no laughing please...

[Johnwebley]

all this complaining about about aching joints reminds me of the mike hailwood race day at castle combe this year
there was a guy wearing a t-shirt in the style of sons of anarchy.
but instead it was sons of arthritis 
BTW i think i saw your honda 500 four there john webley. could it have been you

 I wish it was me there ,
I have never been to a meeting at Castle Combe,but would have loved that one

[AshimotoK0]

My mate from York emailed me saying  he sprinted his 500/4K1 at the IOM last week, that he got from DK last year (supposed to be 3k miler but the speedo cable had no inner in it when he picked it up  )  and won a sprint run and at the same time tested my carbs out on it !

nothing wrong with autos BTW ... I should have got the 150 mile only 400A that was up for grabs, end of last year,for £500 (reduced from 2k) but it got nicked in the process of selling on Gumtree.

[K2-K6]

Royhall,  your clutch question about setup, I'd use either new genuine Honda or Venhill nylon linered and lubricate it with silicone grease ( you can get it from plumbing suppliers as they use it for plastic O-ring push fit systems) .

Also set the clutch end mech so that the cable and lever only ever reach 90 degrees and no greater if adjustment allows. Ie start at rest with more acute angle and at full operation not opening out more than 90 if that makes sense.

Grease the clutch hand lever pivot with Graphogen,  and if it's the 750 with plastic type thread helix at clutch end, use dry graphite  or silicone grease to ease it. This end if worn can get the pivot getting slightly cocked in the clutch cover part and really changes the effort needed, so check for wear on that as well.
Apart from pulling away and heavy traffic I don't usually use the clutch for changing gear on bikes generally,  there's no great reason to from the gearbox design.

[totty]

You can get devices to make a cable clutch lighter, they're common on old trials bikes. They fit on one end of the cable and have another cable coming out of them, they just change the leverage so extending the release lever has the same effect.

You can also remove a pair of springs from the clutch, fit lighter springs, or use stepped washers or thinner plates to reduce the pre-load, but each bike is different and you can only go so far before you get clutch slip.

Moving the clutch lever in so your fingers are closer to the end giving you more leverage can also help.

I've got tendon problems and I find a CB1300 clutch heavy, heavier than the CB550 I had, but with the 1300s torque to you don't need to change as often.

[matthewmosse]

Talk to Nabd (national association of bikers with disabilities). They could advise on things like klicktronic conversions that effectively convert the gear change to a couple of buttons on the bars. - a lot of what they deal with is totally focussed on the individual so the controll variations are vast. On my 500/4 I was pooing over to Cardiff so often when my girlfriend ( now wife )  lived there and knew the route so well I was able to go the full trip with about 2 uses of the clutch on average, not bad considering I start off in Mid Wales with an abundance of steep hills and took in everything from single track lanes to dual carriageway. Get the revs just right and anticipate the hills and the bike shifts gear with the very lightest touch on the foot pedal, and that was tugging a sidecar so the engine worked very hard.