Motorcyclist Information
Welcome to the Motorider Tips Page
Here we will share tips on mechanical problems, riding in general, and fun or unusual happenings while pursuing our favorite sport of motorcycling. If you have something you would like to share with our readers just email it to us. I hope to hear about your adventure soon.
Riding with an inoperative clutch.
Let me say first that this whole thing would have been avoided if the
dummy owner had done his maintenance properly. Before going on a trip I check everything: battery, tires, coolant, brake fluid, oil, lights, etc. Now I have one more item to add to the list.
A couple weeks before the trip I changed the oil and filter. I then rode the bike on a local breakfast ride and everything was fine. I looked for leaks every time I parked the bike and saw none, so I figured I'm good to go. When I left the house Saturday morning the clutch did not fully disengage, but the bike was rideable. Thinking maybe it was just cold I went ahead and met the others at the Sunoco station. By the time I got there the clutch would not disengage at all.
The Honda GL1500 uses a hydraulic clutch. There is a reservoir on the clutch master cylinder just like the one on the brake cylinder. When I checked the clutch reservoir at the station it was empty. No worries, I thought, just fill it with DOT3, pump it a bit and all will be well. I did that with no improvement at all. Well........it's time to leave, so what to do? I decided to ride the bike without a functioning clutch until we could figure out what to try next.
Now for the techniques for riding a bike with no clutch. To start out, put the transmission in first gear (engine off). When you are ready to go squeeze the clutch lever (to operate the clutch override switch) and hit the starter. The engine starts and off you go. Up shifting is not too difficult, a little toe pressure on the shifter, ease the throttle off and it shifts to the next gear, no sweat. Down shifting is a bit more difficult as you have to ease off the throttle and pop it into the next lower gear. Stopping can be very interesting. If you get lucky and can get the transmission into neutral, just coast to a stop. If it gets into first gear and won't
come out, you have to brake hard enough to stall the engine. This results in a very jerky stop and is probably not good for the running gear.
We stopped at the rest stop on I-95 near Titusville to discuss the situation. Looking under the bike we found the hose coming from the clutch master cylinder to the clutch slave cylinder. It connects with a banjo fitting which we loosened. We then tried to bleed the air out of the line and did get fluid out of the banjo fitting. Unfortunately this did not help. We decided to continue on to Lake City where there is a bike shop. After lunch at Ken's we went to the bike shop only to find it closed down. Now what? We continued for another mile or so to a closed garage with a level concrete area where we could work. We parked the bike on the center stand and finally put our brains in gear. We knew there had to be a bleed nipple somewhere (just like on brake cylinders). After taking some plastic panels off, Geoff found it. AHA! Not wanting to dump brake fluid on the ground we wanted a length of tubing and a bottle to catch it. We got lucky....I found a soda straw that fit the nipple and Richard found an empty soda bottle. It all worked...Geoff worked the wrench on the nipple while I pumped the clutch lever. In less than 5 minutes the clutch was working perfectly! And it worked fine for the whole trip.
I hope those of you with hydraulic clutches learn from this.......I sure did.
Ride safe.........Harold