Took my 1 month old Raptor out riding today at the "Mounds" near Mt. Morris. It started out Black & White,.. and turned Dark Brown in minutes! Everyone was freakin that I was muddin it up on the new bike, but thats what I bought it for.. right?
We were doing a lot of very slow trail and hill riding, ( and riding the clutch a lot) when I tried to go up a steep muddy hill, it started making an awful clunking noise, like the chain was slipping. It did it about 4 times and I backed off and stopped mid way up the hill. When I put it in reverse, it made the noise again a couple times. At the bottom of the hill I noticed the clutch was real easy to pull in half way, and real grabby. It even stuck in reverse for a minute. After sitting about 2 minutes, it went into first and all was well. No signs of sticks or rocks in the linkage or anything. So,.. what the heck made such a clunking noise? I have heard of people getting the clutches hot and slipping,.. but do they chatter when that happens,.. and literally clunk?
Thanks for the advise.

 

I have heard stories of the trannies locking up. One guy locked in between 1st and 2nd. I would have it checked out>

 

Maybe your chain was going over the sproket and not around with it. ...But that still doen't help with the tranny problem.

 

hey wild,
my buddy and i are going to the mounds this weekend. my brother may be going as well. my brother and i both have blk/wht raptors. would you like to go? we'll be there on march 4th. they open at 12:00pm so we'll be there soon after that.
let me know. maybe we can compare bikes and figure this out.

 

Hey Coopstoy,
Thanks for the invite. I am not sure if I can make it yet. Hopefully I can.

 

I noticed that when my chain gets the slightest bit loose, it starts to make a very heinous "clunk" sound. Especially when I hit the gas, then let off. On my Raptor, it looks like the chain starts to try and hop off the front edge of the rub block.

If you were abusing your clutch prior to heading up the hill, you could have had some off/on engagement of your clutch, which would rapidly tighten then loosen your chain (kind of like snapping a belt).

If you could ride home without any major problems, it still shifts just fine, and there isn't anything bizarre in the oil/filter, loose chain and tired clutch may be the problem. Also, you may have heard people griping about the use of oil with friction modifiers causing clutch problems. I haven't had any clutch problems, but I have been feeding my ride a steady diet of Yamalube.

 

Dont know if this helps, but in sand on a banshee, when you get sand in the between the chain and rear sprocket, it makes a horrible clunking noise. Maybe you had some thick mud along with some ssmall rocks between your chain and sprocket. Just a thought...
Roostking...