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Clutch adjustment


marius
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When I got my new Sherco I noticed that there was some drag when I pulled the clutch lever with my index finger....and the lever was against my fingers that I had wrapped around the grip. The cure was to move the clutch (and brake) levers inward until you could pull the clutch in with your index finger enough that the clutch did not drag anymore. On my bike the lever mounts are in as far as they can go as the bend in the bar prevents me from pushing them in any farther.

This works fine for me, and is a good guide for clutch action since the clutch is fully released when the lever bumps into my fingers, and starts to engage when I can feel the lever move away from my fingers.

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I am using the recommended oil by GASGAS : GRO Gear Trans 10W30 SAE 75W oil.

I dont have any problems with the clutch as such just wanted to know the correct way of setting up the clutch on the Pro model.

I have my levers set as far in as possible.

Edited by Marius
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Hi Sting32,

Thank you very much for the valuable info in your reply.

My bike was bought brand new in September this year and I only managed to put about 25hrs on it so far. I am sure the clutch has not worn out or anything like that but thanks for the links to the clutch repair section as I shall be using them once I realise the clutch needs some maintenance or repair.

You described the clutch position/adjustment very well thank you. I shall make sure the adjustments are correct and get rid of the slight clutch drag I am experiencing when pulling the lever onto my fingers. Seems easy enough to do the adjustment. BTW my levers are not bent at all. I have not been pushing myself to the extend where I have dropped the bike. So all is good in that regard.

When I bought the bike new the dealer I bought it from put the GRO oil in as mentioned in my previous reply. He said I must stick to what the manufacturer specifies to use and this way I will not damage anything. Well it made sense at the time and must admit that my clutch is working flawlessly with no bad tendencies like jerkiness or slipping. It is super smooth and the feel is just right. On my next oil change, which is due in 5hrs time according to the maintenance schedule of the owner

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My 2 C!

Even hough you might have a bit of paracitic drag when pulled fully in on many bikes, you need to keep the true engagement point a bit off the fingers when fully in, and keep the real working range out a bit so the best finger range is square in your mid knuckle in its optimum range of operation!

Make sense?

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Hi Sting32,

Thank you very much for the valuable info in your reply.

My bike was bought brand new in September this year and I only managed to put about 25hrs on it so far. I am sure the clutch has not worn out or anything like that but thanks for the links to the clutch repair section as I shall be using them once I realise the clutch needs some maintenance or repair.

You described the clutch position/adjustment very well thank you. I shall make sure the adjustments are correct and get rid of the slight clutch drag I am experiencing when pulling the lever onto my fingers. Seems easy enough to do the adjustment. BTW my levers are not bent at all. I have not been pushing myself to the extend where I have dropped the bike. So all is good in that regard.

When I bought the bike new the dealer I bought it from put the GRO oil in as mentioned in my previous reply. He said I must stick to what the manufacturer specifies to use and this way I will not damage anything. Well it made sense at the time and must admit that my clutch is working flawlessly with no bad tendencies like jerkiness or slipping. It is super smooth and the feel is just right. On my next oil change, which is due in 5hrs time according to the maintenance schedule of the owner’s manual, I shall consider the ATF you have mentioned.

I would like for the clutch to give me many hours of use and not shorten the life of it by having the clutch set wrong. But as I said you have explained it very nicely and will now be able to have everything set just right.

Thank you once again for the help and everybody else for the valuable replies.

Marius

I think I missed that the bike was brand new. Well, I think the consensus is that the GRO oil is good stuff, as I understand they like/recommend breaking in the GAS GAS bike with that oil (heard that from a couple other riders). So it all might change when you change the oil in the future. How long until you were supposed to change the oil? I notice mine acts differently depending on how cruddy the oil is, FWIW. Remember the trans oil lubes crank bearings as well, so maybe some of the gunk is from combustion over time? I try to change oil after 8 hours or so of good practice or events, ATF is cheap.

I not positive on what Copey is sayin, but in case I am probably opposite of his suggestion? Anyway, I think you want the clutch engagement as far from the grip as possible, where you are reaching comfortably with the finger as as extended you can get it and pull it without moving the rest of your hand when you do this. BTW when you do this, it helps in 3 ways.

1: reaction time, you have an emergency situation where the bike is going to stall, you go to pull the clutch, sure it is micro seconds, but hey it makes a big difference especially if you don't have the finger on the clutch all the time!

2: you will discover you have more dexterity at the end of your fingers reach (for varying amounts of say 1/2 inch of lever movement) than when your finger is close to a fist for that same amount of lever movement. yeah it takes about 30 minutes to get used to this way, and a day of practice or two to get really comfortable with this.

3: lets you pull the clutch farther when you pull all the way to your fingers to find neutral with less drag because you open the clutches further with the travel of the clutch lever obviously.

