I changed clutch plates and spring a few days ago. The "halv warm slip" at torque peak disapeared and everything is now OK. I also noted another thing, the bike does not rev up as fast as earlier. This means that I've had some slip all the time before during hard load, which was not possible to feel since the bike pulled very well and did not slipped (noticeably) after beeing warmed up. After getting more used to this, I now see that the bike really builds speed better, but there was no possibility for me earlier to reqognise the small constant slip since everything sounded and felt normal. I just thought that the CBR was an extremly angry and screaming beast. After finding that the bike doesn't rev up as quickly as before I decided to do a top speed test and by that see if it makes full power. The bike pulled fine all the way up to 270 km/h and then build speed somewhat more slowly to 280 km/h. It could have run slighly faster, but the situation for total flat out was not optimal. I hitted a bump at 280 km/h that gave a couple of not to bad shakes in the handlebars when the front tyre contacted gound again. All previosly given speed figures are as read on the speedo. I also had a GPS in the pocket which recorded the maximum speed. It showed 255 km/h, so I'm sure that the factory figure of almost 260 km/h can be true and the bike delivers full power.

I've had the same experience from car drag racing. You can hardly hear or feel when the cluch begins to slip the first time. But you will see it by the quarter mile figures going down half a second or so. When you then check the friction plates they are severly burned and you wonder how the car was able to pull at all.

Kassari if you read this, I beleive it could be time for you to change plates/spring/oil to, since we had exactly the same indication of slip, and you probably have some constant slip to during load which is quite hard to notice since one get used gradually .

 

Good post. What brand clutch plates and springs did you use?

 

I want to know too.. i'm going to have to do mine as well.. I'm noticing slip, when I shift hard.. though, i may do a band aid solution for this summer and put new springs in (depending on the meat left on the discs), then to the discs come wintertime

 

I used stock type friction plates, reused the steel plates and installed new 15% harder springs. When I compared an old and a new spring the difference was about 10 %. I also stepped up from half to full synthetic oil.

 

Really thanks for this.

Now when I read about your test, it's really possible that my clutch has slipped all the time too. About a year ago I visited airstrip for full speed test and clocked 261km/h real speed (mirrors etc. stripped off). Speedometer was somewhere near 290km/h. But then, I ran another test last autumn and only got 238km/h, but the speedo still indicated above 280km/h. I thought then I just saw speedometer wrong, but heck, there most probably happened some serious unnoticeable clutch slipping.

I've had a small feeling earlier about something like this, but never really believed that this could be the case. Now after your post I'm sure that I need to do that complete clutch-change operation like you did, hopefully soon. I'm still thinking about what oil I should put in, my local shop sells some Honda's own oil designed for all CBR bikes, maybe I test that. I report my findings and if I have enough time, I'll work on some DIY guide with pics for changing the plates.

Bumbs are not our friends at 250km/h.

 

Well, shaked but not disturbed, so far...

 

I just did a price check on the clutch kit for this bike.. 23$ a piece for the friction plates, 8$ a piece for the steels, (8 of each needed), 4$ for springs (5 needed) and 20$ for the gasket needed.. (all canadian funds) after tax, that comes in at close to 400$... like JEBUS.. if anyone knows of anything for less, or is doing their clutch and thinks they might be able to get a discount on a group buy, let me know.. because as it stands, I'm not going to replace the clutch until it gets really bad at that price

 

Those where really bad price figures, sure understand you are dissapointed. Try to look around more, normally aftermarket parts for e.g. cars are much cheaper in US than in Sweden and I paid about 100 USD for the clutch parts (aftermarket parts). You need 9 friction plates, one of them is slightly thinner. You probably don't need neew steel plates, the stock plates are quite rugged. Hope you find more reasonably priced spares.

 

that's good to hear... no matter what the duty is on it crossing the border, it'll still be worth it

 

well.. this looks like a much more resonable price.. what do you say?

http://www.bikebandit.com/partsbandi...ion_Path~3.asp


EBC street/strip clutch kit for $112 USD... sounds better than 350 USD like my honda dealer was wanting!!!!

figured I'd post a link to this part here since the thread is all about it!