Group Buy: Magura Hymec Hydraulic Clutch

[skooter65]

Nothing yet - and in fact the charge on my card was just reversed it looks like crediting me back the $300. going to email peter to find out what is going on!

That is definitely odd. Just as a heads up; he tends to lag a little bit on e-mail return. Would suggest a phone call.

Hopefully everything turns out alright.

 

[dnellans]

He emailed back - apparently they just put a charge through when you order to confirm it, then pull it and only charge you when it ships... waiting on email back to find out if its shipped. he's been pretty good on the email for me

 

[skooter65]

He emailed back - apparently they just put a charge through when you order to confirm it, then pull it and only charge you when it ships... waiting on email back to find out if its shipped. he's been pretty good on the email for me

Good to hear.

Probably because I have been pestering him since May of last year...oops lol.

 

[dnellans]

Very cool - I got home yesterday and it had arrived! Going to install tonight, looks like it should be pretty darn easy =)

 

[philosopheriam]

I would have bought one of these, however, I'll restate my issues with the lever fitment problem:

For an upgrade that costs nearly $300, I think it's fair to be picky about aesthetics, and I just don't like the fact that the Magura lever setup has to sit so far away from the left hand controls. The FZ6's controls may be bulky, but this should have been taken into account when Magura designed the hydro setup. If everything cost $100 to $150, I wouldn't be so picky...

Also, I think $150 for a radial upgrade is a bit steep...

I'll wait a year for these to hit the market and prices hopefully will go down. Also, perhaps Magura will change the lever/actuator design.

Just my .02

 

[dnellans]

I'll wait a year for these to hit the market and prices hopefully will go down. Also, perhaps Magura will change the lever/actuator design.

These are already on the market - you can buy them from Magura for the non-group by price whenever you like! =)

I agree - I thought an additional $150 (it was 295.xx shipped to my door) was sort of steep for the radial upgrade with no guarantee on the clutch pull. I wouldn't hold my breath for them to redesign the basic unit, but maybe they'll do a different piston diameter to get the same "pull" out of the radial unit.

The radial unit is definitely sexier, but oh well - function over form in my book!

 

[skooter65]

I would have bought one of these, however, I'll restate my issues with the lever fitment problem:

For an upgrade that costs nearly $300, I think it's fair to be picky about aesthetics, and I just don't like the fact that the Magura lever setup has to sit so far away from the left hand controls. The FZ6's controls may be bulky, but this should have been taken into account when Magura designed the hydro setup. If everything cost $100 to $150, I wouldn't be so picky...

Also, I think $150 for a radial upgrade is a bit steep...

I'll wait a year for these to hit the market and prices hopefully will go down. Also, perhaps Magura will change the lever/actuator design.

Just my .02

These are already on the market - you can buy them from Magura for the non-group by price whenever you like! =)

I agree - I thought an additional $150 (it was 295.xx shipped to my door) was sort of steep for the radial upgrade with no guarantee on the clutch pull. I wouldn't hold my breath for them to redesign the basic unit, but maybe they'll do a different piston diameter to get the same "pull" out of the radial unit.

The radial unit is definitely sexier, but oh well - function over form in my book!

I would have to agree with both of you.

As for the space; (see picture below for those wondering what we are talking about) Even now knowing that it is there, I would still make the purchase for the other benefits mentioned in the install thread. In all actuality the space is not much different than that on the brake side.

I am skeptical that the prices will ever dip much below $250 for this kit. I would guess that the sheer volume of dirt model sold around the world has lead to the much lower market cost. Nearly all off-road models utilize the same set of parts making it much cheaper to manufacture. The Hymec kit for the FZ only fits a few select models that, in the grand scheme of motorcycle world, are not the most popular. Volume sales will never reach that of Magura's other products.

 

[dnellans]

Got around to installing yesterday - I can't say it was particularly easy, but not particularly hard either. It took me about 2 hours (though I haven't done wiring yet), but if I was comfortable with taking apart the bike (I've only had it a month) I probably could have gotten it done in an hour.

The few gotchas are that, at least on my '04:

The slave cylinder is extremely hard to fit through the frame holes and i eventually gave up and just took the slave off and fed the hose only. This then required bleeding the slave after you put it back on. it would be virtually impossible to bleed without causing a mess "in place" hooked up to the clutch, so i bled it hanging out of the left side of the bike before passing it through and hooking it up. if i had just unhooked the slave first instead of struggling for 30 min this whole operation would have been greatly sped up.

You definitely should pull the airbox and battery box to make more room for feeing things through.

The old clutch mount either requires pulling both the turn signal cluster, grip and bar end, or a lot of bending/breaking to get it off the bars with those in place.

Finally, at the clutch side, the piston/rod was ever so slightly too big to slip into the pull on the clutch "arm" even with quite a bit of pressure. So I had to take a dremel to the slot for about 2 seconds just to get rid of a little burr on the slot, and then it slide right in. This one I think is manufacturing variation on yamaha's part, not megura's fault.

So the whole thing is installed and good minus a little soldering for the two wires - in fact, I'm not even sure what these wires control (its obviously an activation sensor, but everything works fine without them... skooter you know?). The clutch comes with some bullet connectors but they're way too big/long so its definitely a custom hookup operation to solder these nicely to the old wires.

