Dropped the bike - clutch gets stuck going in to high gears

PsychoPigeon · 27 May 2022 at 16:07

I have such a bad habit of picking awkward places to park, it was a tight turn and I was at full lock ended up going over with the bike falling on the right side. Brake lever is bent going to buy a new one, however an issue occurred once I got on to the dual carriage way and I tried to get into 5th gear the clutch lever wouldn't go fully out it got stuck half way after I released it. I had to reduce speed, work down the gears and slowly work my way back up again. I can cycle through 1 - 4 fine, but if I try and get into higher gears at speed the clutch will become stuck, I have to go into the higher gears at slow speeds; example change into 5th from 35-40 mph. Before the drop I had ridden for over and hour and it was fine.

Why would the drop affect the clutch if it was the right side taking the fall, and if the cable did get caught why would it only affect higher gears? Does this issue sound familiar to anyone?

Bike: Honda CB 500X 2021

BUDFORCE · 31 May 2022 at 08:40

I'd say (even though it fell on the other side) to check for play in the clutch lever, cable etc, make sure it's all working freely.

I'm not familiar with that bike but you can usually follow the cable back to where it connects to the engine block, who knows that might be on the right side? And see if that got bent in any way?

Does your brake cable cross over the clutch cable, any obstruction etc?

I'm no mechanic, so I'm guessing, I stress, but I imagine it would be unlikely there is any internal damage with your clutch or engine, and will be something external like this.

JonRGV250 · 31 May 2022 at 09:21

The clutch casing and final cable routing are on the right side.
Check you haven’t bent/dislodged the lever/cable mechanism where it goes into the clutch housing, or in the worst case haven’t cracked the housing.

PsychoPigeon · 1 Jun 2022 at 17:58

Thanks for the replies. The problem seems to have resolved itself after I left the bike alone for 2 days, I got back on and tried to replicate the issue before taking it into the garage and couldn't get the clutch stuck in 5th again it's been changing gears ok so far.
I took it to a mechanic today to get a 2nd pair of eyes on it and they said clutch free play is fine and at a glance the exterior looked fine. Maybe it was a one off or to do with the engine oil all rushing to one side of the bike or something I guess I will have to wait and see.