dirt dame 561 Posted August 25, 2007 Well, just when you think you have everything in your toolbag and it's so heavy that you are almost literally draggin' yer butt around, something else comes along As you may know, if you have been bored enough to follow my ride write-up posts, I have been spending alot of time riding Pinnacles/Arrowhead lately. Last week on the KLX with Papaalex and the week before, twice on my TE, by myself. The second ride out on the TE, I had crashed on a steep, offcamber downhill, bending the rear left turnsignal and breaking the front left one. The bike fell against a downed pine tree trunk of rather substantial girth, causing the controls to dig into bark, rocks and the ground in general. Everything on the clutch side of the bars was tweaked, rotated and covered in dirt, and fluid which I thought came from my gas tank vent hose, but looked a little suspicious, so I examined the master cylinder closely and made sure that the clutch had proper pressure before proceeding with the rest of my ride. All seemed good and the rest of the ride went happily without incident. When I got home, I washed the bike and degreased the mess on the master cylinder. Then the bike sat in the garage until last Thursday. I wanted to take a quick spin in East county on Thursday, so I shuttled the TE out to Pine Valley and offloaded to embark on some pavement and trails to the east, including Thing Valley road. At first, all worked great, but as the ride went on, I noticed that the clutch lever was getting softer and softer. Finally, there was no clutch disengagement at all, and I could see that fluid had been leaking out and down the handguard. I stopped and checked the cylinder cap screws. They were tight. Then I removed the cap and peeked inside. Hmmm, no fluid. Nothing appeared to be damaged, so I concluded that somehow in the Arrowhead crash, the master cylinder was impacted in a fashion that caused it to flex momentarily and make the inner bootie drop out of postion on its sealing edge. The rest was history. I replaced the bootie and cover and finished my loop. It was a little incovenient, but not so bad, just had to find neutral before stopping and taking a little run to get in gear. Still, I'd rather had a working clutch. On my way home, I stopped at NCY and bought two little bottles of magura blood. One for the garage and one for my tool bag. I flushed the remainder of old fluid which was so contaminated with dirt, water and degreaser that it looked like Italian salad dressing, out of the Husky and made everything all better with new rosey clear mineral oil. Everything is good, after a test ride. But a two ounce bottle of clutch oil is a great thing for any euro-bike rider to have in the old toolbag, especially if you are in technical situations where you really need your clutch. even if your master cylinder or cover gets damaged, a small bottle of fluid and some JB Weld Quik might get you back to your vehicle safely. So I recommend Magura Blood as a cheap compact extra on the trail just for peace of mind. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
