Clutch 2003 1150 GSA

[Waiohine Man]

My GSA has done just under 20k and needs a new clutch. Surely this is unusual at such low milage. No wheelies or out of the ordinary riding.
Also are there different clutches I can choose from that might last longer?

 

[DrFarkoff]

What are the symptoms?

Are you sure the clutch lever is not fouling ion the handgaurd and not fully returning

Very unusual for a GS to "Need" a clutch at that miles phone and book an appointment and nip over to Steptoe's and leave the bike with him

 

[Myke Rocks]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

And similarly, unless it suffers from oil ingress, clutch life is at the behest of the user.
Being a dry clutch, it is more susceptible to wear caused by, for example, holding the bike on an uphill with it whilst waiting for traffic lights, to give one example.

You ask about alernative clutches.
Whoreatech do a sintered paddle plate to replace the standard one. Made in South Africa, these are excellent, and indestructable, but at a price.
You will need to take out a mortgage to buy one - 5 years ago the plate alone (and you need the rest of the clutch) was over £300.

I bought a new one on ebay at that time for £90. My clutch had suffered oil ingress.

If I should go to my local Ford tractor dealer, I can buy a similar plate for a small fraction of the money charged for these plates, so the money being charged is just extortion. Ford are not a charitable organisation. Unfortunately, not interchangeable.
Myke

 

[Steptoe]

20k miles isn't that unusual if it's used in town with stop & start traffic.

 

[Colban]

Check the fluid level in the master cylinder.Clutch plate wear pushes fluid back into it,sometimes causing hydraulicing.
Levers fouling guards is another check.
You can have either the rear crankshaft seal or the gearbox input shaft seal fail causing oil to get on the clutch plate.

 

[dancata]

My GSA has done just under 20k and needs a new clutch. Surely this is unusual at such low milage. No wheelies or out of the ordinary riding.
Also are there different clutches I can choose from that might last longer?

Do you keep the clutch lever in while waiting at the traffic lights?

Dan.

 

[nikos]

What is the normal sign of "business as usual" wear?

My clutch (27k miles R15GS) is biting at less and less clutch lever travel so I'm assuming its well worn?

Thanks and all the best from Cheshire

 

[Ash]

20k miles isn't that unusual if it's used in town with stop & start traffic.

Don't say that,mines got 28k on it and lived in the city [2003] until i rescued her last year..

 

[Waiohine Man]

ok so i have used it mainly in town and I do tend to hold the clutch in at the lights and I use it a lot while slow riding for control. However I have only had it for the last 5 odd k miles.
I will ask the Jim at Kinglake Motorcycles (bloody good place by the way) to check the above but I reckon I will just have to have it done.
So apart from the super expensive Sth African thingy wheres the best place to go for the goods?
Cheers for all the feedback.

 

[MattW]

My gut feeling is that the quality of the original final drive shimming can vary widely.

The trouble is that hardly anyone will routinely check the shimming when they replace a bearing - they just use the original shimming. So if you get a bad one, you'll get repeated bearing failures, if you get a good one you should be ok

 

[Waiohine Man]

Cheers Matt. I will relay that bit of info.

 

[Steptoe]

My gut feeling is that the quality of the original final drive shimming can vary widely.

The trouble is that hardly anyone will routinely check the shimming when they replace a bearing - they just use the original shimming. So if you get a bad one, you'll get repeated bearing failures, if you get a good one you should be ok

This a clutch problem thread, not a final drive

 

[MattW]

This a clutch problem thread, not a final drive

Good point

 

[davegs]

Clutch

if it's used in heavy traffic a lot how about fitting a different bevel box? I've got obne from an 1100 on mine and it's perfect for traffic. I put mine on fopr a little poodle including alot of off roads but it's so good in traffic I left it on.
Not too expensive to do and a diy job if your reasonably mechanicaly minded. I've now done 87.000 miles without a hint of a clutch problem.
Dave GS

 

[Hugh Jardon]

My 2003 1150GS seemed to have a slipping clutch at just over 18,000 miles

Replaced the clutch although it looked ok and the problem remained

Turned out to be the drive shaft slipping

The clue (which I missed) was small crumbs of rubber inside the drive shaft housing

Might be nothing to do with yours but .........

 

[Waiohine Man]

Mmm interesting. Thanks for that.

 

[davegs]

Don't say that,mines got 28k on it and lived in the city [2003] until i rescued her last year..

Better flog it quick!"

 

[King Rat]

My 1150 Adv is on 74,000 and still on the origional and I have never adjusted the lever and it still bites the same. I DO NOT hold the clutch in waiting at lights, I go to N and use the brake, or my feet. Likewise, I don't slip the clutch on the car and have done over 260,000 on the original clutch, including quite a bit of towing the boat (over 1.25 tonnes) both to the Lakes, Scotland and down to the Italian and French lakes.

Clutches only wear when they are dragging. Don't drag the clutch and they'll last for ages.

On the other Gs (standard 1150) the clutch makes a rattling noise (57,000) and I think it sounds either like the release bearing cage breaking up, or something equally metallic failing - stll grips fine though. Just a bit "grabby", so I let it out quick and try to listen to something else during gear changes. One of these days I'll get a new "whatever is needed" fitted - probably as a result of the nice man with a lorry taking me to the "fixers".

 

[kenty]

clutch

rarely ride my 1150 in town always try to go to N when stood but clutch disinetgrated at 16k BMW main dealer charged me a fortune and as an old bike (99) no claim for faulty clutch from BMW .

Still unsure what caused the failure other than bike had been dry stored for 3years when I bought the bike although I changed all fluids ! no obvious problems until failure overtaking thought I had run over a cat nearly s**t myself

suspiciously 4k later rough as hell shifting down from 6 to 5 but no other problems in any other gears either direction?

 

[Welshman]

rarely ride my 1150 in town always try to go to N when stood but clutch disinetgrated at 16k BMW main dealer charged me a fortune and as an old bike (99) no claim for faulty clutch from BMW .

Still unsure what caused the failure other than bike had been dry stored for 3years when I bought the bike although I changed all fluids ! no obvious problems until failure overtaking thought I had run over a cat nearly s**t myself

suspiciously 4k later rough as hell shifting down from 6 to 5 but no other problems in any other gears either direction?

My 99 is also bad between 6th and 5th changing down