Why does clutch play vary?

[PunchBuggy]

I have about 1" of clutch play at the end of the lever when riding and all of a sudden, it's 1/2" of play. What happens to cause this? It's disconcerting.

Bill

[marc]

Guess: you've got problems with your slave cylinder. There was a recall on re-routing the clutch line for some production year GS. Don't remember which one. Others have had slave cylinder issues. In any case it is not a good thing. A leaky slave cylinder, for example, can contaminate the clutch.

[mikec]

I believe Marc is entirely correct with his assessment. There was a service bulletin on rerouting the clutch line on the 2009 model year. My bike had the modification and, not long after that, the slave cylinder bid me farewell. Naturally, I was in a remote part of southern New Mexico when it happened. I got it "patched up" after a 600+ mile ride in a wrecker. By the time I got home, it was failing again. My regular dealer ended up replacing the slave, master cylinder and the line.

Please have this checked out.

Mike