Which clutch friction plates for me--Kevlar or Cork?

I'm about to order clutch plates, and Chacal seems to be pushing Kevlar friction pads. I'm willing to spend the few extra dollars over OEM style if they will benefit me, but on other brands of bikes I'm seeing mixed reviews. I didn't have any complaints about my old clutch's performance, except that it slipped above 7500 rpm--and that barely mattered, since I've only been that high a handful of times.

What are the benefits and drawbacks over Kevlar over stock?

 

I've got nothing intelligent to say here (as you'll see) but to me, I relate this whole thing to dental floss...

I've got a few years on me and when I was young & immortal I used to eat Candy like my 401K depended on it. Now I've fillings that represent maybe 10 or so different dentists & some were better than others. As a result some of my fillings have snaggles on them, little abutments that don't follow the contour of Base E or mother nature's logarithm of the natural flow of dentics. Normal dental floss finds these little buggers and it rips the S%1t out of the floss.

Enter Plackers Kevlar dental floss, specially the twin string variety... I can use those puppies for days straight if I wanted to & the regular ones I may need two to get past one flossing. Yeah, the Kevlar ones cost a bit more but they're tough.

If I were a betting man & based on my tooth satisfaction, I'd think those Kevlar clutch pads would kick the pants off the cork ones.

O'course I don't go to the local Casinos & we have a flock of em...

 

Sometimes, we ask others to confirm our own thoughts.....which is what I'm guessing is going on in this case.

Honestly, for you, it doesn't sound like the kevlars are going to be any benefit....which is what I think that you already knew. I would suggest the upscale plates if you had built more power into your engine, wanted your bike to last 100K without ever having to replace the clutch plates, raced, redlined, rode like you were invincible or any combination of the above.....but probably for you, the stock plates would be just fine.

All that said, the kev plates ARE more resistant to wear so if the delta is only a couple dollars, then you couldn't go wrong buying them. My H2 and the Yamaha have about the same number of plates and I recently bought plates for a very heavily ported H2 kawasaki triple and the delta in price for the kevlar plates was 15 bucks.....to give you an idea of the cost difference.

jeff

 

Be sure to replace your clutch springs, weak springs are the #1 cause for slippage.

 

After you install new frictions and springs you should ride above 7500RPM more often. You're missing most of the fun.

 

I don't know about confirming my thoughts--I already knew I don't need kevlar for speed. I'm not particularly concerned with the money difference in this case, and I'm hoping to keep the bike long enough that long term durability makes it worthwhile.

What I don't want is to find that my clutch is indestructible but feels like crap, or withstands abuse better but doesn't last any longer in my relatively sedate use.

MiCarl, I've got more motorcycle miles this year than the rest of my life combined--I'm having plenty of fun even below 7500. I may be too old to start dragging pegs--I'm a lot more aware of my limitations than I was in the 80's.

 

The "aftermarket" (cork) friction plates that chacal carries, along with new OEM springs, work fine. The "15% stronger" aftermarket springs are unnecessary.

If you're going to go with the Barnett (Kevlar) be sure you use their springs.

The aftermarket clutch will last a good long time; and work very nicely. As will the Barnett; but if you never ever ride the bike hard enough to "fade" the clutch, there's really no need for the Hi-Po parts.