[m4ppy]

Just checked the service manual and the routing is correct. They do comment about it, and surprised there is no grommet fitting

[E]ass the clutch cable between the bracket of radiator and frame.
Pass the clutch cable inside of the air bleed hose.

 

[G-Dub]

Once cables actually start wearing through and breaking, I would suspect a service bulletin on this issue.

 

[roy826]

Yep mine was sawing into at only 1500 miles on my bike. I zip tied it up off the top of the radiator last night.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Slower and Slower]

Thanks for thinking of us forum members that haven't turned our lives over to Facebook!

What's Facebook ???

 

[sparehead1]

What's Facebook ???

I was on facebook once. Now I just look up cat videos once a year. Saves me heaps of time.

 

[Freebird23103]

Same thing happening to mine @ less than 3 weeks ownership and 550 Miles. Zip Tie to the rescue. Thanks a lot OP for the Heads Up!

 

[tonyt]

Thanks for thinking of us forum members that haven't turned our lives over to Facebook!

If it hadn't been for the Facebook GSX-S owners group I and we would never have known about the problem until it was to late...

 

[Slower and Slower]

Thanks for posting. My naked has about 1000 miles and had worn through the plastic sleeve covering the cable. I used some 3m double sided foam tape to keep the abrasion off of the cable.

Hi All,
Just remembered to check mine, (3600 km) and nearly got fooled into thinking it was the vertical edge of the radiator support as that side of the cable was like new.
It was locked to the left facing direction and the cable was firm.
So I got the keys, unlocked it, and now I see I have a small degree of chaffing where it crosses over the edge of the radiator tank.

From observing the twisting the bars on lock to lock, I am going to follow obijack's lead as that will allow the clutch cable more freedom to move around as needed as cable tying to the radiator support upright will cause one of two possibilities.

1. The cable will get then a lot of strain motion against the upright support edge and the cable will have to flex against that upright radiator vertical edge now, as the effective length of the clutch cable has been decreased.

2. It could cause somewhat similar wear 90 degrees further around from the original wear place, as the cable will want to flex when the bars are rotated to the right lock direction against the support edge this time, but not to the same extent.

Rob.

 

[sparehead1]

Mine has chunks out of it. There is an extra outer sleeve it seems and I dont think its gone all the way though that but I've used some heavy duty Velcro strips I had in the garage to hold the cable off that hard edge. Thanks heaps for pointing this out guys, I likely wouldn't have noticed until something really exciting had happened.

 

[Slower and Slower]

Just checked the service manual and the routing is correct. They do comment about it, and surprised there is no grommet fitting

[E]ass the clutch cable between the bracket of radiator and frame.
Pass the clutch cable inside of the air bleed hose.

Hi All,
I had a plan for my bike today but it still evolving. Temporary shielding achieved.

With regard m4ppy's routing diagram, re the bottom sketch of the 3; I found on my bike the clutch cable where it goes through the frame, the so called 'air bleed hose' which I would call the radiator overflow catch bottle hose provided a relocation option. It didn't look like that diagram imho.

The clutch cable was under this heat insulated wrap hose and forces the clutch cable further downwards vertically than it needs to be by about 10 mm.
On the 'easy to work on' Naked, it was a simple matter to manipulate the cable and hose to put the clutch cable uppermost. The F is probably the same.

So the wear issue is when the bike is in the straight ahead position and worse when a the full turn of the bars to the right.
The manipulation of the cable has decreased the radiator /cable pressure from firm to light on my bike, but that's still unsatisfactory.
It might explain why some are damaged sooner & more severely than others have found.


TonyT / C AJ: Perhaps this Thread could be easier found later on if either of you Guy's could change the name from 'Heads Up' to "Clutch Cable Damage @ the Radiator", or something shorter, and made it 'a sticky' shifted to the Maintenance area or Appearance & Mods, rather than located here.

Rob.

 

[ChicagoAJ]

Picked mine up from winter storage yesterday. Mine is wearing at only 535 miles on the clock. I'm either going to zip tie it out of the way out put a silicone sleeve on it.

Stickied the thread and gave it a better title.

 

[Thumperbob2002]

Mine was marked a little. 6000 miles. Not too bad and to be honest I think the cable would need replacing before it was totalled by the rad. Still, I added a little pipe lagging between the cable and rad. Will do for now.

 

[LEAVEITSTOCK]

500 miles on mine could feel some wear ...great info thanks

 

[Kassu]

Have checked mine and the issue is there.
I'll use one of these pipe clamps:

 

[Joe Garfield]

I'm a little surprised this little flaw got by the engineers. I would think that early on in Motorcycle Design 101, they would teach you to not route wires, cables or hoses across the sharp edges of metal objects, especially where they are free to vibrate and move about.

All it takes is for someone to make a late change in the design and 'forget' to notify the owners of interfacing hardware.

Say, for example, they finished the design and found that crap from the wheel was hitting the bottom edge of the radiator. So they made a change to shift the radiator up an inch. They check with structures owners, fuel system owners, etc, but don't pay much consideration to cables because 'they go last' and are supposed to route around everyone else. Or they checked clearance with the cable but their 3D model only has the bike with the bars straight...

 

[Joe Garfield]

I hope people are reporting this to Suzuki, or their local dealer. Think about all the people who own this bike and are not on this forum. Suzuki can't fix the problem if they don't know about it (or how bad it really is). A new cable should be covered under the 1-year warranty, and if a tech bulletin is released it may cover a new cable if the bike is brought in for service.

Thanks for this thread, I'll check mine and let the dealer know if there's an issue.

 

[Kassu]

I don't think this is 100% related with the issue discussed in this topic, but lately I have noticed a strange sound when turning the handlebars from straight to the right.
This sound seems to come from behind the headlamp and it sounds like some cables are rubbing together or against a plastic/rubber part. It seems to me that one or more cables are too tight or are not free to move when turning the handlebars to right. Has someone around here noticed this sound?

 

[roy826]

I don't think this is 100% related with the issue discussed in this topic, but lately I have noticed a strange sound when turning the handlebars from straight to the right.
This sound seems to come from behind the headlamp and it sounds like some cables are rubbing together or against a plastic/rubber part. It seems to me that one or more cables are too tight or are not free to move when turning the handlebars to right. Has someone around here noticed this sound?

I have noticed the sound on my bike. I have not looked into it though.

 

[Kassu]

Thanks mate!
It's good to know I'm not the only one who has noticed that sound!

I will take a deep look at those cables next week-end.
I hope there is no other unknown issue to deal with...

 

[robdeniro0]

Is the cable being worn from the sharp edge of the radiator or is it from the heat melting it from the hot radiator? I checked it after riding and it seems like the heat could be melting the cable.. Either way needs to be addressed.