Again all above is My Humble Opinion, advanced with experience of showing others and it seeming to work as well for them... Your mileage will vary ... :thumbup:

Edits, sometimes English is my second language, behind Gibberish. <_<

Edited by Sting32
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Just another bit of info:

The clutch on my 2002 250Pro drags mauch more when cold than warm, and also the engagement point moves further from the bars as the oil warms up. This is with a brand new (10hr or so use) clutch pack at 9.85mm thickness and the clutch fingers at 17mm as per the GasGas spec - oh, and also with a 9.5mm master cylinder and Dextron 3 ATF.

I have managed to get it set up so that a single finger can comfortably disengage the clutch against the other fingers.

I've also found that drag is significantly worse in first gear than higher gears, and increasing idle speed a little helps address the risk of stalling.

Ray

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Just another bit of info:

The clutch on my 2002 250Pro drags mauch more when cold than warm, and also the engagement point moves further from the bars as the oil warms up. This is with a brand new (10hr or so use) clutch pack at 9.85mm thickness and the clutch fingers at 17mm as per the GasGas spec - oh, and also with a 9.5mm master cylinder and Dextron 3 ATF.

I have managed to get it set up so that a single finger can comfortably disengage the clutch against the other fingers.

I've also found that drag is significantly worse in first gear than higher gears, and increasing idle speed a little helps address the risk of stalling.

Ray

"The clutch on my 2002 250Pro drags mauch more when cold than warm, and also the engagement point moves further from the bars as the oil warms up" The "cold drag" is relatively normal but the changing engagement point is not (if it's a big change) and could indicate a problem with the master cylinder seal (the 9.5 M/C bore is standard on the 02'). The hydraulic clutch is self-adjusting and the engagement point should be a relative constant. It could be that the "range" of adjustment will change as the clutch pack absorbs heat.

If you adjust the idle speed (warm engine) with the bike in gear and the lever pulled back normally (usually one finger to the knuckles) you should not have any stalling problems.

Jon

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"The clutch on my 2002 250Pro drags mauch more when cold than warm, and also the engagement point moves further from the bars as the oil warms up" The "cold drag" is relatively normal but the changing engagement point is not (if it's a big change) and could indicate a problem with the master cylinder seal (the 9.5 M/C bore is standard on the 02'). The hydraulic clutch is self-adjusting and the engagement point should be a relative constant. It could be that the "range" of adjustment will change as the clutch pack absorbs heat.

If you adjust the idle speed (warm engine) with the bike in gear and the lever pulled back normally (usually one finger to the knuckles) you should not have any stalling problems.

Jon

Thanks for that. I suppose what I really should have said was that when warm the lever travel for engagement is much shorter since the clutch is not dragging in the same way as when cold, meaning that you pull away with the lever further from the bars (if you see what I mean?).

Ray

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Thanks for that. I suppose what I really should have said was that when warm the lever travel for engagement is much shorter since the clutch is not dragging in the same way as when cold, meaning that you pull away with the lever further from the bars (if you see what I mean?).

Ray

My guess is that's normal due to the hot oil having less viscosity and therefore less drag, which results in a shorter engagement range.

Jon

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I think I missed that the bike was brand new. Well, I think the consensus is that the GRO oil is good stuff, as I understand they like/recommend breaking in the GAS GAS bike with that oil (heard that from a couple other riders). So it all might change when you change the oil in the future. How long until you were supposed to change the oil? I notice mine acts differently depending on how cruddy the oil is, FWIW. Remember the trans oil lubes crank bearings as well, so maybe some of the gunk is from combustion over time? I try to change oil after 8 hours or so of good practice or events, ATF is cheap.

I not positive on what Copey is sayin, but in case I am probably opposite of his suggestion? Anyway, I think you want the clutch engagement as far from the grip as possible, where you are reaching comfortably with the finger as as extended you can get it and pull it without moving the rest of your hand when you do this. BTW when you do this, it helps in 3 ways.

1: reaction time, you have an emergency situation where the bike is going to stall, you go to pull the clutch, sure it is micro seconds, but hey it makes a big difference especially if you don't have the finger on the clutch all the time!

2: you will discover you have more dexterity at the end of your fingers reach (for varying amounts of say 1/2 inch of lever movement) than when your finger is close to a fist for that same amount of lever movement. yeah it takes about 30 minutes to get used to this way, and a day of practice or two to get really comfortable with this.

3: lets you pull the clutch farther when you pull all the way to your fingers to find neutral with less drag because you open the clutches further with the travel of the clutch lever obviously.

Again all above is My Humble Opinion, advanced with experience of showing others and it seeming to work as well for them... Your mileage will vary ... :thumbup:

Edits, sometimes English is my second language, behind Gibberish. <_<

I think what Sting is trying to say is that you should set the lever so that the true engage/ disengagement point of the clutch correlates with the interphalangeal joint of the proximal phalanx and the middle phalanx being perpindicular, and I agree! :madnoel:

Edited by copemech
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