R50/2 First Ride

[flashblanchette]

Hello Everyone,

I was able to ride up and down the driveway, about 100 yards, yesterday and today, my first ride on a /2. The only issue I have at this time is it looks like the clutch is dragging. I have a hard time shifting if not moving. If it is on the center stand and I put it in 1st the wheel will rotate and if I use the rear brake you will here the RPMs drop just a bit. I have no slack in the cable and if I pull the clutch in it will disengage, you can feel it in the kick start lever. The clutch is the original 1966 and I was told it was in good shape by the engine builder, who I trust. Could it be because the clutch has not been used in a very long time? The bike has 13K on a working speedo and had a very old Fulda front tire when I got it and I have no idea when the last time it was ridden.

Thank you for your time and help.

Cheers,
Jim

[Slash2]

I have no slack in the cable and if I pull the clutch in it will disengage, you can feel it in the kick start lever.

There should be about 5mm play at the lever. This adjustment is made on the rear of the transmission behind your kickstart lever. I assume your barrel adjuster is buried at the perch? I'm no expert, but this would be the first thing I'd do and I would suggest not riding until she's sorted.

Cheers and good luck!

[flashblanchette]

The barrel adjustment is all the way in and then I have adjusted the lever to there was about 2mm of play at the handle bars.

When on the center stand and the clutch is pulled in while in 1st the wheel will spin under some power, as I stated before, but if I hold the brake and rev it some the clutch seems to become unstuck, I can release the brake and no wheel spin. Very Strange???

Jim

[flashblanchette]

Got some time to pull the clutch out of the R50. I found lots of rust and many high rusty spots on both the pressure and friction plates. Don't know how my engine builder missed that. The pressure plate cleaned up well but the friction plate did not. I'm going to replace the friction disk anyway because the original is a one piece unit as well as install a new friction disc.

Jim

[flashblanchette]

Clutch is working great now!!

I cleaned up both the friction plate and pressure plate as well as replace the friction disc. I also removed as much of the wear pattern that was on the transmission input shaft that I could. Of course now the neutral switch is not working but I hope that will clear up with a little riding around.

So I hope that it will clear up enough in the next week or two to get it road legal.

Thank you for everyones help.

Cheers,
Jim