paulie75
Junior Member
So I always go thru my bike to make sure things are ready for a trip and my daily commuting but I never have thought about look at the cable, I guess because I have never had any issues. So on New Years day I left Albuquerque to go to Phoenix, 1 to get a trip in and 2 to go to Portillos, a restaurant they opened in Scottsdale originally from my home town Chicago (3rd trip there just for the food!). While I was nearing the reastaurant I had issues shifting into neutral and thought that my clutch was going, and I also had very little pull on my lever. When I parked the bike I looked at the cable by the lever and sure enoughthere were two strands left in the end and when I gave it a little tug and thought how long will this hold up, SNAP!
While I was eating I called all of the Yamaha shops in town an no one had a cable in stock and there wasn't a bicycle shop or ato shop near by. There was a home depot though. I first found the cable crimp that you use to make cable for hanging pictures and tried them, the crimps were cheap and I just had to buy a pair of vise grips. Well it didn't crimp down tight enough for the pull that the clutch cable needs so when I went back and was looking through the hardware area, I saw these aluminum spacers that were really close to the same diameter as the original cable end.
The ID would accomodate a M6x1 the best, 1/4-20 would have bee too much and they didn't have any offerings for 12-32 bolts or set screws. I had to buy a small metric tap and die set and an 1/8 drill because the guy in tool rental didn't have anything that small. Also got some M6 set screws and a M6 SHCS so I can torque ot a little tighter than the set screw, and some red lock-tite. I drilled the 1/8 hole thru the body of the space to get the cable thru and then I ran the M6 tap thru the ID of the spacer. The ID was smaller than the nominal tap drill for the M6 so there was definetly good thread engagement. I got back to the bike, put some lock-tite on the set screw and SHCS and set them in, I then fed the cable end into the 1/8 Dia hole being careful to not let it stick out past the other side so it will slide into the lever easily. I then tightened the set screw and SHCS as tight as I could to make sure it was grabbing. And it held!
I checked out a bike yard the next day and they didn't have a cable for the FZ6 so I took my chances with my fix and I made it back to Albuquerque the next day. It was a liitle investment to buy the tools needed but it got me home. So I would suggest making something like this or modifying something and keep it in your FZ tool kit, you never know when you might need it and it will save your butt if you do.
While I was eating I called all of the Yamaha shops in town an no one had a cable in stock and there wasn't a bicycle shop or ato shop near by. There was a home depot though. I first found the cable crimp that you use to make cable for hanging pictures and tried them, the crimps were cheap and I just had to buy a pair of vise grips. Well it didn't crimp down tight enough for the pull that the clutch cable needs so when I went back and was looking through the hardware area, I saw these aluminum spacers that were really close to the same diameter as the original cable end.
The ID would accomodate a M6x1 the best, 1/4-20 would have bee too much and they didn't have any offerings for 12-32 bolts or set screws. I had to buy a small metric tap and die set and an 1/8 drill because the guy in tool rental didn't have anything that small. Also got some M6 set screws and a M6 SHCS so I can torque ot a little tighter than the set screw, and some red lock-tite. I drilled the 1/8 hole thru the body of the space to get the cable thru and then I ran the M6 tap thru the ID of the spacer. The ID was smaller than the nominal tap drill for the M6 so there was definetly good thread engagement. I got back to the bike, put some lock-tite on the set screw and SHCS and set them in, I then fed the cable end into the 1/8 Dia hole being careful to not let it stick out past the other side so it will slide into the lever easily. I then tightened the set screw and SHCS as tight as I could to make sure it was grabbing. And it held!
I checked out a bike yard the next day and they didn't have a cable for the FZ6 so I took my chances with my fix and I made it back to Albuquerque the next day. It was a liitle investment to buy the tools needed but it got me home. So I would suggest making something like this or modifying something and keep it in your FZ tool kit, you never know when you might need it and it will save your butt if you do.