You can never have too much lubrication

After reading a couple of articles on the FZ6 forum I invested in a cable lubrication do-hickey (to give it it's technical name) courtesy of those lovely people at eBay. Sunday morning was bright and sunny so I decided to do a before and after run to see if there really was any effect.

A quick trip the the local shop for sunday paper and a tank full of petrol gave me the reference point before I started to fettle with anything. Next was the tricky bit of getting the end of the clutch cable out along with the sheathing. Luckily I'd invested in a Haynes manual which explains how to do this and after a quick look at the pictures I set to on it.

First step was to take a picture of the cable adjuster before I did anything so I could put the cable back again exactly as it was to start with.



There's a cut out along one edge of this adjuster (and the large disc) which locks it in position against the tab you can see touching the top of the large disc. As long as I ended up with the same 5 threads visible when it was locked I knew I was back where I started. To get the cable out you must spin the adjuster so it goes tight into the handlebar bracket (moves to the right in this pic) and with the slot down one side facing forward lining up with the one in the bracket. By then wiggling the rigid cable sheath it pops out of the adjuster and the cable itself then can be fed out of the slot in the front. The small cylinder that locks it in the clutch lever then drops straight down and you have one free cable.

Next is the attachement of the magic cable luber which looks like this.


The inner cable feeds through the centre of the rubber bung and the bottom of the rigid sheath goes into the bottom of this. The clamp is then closed which seals against the bottom of the sheath allowing the top of the cable to poke out (you can see the cylinder on the end which locks it in the clutch cable). A can of WD40 squirted into the hole in the side then can't go out the top and must go down the gap between the clutch cable and sheath lubricating it. A couple of squirts, a couple of pulls on the cable to let the lube go down, and it all felt much looser.

After wiping everything up (lube near tires... not a good idea) I fired the bike up again and went out for a quick spin.

The clutch felt much smoother than it was to start with so it looks like the WD40 has done the trick. It also appears the bike can knock on the door of 80mph in 2nd ...... which is nice for overtaking coming off roundabouts as I found out on the way back :-)