I was riding my motorcycle back to camp yesterday after completing a few errands in town. Then, when I pulled in the clutch lever, it went straight to the handlebar with no resistance whatsoever. With no warning, the cable had broken.
Everything from there went better than conceivably possible. I hit green lights all the way back to camp and didn’t have to worry about stopping. It’s not the best thing for the transmission, but I was able to change gears without the clutch to keep the bike moving all the way to camp, then intentionally stall the engine in gear when I arrived. It could stay parked until I got a replacement part.
I called River Rat Motorsports in Lake Havasu. When my KLR’s clutch cable broke two years ago, they were the closest place that could get one, despite being 80 miles away from Quartzsite. They actually had a replacement cable for my bike in stock. Even better, Birgit and Tom had taken an overnight trip to Lake Havasu, and were already there! I paid for the replacement cable over the phone, then asked Birgit and Tom to pick it up for me. They did. I had the broken cable mostly out by the time they got back this afternoon and had the new cable in soon afterward. It’s all fixed just over 24 hours after it broke. Most of that time was waiting for the delivery of the replacement cable (I am not complaining!)
It’s never good when a vehicle breaks. But if it was going to happen, this was the way for it to happen.
Smokey Da Van 