Yagi gets New Clutch Pack

I'd been suspecting slight slippage on the clutch of my TW200.  I'd been putting off, looking into it due to my ongoing malaise towards motorcycling.  

This has been going on for a while with Yagi, it was brought to the fore most recently when Yagi was briefly ridden by Steve of ScooterintheSticks. while showing me around his neck of the woods.

He experienced noticeable "lag" when upshifting gears on the hills and inclines of middle Pennsylvania and commented to me about it.  I'd been experiencing < 1 sec "lags" at times when upshifting and had been wondering if a new clutch pack was in order.

Fast forward to the present, I'd tried several times to get rid of the lag through repeated adjustments of the clutch cable.  The lag would start soon after the engine was warmed up, just not initially during the test rides I did.

So, with time on my hands and no significant riding/camping plans at present, it was time to try a new clutch pack.  

I got these via Amazon:

What showed up seemed OK, this was my first clutch pack replacement on the TW200 so what did I know, right?  

One error was not ordering the kit that included the paper gasket that lines the clutch cover but it turned out OK anyways.  (I reused the old one and so far, no leaks.)

The friction material on the above pads felt slightly rough to the touch, as expected.

The same pads on the old clutch disks felt smooth.  So even though they were at spec: min of 2.8mm, I wonder if they were glazed or worn down.

I soaked the new clutch disks in new engine oil overnight and this morning took about 3 hours to do the swap.  First time, frequent consulting of the youtube videos listed at the end and some puzzling re the pushrod adjustment.

You'll note the kit came with new springs.  They new ones were 37mm in length.  The old ones were at most 36mm in length.  The spec from Yamaha is 35.3mm.

Nope, not a single picture taken of Yagi's clutch bits.  The videos below show things quite clearly.

I got things put back together and once I refilled the engine with fresh oil I took her out for a 15 mile test ride.  Nothing blew up and there's no "lag" anymore!  We'll see how things go with some more test riding but am happy to report I didn't make things worse.

So, no clear "smoking gun" as to the slippage experienced before.  It's gone now so I'm moving on.  (I'm betting it was worn clutch disks).

YouTube videos consulted:

ProCycle

Rocky Mountain ATV MC