Bike sorted

Yesterday Mark suggested putting the original, shorter spring cups back in to increase the pressure on the clutch plates. I wasn't too keen because the experts I'd spoken to in the past seem to think that the shorter cups were the cause of the clutch lever being so heavy - see the earlier post on this matter.

However, Roger Taylor from RTS Racing called me back yesterday and said he had seen C15's with both longer and shorter cups in. I said that I had read on various forums that people claim that "all British bikes' clutches slipped when they were new or rebored" but to be honest, nobody would ever have bought a bike if they slipped like mine was yesterday 'cos you can't get the damn thing to start - and without bragging, I'm good at kickstarting difficult bikes.

Roger also pointed out that the same clutch is used in the B40 which is much more powerful than my bike, so Mark came round today to put the old cups back in. I say "give me a hand", but from my stool I watched him:

1. drain the oil from the primary chaincase;
2. remove the footpeg, remembering that it is a left-hand thread!
3. remove the primary cover;

At that point, he kicked the bike over and we could see that while the chain was turning, the clutch wasn't. As Roger said, there's a good chance that with the longer cups in the clutch was maybe only gripping on the first plate.

I then watched him:

1. remove the four screws, springs, longer cups and pressure plate;
2. put the shorter cups in;
3. replace springs, screws and pressure plate;
4. adjust the screws so that the pressure plate was spinning evenly;
5. kickstart it over first time without the clutch slipping - huzzah!

Interestingly, the clutch lever is still lovely and light...

All that was left was for him to put it all back together and put my tools away while I put the kettle on.

Clutch slipping when trying to kickstart

My recently rebored C15 with new clutch plates is still being a complete pain to start from cold.

You get it to the point of compression on the kickstart, take it just past, then go for it and on one kick out of eight it will turn over but the rest of the time the kickstart lever goes straight to the bottom without any sensation of it turning the engine over.

Mark came round today and offered to help push start it. He ran up the road once and nearly got it going so I offered to take over the handlebars duty so that he could concentrate on pushing.

"That's it Mark, head down, keep pushing, we're nearly there!", I shouted encouragingly.

"Blimey, Dad, this bike is a pig to push and sounds like the engine is turning over too!", he replied between gasps.

"Er, yes, son - it'll help - keep pushing!"

"Aargh, my lungs, my legs, come on - start you pig!", he shouted, on the verge of losing his rag.

And then it fired up! Went round the block on it a couple of times to warm it up and then tried kickstarting it a few times. It had improved to maybe one kick in four that was gripping, so I'm not sure if it that the engine had warmed up, reducing resistance which was allowing the clutch to grip or whether it was because the engine was lubricated by running it in gear. I'll take the primary chain-case off tomorrow and tighten up the clutch springs a turn to see if that helps.

I only told him after we'd put the bike away and had a brew that I'd been sitting side-saddle on the bike while he was pushing it. It'll do him good.