Very stiff clutch / Hard to pull lever...

Very common prob man, no worries

The cables that come with this kit are dry as a bone, get a good oil/cable lube and go nuts on ALL of them, including the throttle cable - it's very important that it quickly and easily snaps back to idle speed. It's also a good idea to lube the plastic on plastic contact inside the throttle grip assembly, there are a couple different lubes appropriate for that, but I just use a crayon/candle - wax seems to last longer with plastic/plastic/metal friction.

Also remember to route your cables smoothly without any sharp bends or kinks, generally no sharper a bend than what would make a four inch loop.

Just a touch of heavy grease in the clutch arm's pivot and on it's little engagement ramp will also help quite a bit - but you'll need to take the cover off again to get to them.

Usually that's all there is to it, but it'll also get a lil easier with time and use

Is your clutch disengaged at the half off bar lock? On my first build I had to play with the clutch lever location on the bar for the best operation.

dunno about your lever, but one easy way to ease the tension is to remove the little spring they tell you to put on the cable. not the big one, that's a heat shield, but the "return spring." it's useless. there's plenty of return action on the clutch itself.

also, make sure your cable is routed without any kinks, nice and smoothie-like.

i just answered this elsewhere, i think.

what you're saying is, when you pull it in and lock it, the clutch is still engaged, right? and you can't adjust it to where it's free-pedaling with the lock button on?

mine was the same way. i tried everything, then i just forgot about it.

after my motor and clutch got a few months on it, it started working.

i think they just need to break in.

Hmm - I think I know what yer talkin' about, it's a lil odd as most have the opposite prob, thus the confusion.

Look under/in the pin lock mechanism, you may have a bit of casting flash blocking the recess where the pin seats while in the locked position. If so - that's easy enough to clean up. If not, I suppose you could reshape the lil cove where the pin seats to lock it or simply bend the lever a bit so it doesn't hit yer grip - but I'd be hesitant to do either of these as mostly the lock doesn't work well enough to prevent the clutch from dragging for many of us and you may find as your clutch wears in - it could end up being perfect *shrug*.


By far the simplest way to deal with this is a 1 1/2" - 2" section of old inner tube on yer grip, using this as a "rubber band" to hold yer clutch in while pedaling distances or idling for prolonged periods and this is far safer than trusting that locking pin - should you inadvertently hit that lever while tinkering, your bike could launch w/o you


It's interesting tho - the first lever I had, the lockout was useless and the clutch would drag. My buddy stuffed up my bike and as a result I got another clutch lever and tho it looked absolutely identical - the lockout worked great

I still prefer to use the inner tube trick

I still prefer to use the inner tube trick [/QUOTE]

What is this a profilactic clutch?

Nerp,

I created a thread last year regarding really tight clutch lever operation. It spun off from there, and several guys figured out that you could also increase the tension to cure a slipping clutch. While this is true...99% of the time the primary spring is adjusted correctly from the factory.

I had one new engine that had an abnormally stiff clutch. The following fixed it:

http://motorbicycling.com/f3/external-adjustment-primary-clutch-spring-4851.html

Jim

As far as the clutch disengagement problem, you stated that you have 1/8" free play. Remove the free play as 2door said and your problem will go away.