Clutch Cable Life?
- Thread starter mikesim
- Start date
junglejim
Site Supporter
Did it really break? Or did you catch it before it failed?
Woodaddict
Site Supporter
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2012
- Messages
- 895
- Age
- 64
- Location
- Salisbury,NC
- 2024 Mileage
- 008308
- Bike
- Red NT700V & Spyder RTL
201,111 miles or 6 yrs, 10 mo, 3 days in my case. original equip still for me
Three years, three months, 57,465 miles for my first one. Second one still doing great at 73,815 miles (131,280 total miles). The first one would have been OK if I had noticed sooner that it was coming out of the ferrule (the metal tip on the end of the housing) at about a 20-degree angle. The ferrule split and that increased the angle, so that the outer wires of cable started breaking. Rocky Huber (some of you may remember him -- he hosted our "Pre-National Rally Rally" at his place the week before Spearfish in 2013), noticed it on a Saturday morning as we were leaving to ride to Marble, CO, for lunch. I quit using the clutch except to stop and start and when we got back to Rocky's got on the phone with the Honda dealer in Montrose. When we left Rocky's I made it to Montrose on Sunday and by Tuesday morning, Davis Motorsports had gotten the stock NT cable I'd ordered and had me on the road home to Ft Morgan by a bit after noon. I had also ordered a TransAlp clutch cable (2" longer) but it didn't get there in time for me to get it and I let the Forum know about them having it. Seems like someone on the Forum bought it for the price of mail from Montrose to their home.
OP
OP
mikesim
Site Supporter
It was a miracle Jim! The Lord was looking after me. Just two weeks ago Mike Jr and I took a 2400 mile jaunt to the Texas Hill Country to ride the Sisters... no problem <whew!>. Yesterday at lunch I noticed the clutch lever felt a bit "funny". I adjusted the freeplay with the thumbscrew and happened to notice that the ferrule leading into the adjuster was split. Upon closer examination looking thru the slot in the thumbscrew to my amazement and horror I saw that more than half of the strands of cable were severed. I nursed the bike home on my 25 mile commute shifting as little and as gently as possible. I made it up to my driveway and the garage door and hopped off the bike to open the garage door. I then hopped back on the bike to pull it into the garage and when I pulled on the clutch lever <snap!> Good ol' Traveller made sure I made it home before surrendering the clutch cable to the great beyond.
I acquired a Trans Alp clutch cable from one of the forum members (maybe you?) some time ago and have been carrying it in my top box as a spare ever since. I now have a weekend project.
Mike
Only getting close to 20,000 miles so I suppose I should start thinking about ordering a spare! Darn always something to worry about..lets see...another 80,000 or so miles and maybe 25 years to do it in..Hmmmm I will be hitting the century mark by then... I am a worry wart...One glaring fact about all you high milers ..I don't hear of any other engine / clutch replacements! Just boring oil changes.. tires.. brake pads...repeat .maybe a light bulb....do these things last forever!
junglejim
Site Supporter
That is quite a story of luck. Did you then go to the casino to continue your lucky streak?
I did give my extra Trans Alp cable to some forum member but can't remember who. I somehow ended up with two of them when I added my bar riser and change clutch cables. I seem to remember a broken clutch and throttle cables were a lot more common that they seem to be now.
DirtFlier
Site Supporter
[...I seem to remember a broken clutch and throttle cables were a lot more common that they seem to be now...]
The old stuff had a braided steel cable running inside a bare metal housing, so it was metal-on-metal. The modern Honda stuff has the cable covered in some type of plastic that runs inside the bare metal housing and that really extends cable life.
Every winter as part of my routine winter maintenance, I remove the clutch cable end from the levers, then clean and grease the socket in the lever and also the cable end. If the cable freezes at the lever because of crud, it forces it to bend every time you pull the lever, eventually leading to cable breakage.
The old stuff had a braided steel cable running inside a bare metal housing, so it was metal-on-metal. The modern Honda stuff has the cable covered in some type of plastic that runs inside the bare metal housing and that really extends cable life.
Every winter as part of my routine winter maintenance, I remove the clutch cable end from the levers, then clean and grease the socket in the lever and also the cable end. If the cable freezes at the lever because of crud, it forces it to bend every time you pull the lever, eventually leading to cable breakage.
Mellow
Admin
That's about as good as you can get timing wise... I guess it would have been better if you made it in the garage and the last pull to put it in neutral snapped it... but hey, it was a good story anyway. 
Good that you got in that last three sisters ride, that would not have been a good time to loose clutch access...
Good that you got in that last three sisters ride, that would not have been a good time to loose clutch access...
Warren
2
I am not sure mileage has a lot to do with the wear on the clutch cable. I would think its how often you use the clutch. Someone like David who commutes a lot of miles on the highway during his daily commute probably does not use the clutch as often in a day as I do during my city street commuting even though my daily mileage is far less than his.
junglejim
Site Supporter
Right! Plus add to that the maintenance and attention to proper cable routing in order to minimize side-pull and friction are big factors.
I going to be changing my cable soon. I added a riser, and never change cable then. Hopefully the process will go smoothly, which never happens for me. I even thinking about selling my 84BMWRT, not one mile this year on this machine. I sell the Ural that been sitting in the barn for years too. Crap you just don't have enough time on this rock.
Could you share with us the part number and best cost of the cable so we can be ready?
I order it awhile ago Clutch Control Cable For Honda XL600V XLV600 Transalp 1987-2000 22870-MM9-000 US I think it was. It is about 2" longer.
One thing I added to my NT was a rubber cover over the handlebar lever adjustment. It keeps crud and water out of it. I lubed it today and it was pretty clean in there. I don't know the last time I lubed it up. The cover I used was from a Kawasaki KLX250. But most others would fit.
Brad
Brad
Bear
2
My clutch cable began to fray at around 10,000 miles. The cause was that when I put MC Larry handlebar risers on, the lead was not as fair as it was originally. I replaced the cable with a Trans-Alp cable and was able to get a fair lead with little to no friction. The Trans-Alp cable is a touch longer and seems to work better than the stock NT 700 variety.