Talking to Lan at C&P Service in Chiang Mai yesterday. He owns and rents out 8 Honda CRF 250 L's.
He told me in the last 4 months he has now changed at least 10 clutches, they are cheap, the whole clutch basket arrangement is only, 850 Bht. The clutch wear problem is only with bikes that are being used hard off-road where there is a lot of clutch feathering, it seems the clutch plates arn't up to this kind of off-road riding. For road ridden bikes this isnt a problem.
HarryGPS is away riding with some friends, two of POP's rental Honda CRF 250 L's that are with him have died, one just a burned out clutch, the other has a burned out clutch and a locked gearbox with the gear selector locked in 6th gear.
Lan at C&P Service told me he has had 3 bikes have the same problem where the gearbox locked up and showed me what happens. What happens is that when the bike is crashed and impacts on the left side, the shock load on the foot gear pedal, transmits through the gear shaft to the two small lugs on the far side of the gear shaft, these select the gear. They the weakest point and kind of the mechanical fuse in the system and get bent out of shape & then you can no longer change gear. Lan says that you can lay the bike down on the left side, remove the right side engine case and with a leatherman bend the lugs back into place which will get you home. I think you'll lose a lot of coolant doing this, so make sure someone has some water & remember that the radiator cap has a philips head screw on its back side that has to be loosened before you can loosen the radiator cap.
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