Venhill Cables

After reading positive reviews on this forum, I ordered some Venhill featherlight cables for the Nortons.
The Commando clutch is very stiff, so it was the first cable to change.
To get an accurate measurement of the improvement, if any, I hooked a spring scale to the end of the clutch lever and pulled it back to the halfway point, old cable in place. The reading was 24 pounds. This cable was lubed last week when I brought the bike out of storage, so 24 is as good as it would get.
With the Venhill fitted and the lever pulled the same amount, the pull was just 16 pounds, big improvement!

Glen

i had a VERY hard clutch when i first put mine together, i also switched to a featherlight and noticed a huge improvement. Then i ordered the clutch plate kit from old britts and found the right size to get things nice and flush and that really made a huge difference

"With the Venhill fitted and the lever pulled the same amount, the pull was just 16 pounds, big improvement!"

That's a great improvement but you can get the clutch lighter than that - an easy two finger pull with a good cable can be achieved by obtaining the proper clearance between the clutch snap ring and the and the plates. Old Britts has a tech article that covers it. It's amazing how light a Commando clutch lever can be, and still be totally tight/no slip when the snap ring/clutch plate clearance is set per the article.

Yes, it is still a bit of a hard pull. There is a regular steel plate coming from Walridge, that will be step2 of the clutch improvement program. I'll grind it to suit on the surface grinder. Just wanted to do the cable first and measure the improvement, then will measure again after the stack height is adjusted.
There is also a Dave Comeau seal on the way, will install it while things are apart. If the stack height is changed and diaphram pressure is reduced without adding the seal, I'm pretty sure the clutch will slip. There seems to be a small amount of gear oil getting past the pushrod right now.

Glen

Be sure that you use the correct h/bar lever, I am referring to the distance between the centre holes of the pivot and the cable nipple, it makes a big difference if you have it wrong.

Anyone ever used a PTFE spray lubricant on these cables :?: