For the old hands ...

[jagarra]

Rob,
Sorry to hear you caught the virus, I hope you had your shots, and you make a full recovery without any lingering side effects.

Your take on the idea is a great one in that the original cable is untouched, just rerouted. There is a possible problem that I encounter for those who plan on trying this mod. Charlie indicated that he used an old spoke with threads extended from his BMW to act as the rod going to the clutch arm. Since I didn't have any old spokes laying around, I ordered some replacements from EME. The problem I ran into with these spokes was the the treaded area was larger than the shank further on down, so when I cut treads into that portion of the spoke the threads were insufficient in holding the adjustment and the locking nuts slipped. I am not sure if original BMW factory spokes have this issue, I just wanted to make others aware of this potential problem.

[Airbear]

Ah Rob, that's a bugger. I hope the effects are brief and not too uncomfortable. I've heard that regular cups of tea and the occasional sip of a quality single malt can be efficacious. Um, or is it the other way round? Anyway, do get well. It seems that Covid is now mopping up those who by design or accident managed to avoid it thus far. It has even reached the little rural village where I live.

Re the spoke diameter, I was also concerned that there may not be enough meat on the spoke that a M4 die would be able to provide sufficient grip for a Nyloc nut, but it did in my case. Perhaps the rusty, crusty quality of a 48 year old spoke is the key. I borrowed a M3.5 die from a mate but could not find any M3.5 Nylocs anywhere.

[Rob Frankham]

On my effort I use a long 5mm bolt... mainly because I had one the required length in my 'box of redundant bolts' box. I think it was originally salvaged from an old electric motor or something like that. I'm an inveterate collector of old bolts (among other things). I had to grind the sides a bit so it fit into the fork of the lever but there is still plenty of thread for the purpose. Gets round all of the problems with spokes...

The dread disease hasn't been too bad so far, just a lot of coughing together with feeling a bit... well I guess you'd call it 'crook'. The worst bit is being stuck at home when there are things to be doing... but the weather pretty dreich at the moment so I'm not really missing out on much quality riding. It'll pass. At least I'm noit as badly off as one of my local friends who spent the best part of six weeks at deaths door (literally) and is still counting the cost six months later... Anyway, lets not dwell on it... thanks for your good wishes

Rob

[Rob Frankham]

Rob,
Sorry to hear you caught the virus, I hope you had your shots, and you make a full recovery without any lingering side effects.

Your take on the idea is a great one in that the original cable is untouched, just rerouted. There is a possible problem that I encounter for those who plan on trying this mod. Charlie indicated that he used an old spoke with threads extended from his BMW to act as the rod going to the clutch arm. Since I didn't have any old spokes laying around, I ordered some replacements from EME. The problem I ran into with these spokes was the the treaded area was larger than the shank further on down, so when I cut treads into that portion of the spoke the threads were insufficient in holding the adjustment and the locking nuts slipped. I am not sure if original BMW factory spokes have this issue, I just wanted to make others aware of this potential problem.

Thanks for the good wishes

Rob

[SteveD]

Best wishes Rob.

[RPGR90s]

Airbear, I did a similar modification to my R90s some years ago and the cable started to shear within about 500 miles.

I hope you have better luck, but with mine, the cable clearly didn't like that 180 degree bend.

[Airbear]

Airbear, I did a similar modification to my R90s some years ago and the cable started to shear within about 500 miles.

I hope you have better luck, but with mine, the cable clearly didn't like that 180 degree bend.

Ok, you have my attention. It's looking fine after 2000kms.

I'll be keeping an eye on it, and I always carry a spare clutch cable.

Edit: RPGR90s, could you please elaborate on what happened with yours? Did the cable unravel at the pulley?

[Rob Frankham]

I'm also not seeing any problems at the moment although the bike in question doesn't see a great deal of mileage. I shall cotinue to monitor the area. Bowden cables have been used around pulleys for over a hundred years so I'm not anticipating any real issues but the problem with any prototype is that you can never be absolutely sure what will happen. I would be interested to know what is meant by 'delaminated'. Did the wire strands actually break or was it just that they started to seperate?

Rob

[RPGR90s]

Airbear, Mine started to un-ravel as it rounded the pulley. One strand at a time. When I saw the first strand, I let it go until the third strand appeared. The cable was fairly new, BUT it could have still been inferior. I went with another system that leaves the cable totally intact and I've been using this for about twenty years now.

[Rob Frankham]

Thanks for that. I will bear it in mind and keep it under observation. What system do you use (given that a Plan B might be required eventually)?

Rob