Hello,

My clutch cable broke while I was on the highway and I need to get it home to perform repairs. The cable broke free from the "barrel" at the clutch lever end. I can yank on the cable with a pair of pliers, but that doesnt seem to be effectively disengagin the clutch.

Can anyone offer some quick advice on the art of riding a bike with no clutch? I'm rather f***ed right now and my bike is stuck at a dog track, of all places.

Thanks!

Get a new cable and repair it on site... or do you know anyone with a pickup truck?  Haul it home and fix it.

If you can crush the barrel back on to the cable in the right spot  it might hold up for a ride.... Maybe take some kind of epoxy  (in cold temps iffy) or something to help it stay in place for the ride home...

Good luck.

None of the local dealers have the cable in stock, and I'm sans pickup truck.

Is there a security office near the parking lot you can push the bike to in case you have to leave it (somewhere less likely to get messed with..)?

See my edited reply  above for another idea

Yep. Your're boned! The mechanical advantage of the clutch lever is not likely to be overcome with your bare hand. If you could pull the wire rope UP from the left side, you might get to a low enough gear to move along till getting home. That's why I changed the clutch cable on my project GS. The original looked too "dodgy" (I love that Brit/Aussie term! Hope I spelled it correctly.).

If you are a stark raving manic, get it into neutral and have someone tow you   , SLOWLY ON BACK STREETS or just give up and find a truck/trailer. Of course with a truck you would need a ramp. The GS is nothing you want to clean and jerk.

If you are desperate enough to try the towing trick (I have seen this twice in this country) leave yourself about 15 feet of space behind the tow vehicle. Oh yeah, wear lots of protective gear.

Well, I got it home alright, with minimum problems.

Here's what I did:

1. Put bike in neutral, used feet to get rolling, then pressed the starter as I put the bike into first.

2. Upshifts were done by going to highish revs, blipping the throttle, rolling off the throttle, then shifting at the moment of roll off.

3. Downshifts were done by going to lowish revs, blipping the throttle, rolling off the throttle, then shifting at the moment of roll off.

4. I ran every red light possible.

5. When forced to stop, I'd flip the ignition switch off, then begin at step 1.

I don't know if this was the best way to do it, but it worked for me. Thanks to all who responded.

Glad to hear you made it back. One of the racer types probably could have told you to do what you ended up doing anyway.

Get that cable on order. I have the original that came with my project but it is sluggish to slide and I don't trust it. It would do in an emergency though. Maybe I will toss it under the seat for this type of situation.

Good luck!

All the local dealers have said that it will take 4-5 working days to get a new clutch cable in. Can someone recommend an online vendor that is FAST? Thanks.

Wait, you can downshift clutchlessly? I know you can do clutchless upshifts.. I never do anything but these days, but I always thought clutchless downshifts were a no-no on bike transmissions (Can do them in a car... but thats because I have a neutral gear between shifts to match revs with).

Hmmm.

LOL, that would be an adventure.  Glad things worked out ok.

Sorry - I wasn't even awake when you posted!  If I had been online I would have sent you to this old post of mine.

As far as I'm concerned you worked it perfectly!  

Fast online vendors ... Hmmm ... I haven't ever tested any of them by paying for expedited shipping, but take a look at Ron Ayer's shipping info page.

UPDATE: I went out to my shed to check - just in case.  Sure enough, I HAVE a brand-new-in-the-bag clutch cable, Suzuki part number 58200-01D11.  I don't know what year your bike is, but you can find out the appropriate Suzuki part number for yourself by looking at the Handlebar section on the Ron Ayers, Hillsboro or MrCycles parts fiche (NOT Bike Bandit!) for your model year -- as accessed from my Parts Fiche index.

According to my quick research, the cable in my possession will fit model years 1990-2000.  If you're desperate I can get it in the mail on Monday morning for overnight delivery (or whatever).  Then I'll order a new one from my local dealer (No shipping charge!) and let you know the reimbursement amount.  (The cost to ship my cable plus the replacement cost.)

Interested?

hopefully this isn't 2 weeks after you posted this, try a bicycle store and ask for some of these....
http://www.flatlandfuel.com/item.jhtml?UCIDs=849786%7C1029500&PRID=727127

knarps, they're meant to work as the little barrels on bicycle brake cables, i know clutch cables are a little thicker, but the holes might be big enough to fit, or drill it out a little, it's pretty much the barrel, with a hole through the side for the cable, then a little bolt on the top you screw down in to pinch the cable, it should be enough to get you home if it'll fit on the cable,

yeah, thats what i do providing i dont have a leatherman on me,  i try to get slightly longer clutch cables then stock just for that reason.  barrel/leadball pops off the end, happens alot. now come down on the cable sheilding about a hands width(3-4 inches) cut the shielding, but NOT the inner cable, with the sheilding striped away, you have about 5 inches of cable exposed, run your adjuster on your lever all the way in now.  poke the cable through and let the shield bottom out in the adjuster, pick  at the end of the cable abit till you can unravel about half the wires and retwist them into 2 bunches about equal thickness, with the lever forward into its NORMAL rest position, poke one of the bunches of cable through the hole and out the bottom, then bring it forward wraping it around the front of the lever to meet the other strand, twist them together 2-3 twists, take the next strand thats facing forward of the bikd down the front of the lever and poke it back through the hole from underneath, twist the pair again, keep going back and forth till you have little of the strands left, now turn your adjuster out just enough to disengage the clutch when you pull it in.  this should get you home, or back to civilization. for the record, it lasted 3 weeks on my gs750E before rust had eaten the exposed cable enough to break (had the new cable under the seat.

Kerry,

Thanks for the VERY GENEROUS offer! Unfortunately, the cables for my '02 appear to be a different model number (58200-01DA0). I'm going to order a couple of spares from Ron Ayers to prevent downtime in the future.

I've got 2000 feet of braided copper cable that I'm going to attempt to craft a temporary solution from. I'm sure braided steel would be far superior, but necessity is the cranky mother-in-law of invention. Those little end-nuts from a bike shop might come in quite handy for this project.

By the way, does anyone have other recommendations for spare parts to keep on hand? I always stow an extra headlight bulb under the seat, but that's about it for backups.

-Chris

Fuse, sparkplugs, clutch lever, maybe a brake lever (you have two brakes, hopefully one of them will survive. It's good to have a back-up)

I didn't see it listed in any of the links Kerry offered, but a really good lubricant is good old Graphite.  I got a 2 oz tube at the local hardware store for less than $2.  Benefit of graphite (and other similar dry, non-petroleum lubricant powders) is that they don't attract dirt that can become abrasive.  I squeezed it in the cable sleeve at the lever, working it down, then adding more.  I wasn't shy on overusing it either.

Just a thought.  I'm still on my first cable so don't know how well is working.  (As with everything that hasn't broken yet -- I don't have any data to tell good from bad.)  

Hey Kerry, a big    for all the info you carry in that head of yours, and the links you offer.  Thanks for being on-line and helping those of us in need.  I'm sure I speak for a lot others that really appreciate you and the other Core respondents here for sharing your wealth of knowledge.

Roy...