Hydraulic Clutch GS1100E

[rcgs1100extx]

Has anybody ever converted the factory clutch cable system to a custom hydraulic system on a GS1100E? I am exploring several options and any sound advice would be helpful. Would anybody be interested in changing over to a hydraulic system if it was available?

[rphillips]

Sound advice is Never consider a hydraulic clutch when a simple cable will do the same thing just as well. The hydraulic with two cylinders, plungers, seals, springs, fluid, & lines. What do you think would be the most trouble free & cost effective??? Kind of like comparing a $10 u-joint to a $150 CV-joint. or a $150 strut to a $15 shock absorber.

[robertbarr]

I've been thinking of exactly that, but for an earlier 850. The hydraulic clutch on my current Nighthawk is so silky smooth and controllable that after using it for 4 years now, I'm sure I'm spoiled. A cable gets the job done -- that much is obvious. But could a conversion be done without much trouble?

Yeah, I think so, and it wouldn't be all that complex. Most of the hardware could be taken directly from my parts Nighthawk, and the bar end would look almost OEM. It would even keep the clutch starter interlock.

The biggest headache would be rigging up some sort of bracketry to hold the Nighthawk slave cylinder; it pushes, of course, and that means you'd have to move the clutch release lever 180 degrees -- which works out great, because there's more room 'back there' in the vicinity of the starter cavity. The effectiveness of the project would depend mainly on the quality of this fabrication.

A bit of fabrication for keeping the hydraulic line out of harm's way and you're 95% there. I don't think it's far-fetched at all. Mainly off-the-shelf stuff (my own garage shelves, in my case).

[madjack57754]

I built one for one of my GS dragbikes using plans that Elmer Trett gave me years ago. It used a yamaha venture royal clutch master assembly that mounts on the left bar. Looks just like a front brake master. I used a braided line down to a slave cylinder that I bought as military surplus, made a aluminum bracket to mount the slave, and attached the slave to the clutch lever on the engine. The trick part was the inlne 12 volt release solenoid that was hooked to the launch count down timer. I put a adjustable dial type bleeder inline to control the release speed (that was purchase from Granger). My total investment was less than $100 and the best part was the consistency of the clutch release. Sorry, no pictures of the finished product, as the bike went down the road 10 years ago when I go out of racing for a few years. I've been thinking about how nice that clutch system operated and have started gathering parts to put another together. I got a master off e-bay a couple of weeks ago for $10, a solenoid for $25 and a slave cylinder for $5. I'm thinking I'll use 12" of braided line at the handle bars and hard line the rest to the slave on this one.

[robertbarr]

The trick part was the inlne 12 volt release solenoid that was hooked to the launch count down timer.

My total investment was less than $100 and the best part was the consistency of the clutch release.

Cool. A little trickier than we'd need for street use, I think. A scavenged master is perfect, since you'll also get the bar controls. A little rewiring and you'd eliminate that awful turn signal control on the 80-up GS's as well.

It's too bad you didn't get a few photos of that bracket. The notion comes up every time I see something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250125921994&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:us

Or even just this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=014&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=330130660836&rd=1,1

... if they'd be durable enough. I can picture bolting the heim joint to the reversed OEM release lever for smooth operation. What I'd need is a way to 'rough in' the release, since the slave cylinder would have no adjustment. Either the bracket could be adjustable, or I could add some type of turnbuckle in the release rod.

Another question is, what to bolt to. I don't have a GS at present (kept getting outbid!) but some of those bolts in that area of the engine have a rather ambiguous destination. I hate unbolting things that could be holding some trans component deep, deep inside...