Readspeed 5 plate clutch.

[Scooterdude]

Just considering the Readspeed 5 plate clutch at around £40. The engine is a MB tuned 235 rt with reed valve fitted, it produces 25bhp and 20 torques.

Just fitted 4 new surflex plates but still slipping as the engine climbs onto the pipe, dont really want to splash out £225 on an af 6 plate if i can get away with the £40 5 plate.

Thoughts and other opinions please.

[ULC Soulagent]

What springs are ya using?

[Scooterdude]

At the moment i am using Mallossi strong springs which means with my grip i can snap clutch cables within 300 miles so the springs are definitely strong enough!

[Gtwildcat]

It’s a great clutch, never had a problem with mine

[Norrie Bodge]

Just considering the Readspeed 5 plate clutch at around £40. The engine is a MB tuned 235 rt with reed valve fitted, it produces 25bhp and 20 torques.

Just fitted 4 new surflex plates but still slipping as the engine climbs onto the pipe, dont really want to splash out £225 on an af 6 plate if i can get away with the £40 5 plate.

Thoughts and other opinions please.

Readspeed 5-plate paired with MRB springs gets good reports for a low budget clutch

[Lammer205]

Hi All,

I see Andy Francis is offering a super grip 4 plate clutch coping with Rb power, could be worth a look.

Lammer205

[superhooper]

Although not a high hp output I'm using readspeed in my Ts1 with no issues.

Super

[dickie]

Clutch is related to peak torque not power although they're obviousluly related. So if rb makes power by spinning fast rather than producing more torque, it gives the clutch an easy time (comparatively). It also depends on gearbox, so using a gp125 or 200 box also gives the clutch an easier time for the same rear wheel torque.

[bookertmgs1]

I’ve got one with mb springs - works great. Took couple of rides to get optimum clutch adjustment but had no problems since

I’d recommend before shelling out £220 for a cassette.

For the record I also got rid of the excess cork between the raised bits - took 30 mins and a boring job but whether this makes any difference I have no idea

[Scooterdude]

Have also been looking at a clutch basket on the af site that takes 6 plates, six standard ones?? so im guessing if i get that and build it up the top plate will rub on the kick start arm?

[Warkton Tornado No.1]

Have also been looking at a clutch basket on the af site that takes 6 plates, six standard ones?? so im guessing if i get that and build it up the top plate will rub on the kick start arm?

You would need to pack out your crankcase cover by about 10 mm to give the additional clearance necessary.

That is do-able but probably not what you want to do.

It's a shame that the ScootRS clutch with six plates is no longer available, though you could browse CamLam's site to see what you could squeeze in the standard, generic clutch centre & crownwheel.

I built a five plate clutch using those green plates & steels for a mate that runs a Tuned TS x 60 mm stroke & it coped with the torque easily.

I hope that helps.....

[Norrie Bodge]

It's a shame that the ScootRS clutch with six plates is no longer available, though you could browse CamLam's site to see what you could squeeze in the standard, generic clutch centre & crownwheel.
..

+1
Got the ScootRS Deep crown/spider/pressure plate setup
Works great with x6 - 1.5mm plates & MRB springs on my GP with TS230

[Knowledge]

Agree about the ScootRS crown wheel. It was a good bit of kit once it was modded to allow the friction plates to drop to the bottom of the basket. It is a shame it is no longer available.

My home brew six plate clutch based on their basket and Centre and is handling 28ftlbs at the moment with MB springs. It is very light too.

[Scooterdude]

Think I’m going to bite the bullet and get the af 6 plate, got lots of trips planned for next year so dont want clutch burning out miles from home.

[Raveydavey]

I'm on my 2nd reedspeed 5 plate in my SX. Superb bit of kit. Easy 4k miles out of the first one.. The engine is also an RT230 but without reed valve. It's never been dynod but it pulls like a train. Clutch holds up perfectly and is not too stiff.

I've an AF cassette in my Quattrini and is still going strong after 5k miles of hard riding. I've no reason to think the reedspeed wouldn't work on this engine either but the theme is high end performance so happy to shell out the extra.

So both are good.

[corrado]

When I was selling the scootRS Atomic stuff I had a 46 crownwheel machined to drop the plates lower but it went through to thin air so I wasn't prepared to sell them like that as it was a potential weak spot. So I made some up using Italian Tutto crownwheels, which were around 80 quid, the problem was that 80 quid for a crownwheel, 50 quid for pressure plate, 50 quid for spider, 30 quid for plates and steels and 12 quid for MB springs made it as expensive as the AF road clutch so it was a no brainer in my opinion. A set of 5 BGM soft feel 2.6mm thin plates, mated to 3 x 1.2 steels and 1 x 1.5 steel with LTH uprated springs works out at about 36 quid.

[Adam_Winstone]

When I was selling the scootRS Atomic stuff I had a 46 crownwheel machined to drop the plates lower but it went through to thin air so I wasn't prepared to sell them like that as it was a potential weak spot. So I made some up using Italian Tutto crownwheels, which were around 80 quid, the problem was that 80 quid for a crownwheel, 50 quid for pressure plate, 50 quid for spider, 30 quid for plates and steels and 12 quid for MB springs made it as expensive as the AF road clutch so it was a no brainer in my opinion. A set of 5 BGM soft feel 2.6mm thin plates, mated to 3 x 1.2 steels and 1 x 1.5 steel with LTH uprated springs works out at about 36 quid.

Exactly why I made the change from various 5-6 plate mix and match components, which you spent a lot of money on and still often had to fettle for decent operation, to AF clutches in high performance motors. However, I did also decide that I would fit fairly simple upgrade clutches to some of my touring motors that use big front sprockets for high ratio cruising, where the bigger front sprocket gives the clutch an easier life. This combo of right clutch for application seems to work for me.

[Adam_Winstone]

^... sorry, just to add and get back on topic (!), I've not used the complete Readspeed clutch but have used plates (corks and steels) and springs in a number of mix and match upgrade clutches... and they've worked well.

[coaster]

I have built several clutches using the Readspeed friction disc and mixing and matching steels to get a 1.5mm clearance and with MB springs they worked well in my Avanti but I found there was a fine line in adjustment between not having clutch slip and not dragging. I used to dread traffic queues as I would need to get it in neutral before stopping. When I put a TS1 top end on it, it started slipping as soon as it hit the power band. I replaced it with a used AF 5 plate Road clutch bought in the for sale adds on here and apart from being a little jerky, it doesn't slip and there is no drag whatsoever, fit and forget solution