Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Clutch assist

I have plenty of strength and grip in my hands but on long rides, especially those with stop-n-go city action, my left wrist gets fatigued and sore to the point of outright pain. This is probably due to my career as a programmer -- I don't have carpal tunnel syndrome but all that typing has definitely taken its toll.

The extreme reaction is to get rid of my V-Strom and get a bike or scooter with an automatic or semi-automatic clutch/transmission, such as a Honda Silverwing, Suzuki Burgman, or Yamaha FJR. Those rides all have their pros and I would consider each for their own merits, but for now I want to keep riding my Suzuki V-Strom. An easier approach is to find a solution that reduces the amount of force required to pull in the clutch lever on my current bike. That's where Moose Racing products come in.

On the advice of someone on the Stromtrooper.com forum, I ordered the Moose Racing Easy-Pull clutch system from Motorcycle-Superstore.com. It costs $36 and I received it the very next day (their warehouse is in Medford, Oregon, just a few hundred miles from my home in Sandy). It's a small device that is installed in-line, between the clutch lever and the clutch cable. It uses an internal cam with three settings that adjusts the amount of force required to engage the clutch. Because it uses a cam, the amount of force required is not linear; initially the amount of assistance is minor but increases through it's range of motion. The amount of force required to hold the clutch fully engaged feels to be about half of what it was previously.

Installation took less than an hour, half of that time involved removing my OEM hand-guards. The device has four screws that give access to the cam inside. The cam can be adjusted by the position of a small metal pin in one of three holes. I chose the 'best assist' position. Once the cover is put back on, the whole device goes back in place in a matter of minutes. An adjustment could easily be made within minutes on the side of the road using nothing but a small Phillips-head screwdriver.

Here are two pictures of what the device looks like installed on my bike:

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