So I took my 6r for a spin on saturday, and I noticed the clutch seemed stiffer than normal. So after riding, I decided it was time to open the motion pro cable luber. I managed to figure it out and get some drops of lube down the cable (despite the fact that it was going mostly on my towel I had wrapped to proect everything else!) and after fighting with the slack adjustment for a while (first time doing this) got the free play set, but the cable still is really stiff when pulling. I'm not sure if it's the cable itself or could it be the pivot bolt of the clutch lever itself that needs to be lubed? Could I use good old WD40 for the pivot bolt, or is some type of grease better to use? I'm thinking that is what is making it stiff.

If I pull the cable to engage, and then release it, the lever never returns to the fully closed position, it goes to the free play slack position (about 1 and a half nickels thickness) and if I want the lever up against the housing, I have to flick it forward with my finger. My R1 does this as well, so I think it's normal, but the lever travel is far tougher on my 6r, which is older so why I'm thinking the lubrication of the cable and pivot bolt is where to look as opposed to too tight cable. Even giving it a ton of slack, it still does this stiffness.

did you clean the cable prior to forcing lube down the cable? Generally, I have found the cable to be the culprit over any pivot. In fact, I have a tendancy to pull the cable off of the bike and soak in my diesel/kerosene cleaning tank. working the cable back and forth, check how the cable is free or not, then lube off of the bike.

Hmmm, interesting proposition there. I didn't think to pull off completely. Actually now that you mention it, I saw very little 'lube' coming out the bottom end (where the linkage connects to the engine). Maybe I need to pull it off and try that. Could I clean it with WD40? Also the linkage on the engine of the cable looks hard to disengage, any tricks to get it off there? I figure pulling the tank and un routing should be easy just don't want to bung up the linkage on the engine side!

also check for a 60 degree angle per the periodic maintenance section in your manual on the case lever. I like WD40 for cleaning, but you will need to oil the cable up really well afterwards.

I was all set to take off the farings and tank and pull the entire cable and I decided to give it one more go with the conventional method. I even resorted to using a computer duster to try to blow some air down the cable sheath. WD40 in hand I sent a ton of that down the cable, then, I spied a tiny black globule oozing out onto the cover. A ha, somethings moved the way down! So I kept at it, and got the cable nice and cleaned up, then I ran a lot of the lube thru it to push the WD40 out. Cables really lubed now! BUT even after setting the nickel thickenss free play, the lever still feels tight. Pivot? Or is it something in the clutch itself that maybe needs to get adjusted? I ran out of time so I didn't remove half of the clutch assembly to lube the pivot, and I don't have any grease too. Have to get some.

hmm, if you know that the cable adjustment is correct, and that the cable is lubed....normally I would not think it is the pivot causing an issue. I would either suspect a bad cable that needs replacing or the adjustment after a good cleaning/oiling. Just my guestamite, maybe whitey will have a better experienced word of advice on this.