Upon accumulating so many miles or due to the passage of time, you may feel some creakiness or hear some squeaking when you pull in your clutch. Almost sounds and feels like a dry clutch cable from years ago, although our bikes no longer have cables and now work hydraulically. This is an indication that the pivot needs some fresh lube.
At 15,000 miles I was starting to notice this on mine. I recognized the noise and feeling since it also occurs on my other hydraulic clutch operated bikes. Luckily the fix is super simple and can really be done by the owner at home in a matter of minutes. You don't need to be a trained mechanic to fix this one.
Tools needed:
10 mm wrench
Large flat blade screw driver
bath towel or moving pad
shop rag
contact or brake cleaner
some good grease (I use wheel bearing grease)
Procedure:
Pop bike up on centerstand and straighten the bars. Place a towel or moving pad over gas tank just for good measure.
Using 10 mm wrench remove the nut from bottom of clutch pivot bolt, turning the wrench counter clockwise as seen looking straight up from below
Next take the large flat blade screwdriver and remove the shouldered clutch pivot screw turning counter clockwise as seen from above
Set them aside
Clutch pivot will now look like this
Go ahead and slide lever out. nothing should fall out. There is a pin that goes into a barrel in the lever upon reassembly (both seen to the right in this pic) but it will not fall out. Neither should the barrel, but if it does just slide it back in the hole in the lever.
Seen from the end you can see the hole in the barrel that the pin slides in. Simple straightforward... pin goes in hole in barrel upon reassembly.
Take some brake or contact cleaner and clean off all the old grease. I remove the barrel too and clean it, as well as the shouldered screw we removed in step 2. I also wipe the old grease off the perch or bracket that holds the lever.
Once all the old grease is cleaned off , take your finger and smear new grease in the pivot hole, on the barrel, on the body of the shouldered pivot screw, and on the bracket or perch where the lever will be pivoting
Ok go ahead and slide the lever into the bracket making sure the pin goes into the barrel at the rear and the hole lines up for the shouldered pivot screw. Stick the shouldered pivot screw in the hole and using the flat blade screwdriver, turn it clockwise run it in until it stops (it is a shouldered screw so make sure it is all the way in and your threads are lined up before screwing it in)
wipe any grease off the threads of the shouldered pivot screw where the nut is going to go, and reinstall the nut with the 10 mm wrench, turning the wrench clockwise as seen looking straight up from below. It just has to be snug.
Try pulling in the lever several times. It should be smooth as butter and totally silent.
wipe off any really excess grease from the lever or assy, but leave it in critical pivot areas.
That's it. DONE!
Another easy home maintenance job that will make your bike perform better and give you a bit of pride knowing you are taking good care of your baby