After nearly a decade of motorbiking, I have, for the first time, successfully diagnosed a mechanical issue. All By Myself. My Scrambler was having some weird (to me) issues, namely appearing to lose power at speed, particularly going uphill, while the RPMs revved furiously (including hitting the rev limiter in 4th gear going about 47 mph….WTF?).
Naturally, my first thought was something along the lines of ‘Oh hell….I’ve broken yet another bike :(’. My second thought was ‘I wonder what the Googlez might have to say about this.’ So I googled. And discovered that what I’d experienced was most likely clutch slipping. I’d never had that happen before, and now was experiencing it on a bike with just over 1600 miles on the clock.
When I got home from work, I described the problem to my husband (I swear he was on the verge of saying ‘OMG have you broken yet another bike?!’) and he confirmed that my Google-fu was correct. And then discovered that there are *two* adjustment points on the Scrambler’s clutch. Seems that there have been a rash of problems with the clutches being mis-adjusted from the factory (including more than a handful of instances of clutch plate failure as early as 1200 miles as a result). He meddled with both adjustment points and now, for the first time, there’s actually the proper amount of play in the clutch lever. A test ride all over Portland this afternoon resulted in no more slippage, despite my best efforts, so I think everything is nicely resolved. I’ll know for sure when I ride to work tomorrow and tackle the Highway 26 hill west of the tunnel. Fingers crossed!