Hello everyone.
This time I'm talking about lubricating the clutch cable.
These days more and more bikes rely less on a clutch cable, with hydraulic clutches, Honda's DCT and E-Clutch, Yamaha's Y-AMT, BMW's ASA and so on, but plenty of bikes still need one.
If your clutch cable snapped while you were out touring, the trip you'd planned so carefully would be ruined. That's why clutch cable maintenance matters so much.
In practice, I think clutch cable maintenance means cleaning and lubricating. My view is that fresh oil flushes out old oil and dirt 'to some extent', so I lubricate my clutch cable often. Here's how I do it.
All you need is a small plastic bag of the kind sold in 100-yen (pound-shop) stores. Any spare one you have at home will do.
Snip a little off one corner of the bag.
Then push the end of the clutch cable through the cut corner.
Wrap the bag snugly around the clutch cable and secure it with vinyl tape.
Then pour oil into the bag, and gravity does the rest, carrying the oil down inside the clutch cable.
Be careful to put a rag at the outlet end, or the oil that has run through the cable will drip out.
I've also written up lubricating the throttle cable on my BMW G650GS:
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BMW G650GS Throttle Cable Lubrication: Opening the Throttle Housing, Oiling and Free Play
Lubricating the throttle cable on my BMW G650GS: splitting the throttle housing with a 4 mm hex, freeing the adjuster with an 8 mm spanner, oiling until clean oil comes out at the throttle body, greasing the nipple and resetting free play.
