Ha, so I thought I would write up the headline of what could be described as my latest folly, well this week's anyways.
This past week I have been getting my XS ready for spring riding, a little dusting, a little lube here/there, fixed up a sticking float in one of the carbs, cleaning chain, air/tires, blown element in the brake light, etc... and then I remembered that as the fall season ended I had meant to address the very stiff/hard to pull clutch that had plagued me all summer...which of course I completely failed to deal with after I put the bike away for the winter. (go figure). So I went to pull the clutch and it took almost both hands to get that sucker to move! It freed up a bit after a few pulls, but holy hell was it a workout.
Quick back story: So last year I had started to really notice that the clutch was getting harder and harder to pull. It has always been a bit stiff in general, and over the summer I likely gained enough strength in my left hand to help compensate for it...but in the back of my mind, I felt like it was getting worse and almost to the point where I would dread riding for more than an hour due to the fatigue it would cause in my hand. Not to mention the dreaded finding neutral when warm (Which still bugs me from time to time).
Anyway, my mind had been made and I was to address it this week. I took the side cover off, lubed what I could within the mechanism, ball bearing, and checked for any binding in the cable (felt free and clean) and in the push rod...thinking maybe I bent it at some point? Nope...all seemed good so I put it all back together--but darn it if it was just as stiff as before! Maybe even worse?? (My mind was playing with me, I thought). Could it be the routing? Is it possible that I have had it bending all wrong? So I took the cable off and re-routed it...put it back together and nope, still as hard as ever!
Then I went on a binge quest to read up on all the posts within this site to see what solutions and or "mods" may have been done... Clearly this group had the answer! Obviously there was a flaw in the design and there had to be a fix. I read through about 37 pages of posts over the next several days (Some I had even been a contributor to over the years, ha ha). And the solution it seemed to me was either finding a better actuator arm for the clutch (Clutch worm mod thread), going with a hydraulic clutch, getting an ez-pull cable with a different lever, or perhaps a combination of one/all of these.
Being a cheap bastard, and not really wanting to invest in the trial/error process--I decided to order up an ez-pull cable and just start with that first step. That night, after placing my order and doubting that this was indeed going to fix my issue, I was thinking and re-thinking all the things that I had done and THEN it dawned on me: "I don't think I've oiled the current cable for at least a year, or two...or wait, NO, I've never oiled it since getting it new!!!"
The next morning (Yesterday) I went out to the shed and began the process of oiling the cable...drip by drip and letting it sit for about an hour. Reassembled and PRESTO, just like that, the clutch/pull and all things in between literally are as soft as butter. Problem solved...way better than I could even imagine, and what's killing me is that it was such a stupid/silly solution that I was aware of and should have done from the start...why/how I failed to do this simple task is beyond me for so long now!
So, hopefully anyone reading this may find that a little oil will go a long ways, with the clutch cable at least...not that this is any new revelation or anything, but I found it comical and wanted to share.
Good night!
