Alloy Clutch

[Mr Gazza]

I am looking to replace my clutch at some point soon (When some of the domestic bills calm themselves down a bit anyway.!)

I fancy the idea of an alloy clutch, as they are claimed to be more durable, a bit quieter, and have a nicer uptake.

I'm not too interested in the looks of it as I hide it under a complete cover, and not interested in fancy slipper jobbies either..Never had one and never needed one.!

Nosing around I find plenty of alloy baskets and suitable alloy friction plates, but I am open to anyones recomendations.

I also find a choice of alloy hubs, but have so far failed to find alloy plates for those, or do these still employ steel plates...Is that ideal? steel plates on an alloy hub?

What's the best combo? Interested to hear what folks get on well with and what to avoid.

This is just for normal road use by the way. On a 2000 M900Sie.

Cheers....Fire away..:mand:

[Dukedesmo]

I have an alloy clutch on my Monster and an OEM steel on the 916 so have a direct comparison.

Alloy is less noisy, not so sure about durability as the alloy basket and plates on the Monster have taken a bit of a bashing in 6k miles - probably similar to the steel after the same mileage?.

My basket was from MPL and hard-anodised so I believe it to be of decent quality but some of the cheapos no doubt wear even quicker, I'm using 'Newfren' friction plates which work fine and these are available at very good prices, the plain plates are OEM Ducati, years old but they seem to last forever.

As for the hub, I think the OEM hub maybe alloy anyway? and the plain plates are only available in steel. The big difference, with mine anyway (SlingShot Racing), is that the hub is a billet item without the steel inner hub and associated cush-drive rubbers and so it is much lighter, as is the basket and ally friction plates.

The only downside of a billet hub is that it makes the take-up a little more sudden due to the missing cush-drives but as the engine of my Monster is also more 'sudden' than my 916 it is difficult to draw a direct comparison - I can say without any doubt though that my Monster eats up alloy rear sprockets in no time at all whereas the 916 has the same Renthal ally sprocket for a few years now with only minimal wear but there are other factors involved: Monster has gruntier (at low RPM) engine, thinner chain & sprockets, higher final drive ratio and of course the lack of cush rubbers in the clutch.

As far as function is concerned both work fine and as said the ally clutch is much lighter and much quieter (still rattles but more 'clack-clack' than 'ding-ding').

The clutch on my 916 is nearing the end of it's life with 2mm plus play between plates and basket but other than the noise it still works fine so I'll leave it for now. I will eventually replace it with an alloy jobbie when it's done, purely for the significant weight reduction.

[Mr Gazza]

Thanks for the useful feedback Duke..:thumbsup:

A little concerned that your alloy clutch doesn't seem to be lasting any longer than a standard one..It's longevity that I'm after.

My inner and outer drums have done about 23000 miles if they are original. There is evidence from the service history that she's had a couple of sets of plates but no basket.

If it lasts that long again I won't complain. In fact it still works fine but it is very noisey and badly notched in both drums, with plenty of free play in the slots.!

I thought the inner drum was cast iron like my old british irons...haven't checked, just assumed.

I couldn't do without the cush drive though...Is the lack of, what is wearing your alloy clutch so quickly?

I've been told that an alloy ST2 clutch is a direct fit to my 900, and is an improvement. Anyone tried this?

[slob]

I got 29K out of the stock alloy clutch on my 1000ie (should be same as ST2). It was noisy as hell, that's the clue that the hub and basket were both shagged (but still not slipping). It's now on 58K and has had new plates a few K ago. It gets used quite hard and has done quite a few trackdays.
It had an alloy hub with cush drive, alloy basket with ~1cm steel reinforcing band (I got a hard anodised German basket for ~£90) and alloy friction plates.
I would *expect* it to be a straight swap in your case but NOT 100% sure. The R models have a fatter primary shaft on r/h side which caused me weeks of delays sorting a centre nut & spacer when I fitted a 2nd hand 996 slipper to my other bike. HTIOH

[Dukedesmo]

A little concerned that your alloy clutch doesn't seem to be lasting any longer than a standard one..It's longevity that I'm after.


The Wagner Lewis clutch looks very nice and is claimed to last 'virtually the life of the motorcycle', the price is slightly eye-watering though;

http://www.wagnerlewis.com/products.html

[damien666]

The Wagner Lewis clutch looks very nice and is claimed to last 'virtually the life of the motorcycle', the price is slightly eye-watering though;

http://www.wagnerlewis.com/products.html

It might be overkill, but i've been hovering for months on the buy it now button for one of these.......

Must resist!! :on:

[Darren69]

The other alternative is the 48 tooth basket and plates, due to the design they will last much longer than the standard

[Funkatronic]

i have a 48 tooth slipper on the track bike and the stock clutch did about 30k (more than half of that on track) before i needed to

I'm still on the original plates i just needed to put some thicker spacer plates in to restore the stack height

the basket is getting a bit notchy now

[Mr Gazza]

Thanks for that Slob. What you say gives me more confidence and choice of models to pick parts from.

My clutch sounds young by comparison, but I think it will have to rack up a few more miles yet anyway, until I save up...Might just buy the bits in installments starting with the basket and friction plates.

Definatly can't afford a Wagner Lewis or 48 tooth jobbie...Very nice bits of kit though.