Hi there. It's been a while
I thought I'd share the very first time, ever, that my beloved 08 connie has taken a dump on me (well, it did it one other time during a valve adjust, but that was me doing it, and the dump was mostly on my part).
I bought her new in 08, and just clocked 95K miles. For over 10 years myself and friends go for a yearly 1500 miles ride of northern California best roads. This year, I had the bright idea of bragging to the others about how my Concours is the only motorcycle in the group which has NEVER had any issues or caused any aggravation during our 10 years of doing these trips.
Well, of course I had to say that, didn't I.
In the second day during our 5 day tour, the bike started false shifting. I would go into false neutral at least once an hour. Then the speedometer stopped working, and so did the odo.
Side fact: it as 110 degrees at times, and we were riding...how do we say...'spirited'.
Then, as I was coming out of a corner, I lost all resistance in the clutch lever. We stopped in the side of the road (in 105 degrees), and lo and hehold, there was a river right there! So, we all got undressed and took a dip. By the time we returned to the bikes, I had resistance back in the clutch lever, but as I started riding, I could not shift up from 2nd gear. I did not try to shift down, because I was 100 miles away from the hotel, and did not want to be eitehr stuck in 1st or loose gears completely, so I rode 100 miles in 2nd.
To cut story short, wife came and trailered me the next day (she was not happy, likely due to the 6 hour drive to my location).
As I have experience wrenching on the bike and knowing the consequences, I took it to the dealer.It turns out some spring came loose in the clutch and mangled some stuff in there, and the everything needs to be replaced (plates, spring, etc). As far as the speed, they say the speed sensor needs replacing.
The total damage is $1900.
So, learn from be boys. No matter how reliable the bike seems to be, never, ever, brag about it. Your bragging will eventually cause accelerated wear and tear which would not have happened otherwise.
Has anyone here ever had issues with the clutch like this?
As a side note, for years now, I've had this intermittent problem where I would wake up in the morning, specially cold days, and I would have no resistance in the clutch lever. After warming the engine a bit, resistance would come back. I asked the dealer, and they couldn't figure out, telling me in the end it would be easier to let something that is a little broken break fully so it would be easier to diagnose.
I then installed braided lines 2 years (maybe 3) ago. Since then, the lack of resistance on the lever went away.
Now, the clutch blew up. I wonder if I had this issue all along for all these years and it finally 'fully' broke now, after being partially broken all this time?