BayArea Bueller
Member
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2010
- Messages
- 10
Hello Fellow Buellers,
New here and glad to be a new Firebolt owner. Just to quickly introduce myself and my riding history: I live in the Bay Area California, 1st bike 88' FZ600 (in my 20's), 2nd bike 02' VFR (in my 30's), 3rd bike 08' XB12R (currently in my 40's - getting old but not quite old enough for a cruzer yet). I picked up my Firebolt around 2mos ago and did a little homework before deciding on the 12R, my priorities were TWISTIES, LOW MAINTENANCE and DIFFERENT and the 12R fit the bill. I was aware of the little "CONs" of the Buells but the 12R's uniqueness outweighs them by far. Lurking here on buellxb.com well over a year before picking up the Bolt so I was well informed on what to expect when jumping into riding a Buell. What I didnt think would be a problem was the stock hard clutch, it wasnt a problem my 1st month of ownership because I was just cruzing around getting to learn my new beast. After getting to know this monster I've been hitting up every twisty road in the Bay Area, I'd say in just the past 3 weeks I've done maybe 300mi alone on twisties (I'm talking about XXX Hardcore Twisties). Never have I ever felt any soreness in my left hand from clutching. Last Sunday my buddy hit me up for another 140mi ride, around 60mi of twisties and no pain what so ever. The 12R carves on rails and pretty much does it all on its own, its just amazing. No pain Sunday, no pain Sunday night but then Monday morning I wake up with a big knot on my left hand between the thumb and my pointer finger. I thought what the hell, then it dawned on me and remembered a few Buell riders complaining about the hard clutch pull on these bikes. I still lift weights, play softball and work constantly wrenching handtools so never did I consider it would be a problem after reading about the hard clutch. I guess being over 40 now my body doesnt recover as quickly from being battered. So I do a search for what's the Buell/HD hard clutch fix. All I could find is a Muller Power Clutch ($190) and another add-on devise called a Soft Clutch ($60) made by a European company. I couldnt find the cheaper Soft Clutch offered from any of the US websites and would rather not buy from any Euro sites just cuz I dont like waiting for overseas shipping. I zoomed the online pictures of the Soft Clutch and said to myself "**** I can make that". So I searched around a local Industrial Surplus shop and found a hardened aluminum bracket to modify for this project. The end result seems to feel like the clutch pull needs 30%-40% less effort just like what the Soft Clutch product claims. The only other change in the feel of the clutch is that it engages a tiny bit earlier, no biggie. One concern I have is that I used Hardened Aluminum, I think Stainless Steel would have been my 1st choice but what the heck I only paid $0.50 for the Aluminum part and if it does become a problem I can remove my one-off part then have my machinist cleanup the lines and duplicate it in Stainless
I wanted to add photos of this project but cant figure out how to add the images. Can someone tell me how to add photos in this forum. -thnx
New here and glad to be a new Firebolt owner. Just to quickly introduce myself and my riding history: I live in the Bay Area California, 1st bike 88' FZ600 (in my 20's), 2nd bike 02' VFR (in my 30's), 3rd bike 08' XB12R (currently in my 40's - getting old but not quite old enough for a cruzer yet). I picked up my Firebolt around 2mos ago and did a little homework before deciding on the 12R, my priorities were TWISTIES, LOW MAINTENANCE and DIFFERENT and the 12R fit the bill. I was aware of the little "CONs" of the Buells but the 12R's uniqueness outweighs them by far. Lurking here on buellxb.com well over a year before picking up the Bolt so I was well informed on what to expect when jumping into riding a Buell. What I didnt think would be a problem was the stock hard clutch, it wasnt a problem my 1st month of ownership because I was just cruzing around getting to learn my new beast. After getting to know this monster I've been hitting up every twisty road in the Bay Area, I'd say in just the past 3 weeks I've done maybe 300mi alone on twisties (I'm talking about XXX Hardcore Twisties). Never have I ever felt any soreness in my left hand from clutching. Last Sunday my buddy hit me up for another 140mi ride, around 60mi of twisties and no pain what so ever. The 12R carves on rails and pretty much does it all on its own, its just amazing. No pain Sunday, no pain Sunday night but then Monday morning I wake up with a big knot on my left hand between the thumb and my pointer finger. I thought what the hell, then it dawned on me and remembered a few Buell riders complaining about the hard clutch pull on these bikes. I still lift weights, play softball and work constantly wrenching handtools so never did I consider it would be a problem after reading about the hard clutch. I guess being over 40 now my body doesnt recover as quickly from being battered. So I do a search for what's the Buell/HD hard clutch fix. All I could find is a Muller Power Clutch ($190) and another add-on devise called a Soft Clutch ($60) made by a European company. I couldnt find the cheaper Soft Clutch offered from any of the US websites and would rather not buy from any Euro sites just cuz I dont like waiting for overseas shipping. I zoomed the online pictures of the Soft Clutch and said to myself "**** I can make that". So I searched around a local Industrial Surplus shop and found a hardened aluminum bracket to modify for this project. The end result seems to feel like the clutch pull needs 30%-40% less effort just like what the Soft Clutch product claims. The only other change in the feel of the clutch is that it engages a tiny bit earlier, no biggie. One concern I have is that I used Hardened Aluminum, I think Stainless Steel would have been my 1st choice but what the heck I only paid $0.50 for the Aluminum part and if it does become a problem I can remove my one-off part then have my machinist cleanup the lines and duplicate it in Stainless
I wanted to add photos of this project but cant figure out how to add the images. Can someone tell me how to add photos in this forum. -thnx
