sRo wrote:
D'oh. I ordered mine 8 days too soon.
Don't feel bad - the cork-based friction is excellent and it's better then the OEM clutch. It clamps. The only issue has been that, due to this bike's unique design with respect to low oil volume and lack of an oil cooler, at high temperatures and high RPM the cork-based clutch will eventually degrade. Thing is, you have to subject it to very severe service to reach that point.
I routinely ride with 600's and up, racing, and under those conditions, where you absolutely wind the living piss out of the bike, all day long, then the cork-based clutch is not ideal.
The carbon fibre clutch for us is brand new. It did not exist 8 days ago (well, it did, but only on our bike). It was not never expected to be available for some time, probably a long time, before it even reached distribution.
Because of our unique relationship with our manufacturer we were able to squeeze out a special order and this required them to jump through some real hoops, at a bunch of different levels, to get us some. They don't exist in production at this point for the 125r.
I would not be concerned about running the cork-based clutch - it's still an excellent clutch and it's made much better yet with our custom springs. So it's still, way, way, way better then the OEM or even aftermarket options.
The issue for us has been that clutch fade due to heat and continuous high RPM started to highlight issues at the very far end of it's endurance. Most people don't live there.
The need for a different clutch material itself has been on our radar screen for some time. It was only recently that Carbon Fibre became an offering from our manufacturer. When we saw that we jumped on it in much the same way we did with the Kevlar based frictions last year.
Carbon Fibre addresses the two main issues we run into - heat and extended high RPM. Keep in mind though that for us, we're always looking ahead and we're always looking to bring the very latest proven technologies to the bike, or developing new ones ourselves when nothing else is available (such as the clutch springs and the Performance Pack).
Also, we're well down the path to increasing the power on the 125r by several orders of magnitude so we've always known that, during the development cycle, we were going to have to come back to clutch re-design. So the Carbon Fibre clutch option helps us personally as we are running the Performance Pack, our custom camshaft and we're going to be making really big moves forward with our Racing ECU replacement.
That last one is really important as it's going to mean that we extend the rev limiter on the bike (or disable it completely). So the RPM that our engine runs at is going to increase and we've already had it running at a TRUE 12,500 RPM. Our camshaft is making power beyond that so we may well go higher and we will be pushing the envelope to see just where our camshaft and valve springs limits are.
On top of that we will be running a two-stage nitrous system so the engine is going to be getting nailed with a rather large boost rate with the second stage coming on at high RPM. All of this is going to be harder and harder on the clutch - so we knew we's be coming back to it even as we were developing the HD springs a little over a year ago. We needed control over the clutch lining material itself because this enables us to increase the friction co-efficient and make it handle higher temps and higher RPM. So it's always been something we would come back to. The problem has been that it's taken until just a few days ago where we could make this reality.
So the bike is going to see some really severe service in the near future. If that weren't enough, we will also be implementing a quick shifter, controlled by our new ECU, and this will allow wide open throttle clutchless upshifts. Just pin it, hold it there, and lift the clutch lever with your left foot when necessary
So there's a lot going on behind the scenes and what we try to do is that, with every stride forward on the re-design of the bike, we try not to forget all the people who are part of this thing and are customers of ours. So we try to always bring as much of that technology back to our customers as possible.
What we always want is the best for you! So we roll all of these advances into our products so that you can also make use of them. This does mean though, that at times, in a case like yours, you might get caught in a development cycle. But, the flip side is, unless you are really subjecting the bike to severe use (and we recommend this!) the cork-based clutch will be just fine. It's been our go-to clutch right up until recently.
But if we can offer the option of putting people straight into the latest, and if it's proven, then by all means, we'll upgrade our offerings as fast as we can - in this case it's probably going to be a year before you'll even see these offerings in regular distribution from other sellers.
Also, don't forget, the Carbon Fibre clutch does cost more then the cork-based clutch. But the cork-based clutch will clamp - it will not slip - until you get it really hot under severe service for a prolonged period. So it's not like you're going to see it fail any time soon and even if you do bring it to the failure point they fail very nicely with lots and lots of warning. You could cook that thing on one side of Canada and still make it home
But we wanted a more permanent solution, one where the friction disks themselves match our unique springs. Up until now the springs really were 50% of the solution. They alone are a huge step forward but we were never able to address the other 50% of the solution which is a clutch that has an inherently higher friction co-efficient and handles heat and high RPM much better then other technologies.
So this a new thing - it's a brand new thing, and it's a brand new offering for 125 riders. We can now finally get the same clutch that all the high performance bikes have had for some time. And let's be clear, we needed it. All those high-end bikes have more friction disks, we have to make due with 5, they have much larger oil capacities, we have to make due with +1, and they have oil coolers, we have none! So we've needed a clutch technology advance for a long time now.
Now we have it