yes its Ducati owners club weekend, in charmouth @ newlands holiday park, first weekend in september if i remember correctly , friday to sunday, been last few years, and enjoyed it & not that far for us
I did quite a few things to my clutch over the Winter. This carries risk because if something is wrong, it makes it that much harder to identify what caused the problem. However it is working really well now and one of the things that has improved is the pull required on the lever. Yesterday, I actually found myself using two fingers on the clutch lever! Never, ever have I used two fingers on a motorcycle clutch lever before... This has to be down to one of two things but I don't know which one. The first is the new stainless springs I got from @antonye. The second is the white lithium grease I coated the pushrod with after giving it a clean. The springs are supposed to be made to the same spec as oem, so it shouldn't be that. Therefore it looks like the white lithium grease that I bought to do the Lithium Grease Mod with. I don't know if the 916 has similar pegs on the fairing that go into rubber grommets, as on the 999 but I also smeared those grommets with the same grease and it has transformed how easy it is to refit the side fairings. Good stuff...
Not to hold, I totally agree but less friction should make the action less stiff, so easier to pull - no? That's what we find with boats anyway, ball bearing pulleys give you no more theoretical purchase than plain sheaves but the reduced friction means less effort is required. You're right though, it probably is mainly the springs. I was teasing Antonye about his springs' spec to some degree. They don't seem to cause any slip though, so maybe we should all be beating a path to his door??
There are 2 different actions going on here. Grease on the plates will reduce friction between the plates making them more likely to slip but it seems in this case that any reduction isn't sufficient to do so. The other action is the pressure plate being lifted by the pushrod which in turn is pushed by the slave cylinder. This action of pushing against the springs is what you feel at the lever and has nothing to do with the plates. The only friction is the pushrod moving within the gearbox shaft, the clutch lever pivot and any internal friction within the master and slave cylinders. None of which will be affected by greasing the plates.
It was grease on the pushrod I was referring to. As you say, no amount of grease or reduced friction on the plates will affect the pull on the lever in the slightest. We agree!
I have re-read what I posted and it seems pretty clear to me I was talking about grease on the pushrod, not on the plates... "The first is the new stainless springs I got from @@antonye. The second is the white lithium grease I coated the pushrod with after giving it a clean."
Have you bled the system recently as well? Air in the clutch system will compress before the fluid is moved, so you're putting effort into compressing the air then moving the fluid. If you remove all the air you're just moving fluid (as it doesn't compress) and that will give you a lighter clutch action. This is often overlooked as the first cause of a bad clutch!
Actually, just realised there is a third possibility - no, make that probability!!! Sorry @antonye, I think I have mistakenly maligned the spec of your lovely, shiny, stainless springs! I am now running a reduced stack height (about 36mm I think), so less pre-load on the springs, meaning less effort at the lever. Duh...
Good point about about air in the system, Antonye but no, I hadn't bled the clutch as it was working fine before i started messing with it, so I knew there was no air in the system. Sorry if I have maligned your beautiful springs! At least this serves to highlight the fact that stack height will affect the pre-load on the springs, and thus the amount of pull required at the lever and could be used to adjust that pull as an alternative to after-market slave-cylinders or taking out some of the springs, as I believe some people do.
Oh yes, definitely! That's why a worn clutch feels a lot worse than a new one, not just because of the new plates but because it changes the stack height. I always try to keep on top of mine when I feel it going but replacing the 1.5mm steel plates with 2mm versions as required. This helps to keep that stack height correct! It always worries me when I see people saying that they "added an extra plate" because setting up the clutch correctly is about the stack height rather than the actual number of plates!
will just add , when i did the suzuki plate mod, i did replace knackered basket with new alloy one, greased the push rod, fitted DP springs and pressure plate and also a new avanti slave cylinder, all combined was a great improvement, probably the best improvement was buying my 1970s MV Agusta, after using the clutch on that, the 996s is like a feather lol
