekend with my two brothers and ended up in a long traffic jam on the highway. After a few stop and goes, my left hand got sick of squeezing that stiff clutch lever lol.

After we got off the highway I made the comment about how sore my hand is and checked how the clutch lever felt on their bikes and wow, theirs felt like nothing compared to how hard I have to squeeze mine.

I have searched and searched with no results. Can I make that lever easier to pull?

Its an 86 Vfr 700.

Bike runs great, clutch gives no troubles but that lever just sucks to keep pulling when in heavy traffic. No complaints when squeezing while shifting in normal riding, just the stop and go repeated pulls kills my hand.

Thanks for reading this.

 

Either a PO installed heavier clutch springs (doubtful) or you need to do some tennis ball squeezing exercises or both.

Probably nothing you can do, and i remember having the same problem in backed-up motorway traffic on my '86 700 also.

It's possible to fit a larger diameter mc, but that's not necessary if you just avoid or pull off in over-congested traffic.

I don't think anything is wrong with your clutch mc, but you could try changing fluid and bleeding the system.

 

Sounds weird to me. I live in a heavily populated area and encounter regular jams on my way home from work. My clutch lever is always nice and smooth. My master was replaced with one from a '99 model a couple years ago, never touched anything else having to do with the clutch though.

 

Might be worth doing some maintenance first (if you've not already done so). After you have drained, flushed and bled the hydraulics, then make sure the lever pivot points are clean, greased and then not overtightened. I would pull the slave off and clean around the seal, and then do the same with the pushrod. This should pull right out of the cases, you can polish it up and re-grease it before installation.

 

Yeah, looks like I may just need to flush and clean everything. It is a 30 year old bike and all haha.

I know its not about me needing to squeeze any tennis balls, cause I don't think I have a wimpy grip since I was a roofer,framer and sider over 15 years and use a hammer instead of nail guns.

I will start with getting oil down the sleeves of the cable and see if that helps any.

Was just hoping there was an adjusting feature or something.

I also think the fluid is a tad low. Just came in from messing with the bike and noticed the MC under the side cover was low but not seeing any leaks. Will fill it up and see what happens first.

Thanks everyone. I will report back.

Doing a streetfighter mod. I'm digging it so far.

 

There's no clutch cable! It's all hydraulic, so the only friction will be at the lever or the master/slave pistons or pushrod.

 

Oh yeah, it is hydraulic.. Ok. I don't know enough about that kind of setup yet haha.

Thanks buddy.

 

Also the fluid in the reservoir under the side cover is for the rear brake

 

Make sure that you can see a little pinhole underneath the splash guard when you open the MC to clean it up. It's easy to miss if it's covered up with grime AND integral to the system. Needs to be visible and clear of any obstruction. Ask me how I know....

 

A good "for" argument for lane splitting.

 

If you are servicing the clutch master cylinder then don't forget to do the following.
Sometimes simple things help like removing the clutch lever pivot bolt, cleaning the bolt and hole in the lever, regrease them and the contact point with the master cylinder piston.
Use whatever grease Honda recommends but I used molly 60 on mine and it is very smooth.

 

I don't know it this is a possibility or not but I have a 50 year old Mini Cooper and over time the rubber hose between the master and slave cylinder swells on the inside and can make the clutch pedal feel like a brake pedal. The British use real rubber for the hoses which is why this happens. Could that happen on a 30 year old Japanese bike? Just throwing that out there...