Clutch cable broke and paracord to the rescue!

Hello all,

I have a new story that I wish to share with all of you.

I was on my way to school today and I was getting on the freeway, I pulled in the clutch to shift into 4th, and POP the cable broke, and now my lever is just flopping around. I was able to cruise to the nearest exit where I pulled over and there of course it stalled and died.

There I am, sitting on the side of the road, on a bright 90+ degree day, trying to figure out how I am going to get to school and back home without a clutch and I was not about to leave my bike on the side of freeway.

Necessity is the mother of invention comes into play at this point, as some of you may remember I wrapped my handlebars in paracord.
I took a strip off and was able to tie the paracord around the lever on the transmission and tied a loop at the other end and made is short enough where I could wrap it around me knee and use my knee/calf/ankle as a makeshift clutch lever/cable.

It was a sketchy start and shifting at first but I ended up getting the hang of it, and it ended up working out perfectly! I was able to get to school and back home without a problem, and I have have now found another great use for paracord!

That is all for now...

 

You do realize you can ride a bike without using the clutch?

 

I am more amazed by the fact that you run the freeway in Orange County!!

Paracord is some great stuff. Second only to duct tape for those emergency fixes.

You just have to watch out for the jackrabbit starts!

Ghost

 

Hmmm, I did not know for sure if I could and I did not want to grind the gears. I also had to ride the streets a little and I did not want to continually stall at lights.

So, is the shifting the same when shifting without a clutch? Just Pre-load the shifter and release the throttle?

 

Thanks, I love riding but hate stupid people, and let me tell you, there are a lot of those around here!

Jackrabbit starts: That's another reason I tried an emergency fix, I did not know how much the bike would jump.

Since I don't know all the tricks in the book, I improvised...

 

For the upshift, yes. Downshifting is slightly more difficult.

For downshifting sans clutch you need to blip the throttle as you downshift. It takes some practice.

 

That neutral to 1st transition would scare the bejesus outta me I think lol With my weight and the bikes weight, i'm not so sure how good it would be to do that.

\slammin 1st at 2k or above... i think i would'a walked first

 

Don't do that. Put bike in first gear and hit the starter...

Exactly the same as driving a car without a clutch, except bikes are easier.

 

I just did it three days ago. right in the parking lot of work it started to go. When I was leaving work it broke before I got out of the parking lot. Ordered a new cable already. Damn just sold the extra cable I had last month to lol. The tricky part are the red lights.. but it isn't to bad. I did chirp the tires a couple times while down shifting, but nothing to bad. I also stalled it at one light so I just push started it off the light. It is funny the reaction you get when a fellow motorcyclest at the light with you realizes your bike isn't running.. And then they realize you are riding without a clutch cable lol

 

Huh? Unless your safeties are disabled, most XJ's aren't going to let you start the engine in first gear with the clutch engaged.

 

If your clutch cable is broken, then simply having the lever pulled in opens the swtich and allows you to start in gear.

 

Just in case nobody has thought of this... tie wrap a spare to the frame backbone. It should fit just fine.