So I bought some shorty levers and there great, I like em a lot. But my clutch lever has a decent amount of slack in it so it seems lose. I can pull it in about a half or whole inch or so before it actually grabs. So my question being is this affecting the ability of my clutch to engage and disengage? The bike rides fine and goes through the gears fine too. Should I tighten up that extra play in the clutch or leave it?

 

I would adjust it to about a 1/4 inch of play as in the lever at rest moves that much that way you know the clutch is engaged fully.

 

i dealt with the same thing for months. never could tell when i had my clutch cable adjusted right. until i had to crack open the clutch cover to change out the actuater pin or whatever its called that pulls the clutch plates out. then i could really tell exactly how much slack i could have in the cable to make it operate right.im hands on type, if that makes any sense. only way i can explain it is that when its to loose i get hard shifting then i know to tighten it up. the way i do it now is loosen til i get hard shifts and then start to tighten little by little. it took me awhile but now i know when its right and when its not.

PS- if all else fails i always can go by my favorite mechanic's shop and bug them to look at it/ test ride or whatever to help me get it right. hope that helps. oh, one other thing i use to have to do all the time was go by the dealer and check/ wiggle all the sportbike clutch levers to see how they were set from the factory and try to set mine about the same. it worked for me ,lol

 

You want to adjust the slack to between 10 mm and 20 mm for your clutch cable. There are a ton of videos on YouTube and walkthroughs written in forums and the service manual on how to do this. I recommend starting there before you start taking your engine apart.