05 Electra Glide- Trying to get a feel for how/where your clucthes grab. Mine starts to grab afterabout 35% of the lever travelcoming off of holding the clutch in. Its nottoo bad but with thebars turned almost to full lockon tight turns sometimes I just release the lever a wee bit and it doesn't grab fast enough and I have to put my foot out to save the bike. I'm talking about realslow speed manuvers. I wasn't going to say but I will -I am a Police Officer (14 years)and we have 3 Roadkings in our fleet but I am NOT a motor Officer. I haven't had a chance to grab one of the wheel guys and ask but I did stop at Harley dealer by me and the service manager came right out and quick rode it and said Yeah its completely normal-all the cops,the staties and your guys complain about it- he said its not a cable adjustment it has to be done in the derby cover and basically taken "out of spec" to make it engage sooner. Anyway my point is our wheel guys had to go for rigorous training with Philadelphia cops and they had to learn threshold braking, locking up the front wheel then releasing and squeezing-very little rear brake at all. Most of them went down at least once during training.These guys can drag floorboards while doing a constant dizzying tightcircle over and over again. I know all of them and they couldn't do that before the training. They rode the bikes up and down stairs- in deep water. My Dept will not send any of us for training anymore because the bikes got a lot of damage and dents, the instructor knocks the bike over and "teaches you how to pick it up correctly". Anyone else on the clutch issue?

 

I'd say getting friction in that area isn't bad. When my bike was delivered, it was getting friction after about 10% -- very fast clutch. I liked the control, but it was so tight that I couldn't start the engine in gear by holding the clutch in -- it would lunge forward on the starting motor. I had the dealer adjust it at the 1K service and now I can start in gear, but I don't get friction 'til past the 50% mark. Some weekend I'll try to tighten it up a bit -- yes, it's an adjustment under the derby cover; the cable adjustment is just to set the slack in the cable itself, not the clutch.

 

Geez I thoght I'D get more on this. The clutch is integral to slow speed control or not tipping over. I guessI noticed it more because I am trying to fine tune my slow speed skills more. Oh well.

 

I just checked mine the other day. I'm going to say about 20% for me. I think it's perfect.

 

I took the Police Motors Certification Course last year, so I know what you mean about having the friction zone in a comfortable location. For me, it is about 1/2-3/4 off of the bar....so 30-35% or so??

One of our motor officers is also a HD Mechanic at the local dealer, and he does all of the maintenance on our fleet. I was complaining when I first got on the RK I was using for the school (brand new bike, with less than 400 miles at the start of the school), as the friction zone did not start until past 50%. He adjusted the clutch on the cable, moving the friction point closer to the bar.

He went on to say that the CORRECT way is an internal adjustment, but that he only does that once a year, or when replacing clutches.

 

When I put my new bars and cables on I readjusted my clutch and now it engages almost imediatly after letting out the lever. The only bad part is now the lever is pretty hard so when you sit at a stop light for a non period of time or are in stop in go traffic my hand will start to cramp. I may have to let some slack out.

Jeff

 

I adjust the cable so the clutch catches real close to the bar. The dealer adjusts it so it catches much farther away from the bar and then I adjust it back. All of this is done by adjusting the cable. It does leave a fair amount of slack on the outboard end when you do this by the cable.

Mine used to jump when I start it in gear with the clutch held in and would also want to "run" a little if I rev it up in gear with the clutch held in. This was corrected inside the derby cover.

 

Adjusting the clutch is VERY easy. There is a thread in the tech section that covers this in detail. It really only takes a half hour, maybe longer the first time. You can set the lever to grab where ever you want it to. The cover comes off and won't leak if bike is standing straight up like on a jack. Loosen nut, turn set screw left or right depending on where you wan it to grab and tighten back up. Oh yeah, first adjust clutch cable so it has no tension on it, then do the rest.