Hi guys, I am a new owner of a 9-year-old 2004 GS500F. I am really liking the bike so far and it's in excellent condition. However, I am not completely satisfied with the clutch lever. I feel it is a little bit loose to my liking in terms of its vertical free play.

I took a look at it and I can see a nut and bolt clamping down on two metal plates in which the lever is placed in, do I simply need to tighten this to clamp down the lever more?

Since I only got the bike last week, I'm hesitant to fiddle with it too much, so I figured I'd just check here first.

You can tighten that bolt/nut.  Just make sure the lever still moves freely.  You don't want it hanging up on you, or being too hard to pull.  You can definitely shoot some WD-40 in that pivot to make it pull smoother.

Thanks! Will do.

Unless it's loose, I don't think you want to crank down on that bolt as the threads don't run the length of the bolt and you may strip the bolt or the bracket.  A better approach would be shim the lever using plastic washers.  Ordinary nylon washers as you would get at a hardware store might not be thin enough.  I've heard of people using washers cut from plastic milk or soda bottles for this sort of thing.  As the previous poster noted you want to be very sure that the lever doesn't bind.  I'd also use Loctite on something like this to make sure the bolt doesn't back out at an inopportune moment.

I decided I'd just take a quick video to check if it's normal before doing anything, here it is:

I just checked the "vertical freeplay" of the (non-OEM replacement) clutch lever on my '99.  It may not move quite as far as yours, but pretty close.

Personally, I would chalk this one up as something to compare when you get your next clutch lever ... just for grins.  But in the meantime, go ahead and ride! 

 

Thanks! Not fussed about opening things up and fixing stuff but only got it a week ago, I want to enjoy it for a while before any surgery!