As skooter said - the clutch is buttery smooth. I think it looks great too! - I'm definitely not upset that I didn't get the radial upgrade, the "gap" is a total non-issue as it matches the brake side almost identically. As far as the pull goes, its much lighter than stock. It was raining so I don't have a huge opinion on it yet in terms of "feel" since I only took it around the block. Hopefully next day or two I'll be able to give a more details feel opinion.

There is a large range of adjustment which is nice too - from way way far out to fairly close - a larger range than with the front brake.

Here are some more pics for those on the fence due to looks.

 

[skooter65]

Got around to installing yesterday - I can't say it was particularly easy, but not particularly hard either. It took me about 2 hours (though I haven't done wiring yet), but if I was comfortable with taking apart the bike (I've only had it a month) I probably could have gotten it done in an hour.

The few gotchas are that, at least on my '04:

.......
You definitely should pull the airbox and battery box to make more room for feeing things through.

.......
So the whole thing is installed and good minus a little soldering for the two wires - in fact, I'm not even sure what these wires control (its obviously an activation sensor, but everything works fine without them... skooter you know?). The clutch comes with some bullet connectors but they're way too big/long so its definitely a custom hookup operation to solder these nicely to the old wires.
.......

I am glad that the install went smoothly (relatively). I would definitely second your recommendation to remove the airbox and battery box. Not only does this allow for easier install of the slave cylinder, it also allows for easier removal of the original clutch cable.

The "pigtail" connection provided with the clutch master cylinder was much too long for the install on my bike as well. I shortened the connection to minimize the amount of extra wire. As for the function; I believe this switch is only operable when the bike is in gear. It will prevent starting in anything other than neutral unless the clutch is pulled in.

Here is hoping for some decent weather so you can get a few miles in on it!

BY the way; How difficult was it to bleed the system? I purchased a bleed kit from Magura just in case the slave cylinder needed to be removed (which is didn't in my case).

 

[dnellans]

I probably could have gotten the piston through the frame hole but with the other stuff that was going through there, it was a tight fit and I was being fairly cautious about trying not to damage the slave piston.

It was fairly trivial to gravity bleed the system. I didn't do a force bleed like magura suggests. The only gotcha was that you can't really bleed it in place and see what is happening - you have to unhook it and pull it on the left side of the bike. I wouldn't rate it as any harder than bleeding your brakes though.

Rode it into work this morning and I'm as happy as I thought I would be! Pull is much much easier and the smooth pull makes it much easier to slide through the friction zone controllably from a dead stop. overall I'm very happy with the purchase and the price!

I checked this morning and you're right about the electronics - it won't start in gear without these to guarantee clutch is pulled in, but once started there is no affect. I'll probably spend the time to solder these for a clean look sometime this week, but no big rush.

Thanks again for organizing this, I'm totally happy with my purchase!

 

[thieu]

I was wondering if anyone has measured the amount of force it takes to pull in the clutch with the new hymec kit in place. I measured my own bike with a small scale and it got maxed out - it only goes up to 10 lbs - but was almost all the way home.

thanks guys!

 

[skooter65]

I was wondering if anyone has measured the amount of force it takes to pull in the clutch with the new hymec kit in place. I measured my own bike with a small scale and it got maxed out - it only goes up to 10 lbs - but was almost all the way home.

thanks guys!

Can you tell me what type of scale you used and a quick description of how you did it. Just want to make sure we are comparing apples to apples when I measure the hydraulic set-up.
Thank You!

 

[thieu]

Nothing crazy complicated, just took a kitchen scale i use for measuring fills on co2 tanks and pressed it against the end for the lever right on the middle on the scale. Used my foot to keep the bars from moving. I know different lever lengths from stock to this setup will change the force required - i am just looking to get an idea if the force is in the same ballpark.

thanks again SKOOTER! :thumbup:

 

[thieu]

No one with the kit has any kind of scale to do this test with??

 

[dnellans]

Using my kitchen food scale and pressing on the "ball" at the very end of the lever. 6lb 10oz to keep it fully pressed in, and less and the lever starts returning.

 

[skooter65]

Found a fish scale in the garage today; 8.275926 lbs max to compress (ok,so the fish scale is not that accurate, but close to 8.2)

 

[dnellans]

if your fish scale is anything like mine - then your 8.2 lbs is about on with my 6'10oz on accurate food scale... thats how i'm always catching the biggest fish

 

[skooter65]

if your fish scale is anything like mine - then your 8.2 lbs is about on with my 6'10oz on accurate food scale... thats how i'm always catching the biggest fish

No, I swear it was a 48lb brook trout...too bad it got away!!

You get any more miles under your belt with the hydraulic set-up? The purchase still worth while?

 

[dnellans]

A few more - maybe about 600 or so =) I'm absolutely in love with it still, it makes stop and go so much nicer and the bike just feels much more refined.

I've got a buddy with a 2002 R6 (very similar if not the same cable clutch pull) and we swapped bikes along the ride for a while and the difference is night and day. He's going to pick up a hymec clutch for his even at full price!

 

[thieu]

HOLY CRAP!! that is a much lighter pull then the factory setup - i am going to order one this week then - even with the radial setup the pull will still be less than factory!

thanks so much guys for doing that test!