Clutch rod thingy

[Rusty Bolts]

I have been getting a vibration coming through the frame when I release the clutch that is particularly noticeable between 40-50mph. The nice man at CWs says he has felt it and is not that concerned about it. He suggested that it could be the clutch rod (the bit that goes from the slave to the clutch) could be dry on the taper bit at the clutch end. He showed me a rod that was out of another low milage GS and the taper looked reasonably, well tapered. So I took mine out and it looks like this

The taper is more rounded.
Any thoughts on the condition of this? The bike has done 84k miles and is an 07 GS.
The next thing he suggested to try is to take the starter off and put some optimol on the engine output splines as the clutch friction plate could be dry.

 

[Bendy toy]

It does look more worn than my clutch pushrod but compared to the flywheel mass the pushrod is a trivial weight.
My clutch plate measures about. 60% worn at 50K miles. So If it carries on at the same rate it might see 80K. The chances are it will do a lot less.
Spline lube from the starter hole motor is going to be (1) very difficult to reach and (2) you can only get to the splines not actually touched by the clutch plate.
To examine it properly remove petrol tank and air box. You will then see a black plastic access cover over the top 1/3 of the flywheel. It's held by three screws.
You will be able to see the pressure plate springs and measure the driven plate thickness.
New is 7mm. Service limit is 4.4mm.

I also had an intermittent vibration through the footrests. I suspected the final driveshaft UJ might be failing. Once opened up the top bearing is fine but the bottom end (much lower angle of operation) is shot.

 

[Rusty Bolts]

Thanks for the steer Bendy.
I have just returned from a little ride out and whilst it feels noticeable better it's still there. So I'll have a look at the engine splines thingy, I don't suppose it will do any harm.
Cheers

 

[Bendy toy]

Stripping off the back end to change the clutch looks horrendous. But it's actually not that bad.

You'll need to lift out the battery, air box throttle bodies and disconnect the brake lines, but the back end is attached by only four bolts.

I've totally stripped mine to have the rear subframe paint stripped and refinished with zinc undercoat and powder coat. The biggest job was pulling off all the bodywork. Stuff that isn't needed on a clutch repair.