How to make brake bleeding easy
Mechanic Jason McCullum had a nasty surprise from this KTM’s clutch
When a big KTM came in for a service Jason McCullum at JDL Motorcycles had few concerns, despite the bike racking up more than 20,000 miles in just 18 months.
It’s what the 1290 Super Adventure Special Edition was made for and it looked in good nick. It needed minimal valve adjustment and a set of new plugs, but when he took it out for a test ride he noticed the clutch
‘It could have failed and been unrideable’
was slipping in fifth under full load. He said: “The owner is an older gent and I couldn’t see him ragging the clutch in traffic light GPs or doing 100-yard wheelies, so I did some digging. My research threw up a similar issue with early Super Dukes where KTM changed the clutch springs to higher rate coils, going from green-coloured springs to orange items. So I had a chat with the customer and ordered a set.
“Getting at the clutch is pretty straightforward. There was a bit of wear on a metal plate and some of the friction plates were dry for some reason, so I soaked them in oil for a few minutes to give the friction material a chance to swell before reassembly.”
Dry plates are a common cause of why bikes can be hard to get into neutral, especially if the bike has been stored, as the dimples of the steel plates are there to hold pockets of oil, which will seep away over time. Jason added: “If he’d used it two-up on a big tour he’s got planned, it could have failed and been unrideable. There’s a single little oil filter and less than four litres of oil that has to work hard. If the clutch material had started to shed, oilways, or even the filter could get clogged up. The test ride was a treat, because the engine had been a bit vibey, but it had smoothed right out, for just £30 parts and £100 labour.”