Bad service or bad luck?

Opinions sought.

Tried different mechanic/dealer type place than usual as they gave me a good price for chain/sprocket replacement.

Arrived a bit early but they got straight to work, and all sorted pretty quick. All good so far.

Got on bike to leave, into 1st, clutch out, nothing. Tried second. Same. Messed about looking like a numpty, still not going anywhere. Called mechanic out, and off comes sprocket cover, mutters about just took off clutch arm, didn't adjust it. Pulls off clutch arm, other mechnics gather, confer, they get it together again, check bike goes into gear now, so all is well again.

Or so I thought. Onto motorway, open up at 5,000rpm to move into traffic, bike revs, no acceleration. Avoid lorry. **** self. Clutch now slipping. Stop at next junction, adjust at lever but can't solve. Back to mechanics again, and they take apart again, and now appears to be sorted.

Before I condemn them as eejits and never darken their door again, is this something that could happen by chance and we were all just victims of a bit of bad luck and something dropping out of adjustment accidentally, or does this seem like cowboy slapdash work?

bad service and bad luck (for going there)

[Sid Squid]

The clutch lifter, (the bit under the sprocket cover that the cable pulls), is in front of the front sprocket, so clearly must be removed in order to fit the sprocket. It's a simple enough piece of machinery and shouldn't require any adjustment if it's simply removed and replaced, also it shouldn't cause anyone who gets paid for twirling spanners any problem whatsoever.
Thus my suspicion is that whoever fitted your chain and sprockets removed the two screws that hold the lifter body in place, and did not remove the lifter arm from the cable but twisted the two parts of the lifter apart, (a good way to lose the balls on which the mechamnism travels), and then reassembled it wrong, by which I mean when it was twisted back together the original screw thread tracks were not meshed, resulting in the lifter adjustment being off, firstly by being far too long - essentially the clutch was always lifted and now by being faffed about with such that the lifter adjuster is still slightly tight allowing the clutch to slip
Bad luck? No, this is basic stuff. Bad service? Hmmm... Making an error is human, it isn't that which is wrong - we all do, that's not in question - it's how you recover from a mistake that counts.
Now it seems that bit of the service is somewhat lacking. However the adjustment is simple and requires a few minutes time and a minimum of tools - 8mm socket, 10mm spanner, flat blade screwdriver.
So in the circumstances I'd sort it out myself, and consider carefully who I wanted to give my money to next time. A gentle complaint would be entirely fair, the response from that would make that decision for me.

Adjusting the clutch is easy; first remove the front sprocket cover - 3x 8mm bolts then:

Originally Posted by Me!

Slacken off cable adjusters at top and bottom, loosen lifter locknut, back out screw a bit, ensure that lifter arm is as far down as it will go, gently turn screw in until it contacts pushrod back out a bit, (~1/8th of a turn), then nip up the locknut, roughly adjust cable with lower adjuster - not too tight - then with top adjuster ensure that there remains a little slack all the way from lock to lock.

[DarrenSV650S]

That exact thing happened to me. Got new chain and sprockets fitted. Clutch bite point felt weird as I pulled away but the bike moved ok. I thought it might just need adjusted. Got on to the dual carriageway, went on the power and the clutch just spun.

Turns out he had put the clutch worm(?) back in the wrong way around.

Wrong way


Right way

[Balky001]

I wish I knew 1/100th of what SS knows about bike

Sounds like pretty shoddy workmanship to me though....

Originally Posted by Me!
Slacken off cable adjusters at top and bottom, loosen lifter locknut, back out screw a bit, ensure that lifter arm is as far down as it will go, gently turn screw in until it contacts pushrod back out a bit, (~1/8th of a turn), then nip up the locknut, roughly adjust cable with lower adjuster - not too tight - then with top adjuster ensure that there remains a little slack all the way from lock to lock.

Cheers for that SS, copied and pasted to my desktop for future reference.