A more useful clutch locking tool

The usefulness of the standard clutch locking tool can be extended to enable the primary transmission to be locked for maintenance without having to resort to using the back brake with the bike in gear.

The 3 photos show the modification to the locking tool. Not much science involved, just careful siting of the 4 holes such that, when the tool is in position in the clutch basket, there is socket access to the clutch centre locking nut, (see tool in place photo).

It was made up from âstuffâ I had lying around, namely a couple of 29mm exhaust clamps and the handle is square section steel bar. The 8 nuts on the front, under the clamps, are oversized on the clamps and act purely as spacers to give sufficient projection so that the handle clears the front of the clutch basket. At the rear, the clamp's threaded ends are sawn off, but left long enough to butt up against the rear of the clutch housing, (that's 15mm from the rear of the tool). This enables the tool to be held squarely in the clutch basket. The projection from the underside of the handle to the front of the tool is 24mm. These measurements are intended as a guide but they do bring the tool close to the front of the clutch basket whilst still engaging fully with the clutch centre splines.

With the primary drive complete, the handle gives enough leverage to enable the clutch and the crankshaft nuts to be loosened or tightened. It also makes it easy to turn the engine over quite precisely for valve adjustments or finding TDC since it takes only a few minutes to remove the clutch plates and fit the tool.