i have a 2011 road king classic. dealer said im hard on a clutch when i ride? was wondering what is the big difference between stock clutch and a screamin eagle. would i get more life out of the screamin eagle or just stay with the stock and learn how to ride better lol. just put rienhart slip ons with vance and hines headers. open air cleaner and 204 cams. also had it dyno tuned. pushing 85 horsepower and 101 torque now.

 

How are you "hard on the clutch"? I have read of people getting 10's of thousands of miles out of their stock clutches.

Those are some good dyno #'s.

 

I can't imagine what you might be doing to a stock clutch to wear it out much sooner than anyone else, but yes the SE clutch is better. Did you do any engine work that would wear the clutch faster?

In case your interested, there are many threads here that discuss the pros and cons of aftermarket clutches. There is some nice gear you can choose from other than the stock or SE.

 

Some years ago I took my new bike into the dealer, as the clutch wouldn't let me engage neutral. He dismantled it in front of me and joked that it didn't look as if I had ever used it and said that if I used it more heavily it might have bedded in.

So it is obviously possible to be hard or easy on a clutch, although how that is defined I am not sure! I don't believe that changing anything in your clutch will give you any benefit, except spending some of your money. More useful would be finding an advanced training scheme that can improve your clutch technique, to reduce wear.

Or ride on!

Hopefully one of our number knows how to help you identify what you can do to improve your clutch use. It's all in your technique!

 

like i said i just put all this stuff on bike took it in to have cams and super tune it. ran good. next thing i here from them was that my clutch was gone and slipping during dyno tunning and had to be replaced i have 3,300 miles on it. they told me they were going to put a se screamin eagle in it would wear better for me and last longer. after driving it home and looking at my bill and cross refferencing numbers. they put in a standard clutch WTF. have a call into manager right now waiting for a answer about this. should i be happy with what i got or tell them that i want the se in like they told me they were going to do. same price but just the idea. that they lied to me and really am i better off with what i got or no thanks

 

and no other engine work to motor until i brought it in to them to do cams and super tune?

 

Now that sucks. With the lying I'd wonder if they weren't the cause of your clutch failure. That's just not right. Are you using the clutch to hold position on hills? That and not completely releasing it is all I can think of in normal operation that might cause you to wear out a clutch in that time. Or it wasn't adjusted properly to begin with. You need to understand what is causing it or you'll right back here no matter what clutch they put in.

 

From the sounds of this they lied to you a lot! If it wasn't slipping when you took it in I'd be suspicious. You should have stayed with the bike during the dyno runs. If the tech starts claiming the clutch is slipping take the bike & ride it to see if he's telling the truth.

When they pull the clutch out be there to look at it yourself, & watch the new one go back in.

 

That's a BS move by the dealer. The SE clutch is like 20 bucks more than the stock clutch. I would have them change out the stock clutch they put in for the SE clutch......on their dime!!

Make sure they put in the SE heavy spring plate also. I had some clutch issues also a couple of months ago. Clutch was slipping over 3,000 rpm. They told me I'm hard on the clutch.......BS!!!!!!!

I've been riding bikes for over 35 years, OTR truck driver for several years and have NEVER had ANY clutch problems in the past. The real reason was I had one of the dealer's techs throw on some chrome brake and clutch levers and the guy readjusts my clutch. On the way home.......slipping!!

Take it back to the dealer to readjust and they tell me I fried it!! Funny though, when I first took it back they had a mechanic ride it to see what the issue was.....he comes back in 10 minutes and says nothing is wrong.
Huh??? Told 'em to check it out again, a different mechanic takes it out for about 10 minutes and comes back and says it's fried!!!
Ultimately I put in a new clutch. I do ride aggressive and it's nearly impossible to prove that THEY fried the clutch. They tried to put in a new stock clutch until I stopped them and had them put in the SE for 20 more bucks. They even tried to put in a STOCK clutch spring plate with the new SE clutch!! WARNING: These so called mechanics are CLOWNS!!!!

Moral of this story......do the work yourself if you can. Some of these "HD techs" I wouldn't let work on my lawnmower let alone my bike!!!!!
Make 'em replace the stock clutch they put in for the SE clutch THEY SAID was being installed. That was your understanding prior to the work being done. Make them change it on THEIR dime!!!

 

Do you:

(1) inflict obvious abuse such as burnouts, wheelies or drag racing?

(2) have an unusual tendency to "slip" the clutch too much (i.e., spend too much time in the friction zone)?

(3) run with the clutch improperly adjusted, allowing it to slip?

If the answer to these is no, I cannot imagine what you could be doing to be "hard on the clutch." Something doesn't sound right. I can't imagine why a Screamin' Eagle clutch would be necessary. Having said that, if you like to hammer on it, a Screamin' Eagle Heavy Duty Clutch Spring might not be a bad idea... you're putting out some pretty good numbers there.