Couple of potential issues

[mr72]

So I don't typically ride hard. I don't use WOT often, I don't rev over 8K almost never. But yesterday I happened to be riding in traffic on 70+mph freeways and had the need to ring it out a bit more and I noticed that my clutch definitely slips if I rev to 9.5K or so under WOT and shift. It doesn't slip when in gear, but after a gear change if the bike lands in the middle of the power band in the new gear, it slips. Is this oil or just a bad clutch? 25K on the bike.

Second issue I noticed, which may be normal, is with the rear suspension. When on the center stand there's a little bit of slack, I can lift the rear wheel about 1/4" before it engages the spring. Is this normal or a sign of something wrong? Bushing somewhere?

[herennow]

25k is very low for these clutches, I would put my money on redoing the 3 point adjustment carefully would solve the problem.

[mr72]

Thanks, I tried readjusting the clutch today. I ran into a couple of oddities but I think there's more free play now. Haven't had a chance to ride it and see if it changed anything yet.

For the other issue, when I was riding yesterday it felt like the bike was kind of wobbly but I thought it might just be that I'm not used to the new rear tire. I checked this morning about that slack in the rear suspension and the bolt on the lower shock mount was loose! That explains it! I shudder to think what would have happened if this had come off while riding. So I fixed that, no more slack.

[scratch]

Regarding clutch slippage; after not riding daily for 6 months (in between jobs, but 125 mile monthly rides), the clutch under hard throttle would slip until I changed the oil.

[mr72]

Quick test ride this morning, looks like the clutch adjustment may have done the trick.

I think the problem may have been "free play". Adjusting free play at the lever or where the cable goes in with the adjustment cover off reveals that what feels like free play is actually moving the clutch actuator. So it seems now that it's critical to adjust this with the cover off so you can be sure that the clutch is fully engaged.

[mr72]

Given rain and work I haven't had much time to ride but I did a couple of errands today and yesterday and noticed something regarding the clutch adjustment.

I think it was slipping at high revs before and I didn't know it. I mean, slipping even before gear changing. It was obvious it was slipping when changing up gears and releasing the clutch because you could hear the engine rev and then come back down while not changing throttle. But accelerating in gear it is kind of difficult to notice if it's slipping.

The reason I think it was slipping at high revs even before shifting up is because now the bike feels like it has more power and is more willing to accelerate as it revs. Before I had the feeling that the power tapered off above about 8K, like the bike kind of quit pulling harder as the revs went up above 8K, but now I think it just began to slip the clutch above 8K so the power wasn't making it to the wheel. Now it seems to pull hard past 8K.

Anyway, unexpected benefit of the clutch adjustment.