A common upgrade on bike engines is to try and beef up the clutch feel and clutch bind. This may be accomplished through fitting springs in the pedal mechanism or the selection of small master cylinders for hydraulic actuation. Other solutions have been through using the uprated YEC clutch spring or by using two existing clutch springs in tandem.

An aftermarket solution to this is the Barnett Clutch Spring Conversion. This replaces the existing clutch spring with a billet plate and strong multiple springs. This page guides you through the installation of the item, using a Yamaha R1 as an example, the complete installation from start to finish can be easily accomplished within half an hour.

Disconnect the clutch lever arm and remove the allen bolts holding on the clutch cover, it is common to undo these allen bolts following a sequence of opposite to opposite to ensure that uneven wear is avoided. Note that some of the bolts are different lengths depending on which location they were removed from.

Undo the six bolts holding on the clutch spring retainer. This will allow removal of the clutch spring plate, seat and pressure plate. The pull rod will also come out from behind these. This is also a good time to examine the friction plates for wear and the steels for 'blueing' (slight burn marks that
may indicate a worn clutch).

Place the pull rod behind the Barnett pressure plate and place the pressure plate on the clutch boss. Put a collet and spring in one of the recesses on the pressure plate and tighten the allen key bolt. It is worth noting that two sets of springs are supplied with the Barnett kit, one 'road' set and one
'race' set - ignore the race set as they will go coilbound when fitted, fit only
the road set. Some have placed washers in the seats to add an extra bit of tension to the springs. Repeat this for all six retaining bolts.

If you wish for even stronger springs contact Holeshot Racing (see links below) and they can supply uprated springs and lever arms to suit.

Replace the clutch cover gasket and clutch cover. This is actually quite fiddly as you have to thread the pull rod into the hole on the clutch cover, it will take a few goes and a few curse words but you will get it on there!. Reattach the
lever arm ensuring that you have adjusted the free-play correctly.

Again, this may take some fiddling to reset the lever arm into the desired place - I prefer to initially just do up the clutch cover with one bolt, check the clutch movement and then rotate the lever arm as required, you may do this or prefer to simply unbolt the lever arm from underneath and rotate - just don't lose that circlip!

Haynes Manual clutch schematics - [Page One] [Page Two]

*add photo of uprated Holeshot racing springs and uprated lever arm*

[www.fluke-motorsport.co.uk] Barnett clutch components in Fluke Motorsport's online shop.
[www.barnettclutches.com] Barnett Clutches, US official site.
[www.holeshotracing.co.uk] Holeshot Racing, suppliers of uprated springs and clutch lever arms.