I've had a sticky and heavy throttle since day one with my F3. I decided to do something about it and lube the cables. I finally got them off but now that they're clean I think I may have found the problem elsewhere.

This little metal nub that sets how the plastic housing sits against the bar is tilted. Its hard to see but I did the best I could to show it in these pictures. I think its sitting tilted enough to set the switch housing at an angle and make it press against the throttle sleeve.




Anyone who has these parts - does your little metal piece sit like this or is it level?

 

That little metal piece clips onto your handlebar, theres like a dent on your handlebar that that little piece goes into to prevent your thing from turning awhile you twist the throttle.

 

Forgot to add, you can adjust the throttle cables so they aren't so sticky, mine use to be like that.

 

Also put a little white grease on the bar so that the throttle tube can easily turn on the bar.

 

Doh! Completely didn't notice the recess for it in the bar. Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'm going to take another shot at getting it put back together later this afternoon and see if all goes well.

cbrf3monkey - what adjustments did you to to get rid of the stick? I used some cable lube on mine while I had it apart and cleaned up the entire system so its nice and clean but if there's a specific adjustment that will help I'd love to know about it.

 

Yeah I had the same problem - I lubed the cables with teflon lube and it was still sticky, but I've noticed that if you move the cable run around a bit, it is looser in a certain spot. It can get jammed near the head tube - basically you want as little twisting and the largest radius bends you can make. I also found that using the little metal clip to the right of the head tube (on the frame) just made it worse.

 

I think my problem lies in the actual plastic switch housing. I think for some reason it hangs up more at high throttle. I got it all back together with the lubed cables and while it is smoother, it still doesn't snap closed when I let go of it.

It hasn't been an issue at all so far, I don't even notice it on the road so I'm going to leave it be for now.

 

Thanks for the help everyone! I went out for a ride tonight and the throttle is 100% better. The bike feels more responsive than ever without the heavy gritty throttle. I do still have some slop in the cables though which sucks since I'm going to have to remove the tank, entire air box, and velocity stacks again to adjust it but the work was definitely worth while. I can actually brake and rev-match at the same time now.

 

You can make minor adjustments to the throttle cables at the handlebars

 

I'll see if I can get the slack out that way... maybe if I'm lucky but I doubt it.