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My son just bought a '95 KDX. I have a '99.

He definitely has some clutch drag. If you are in first gear, engine off, pull in the clutch and try to roll the bike around, it will roll. But it "catches" and stutters about every 1/4 or 1/8 wheel turn as the gear tries to engage. The cable and settings all seem fine.

We figured maybe old/worn/warped clutch plates. A friend had an spare new set of plates, so today we replaced the clutch pack. Put it all back together, same issue. We fiddled with adding an extra washer to the clutch plunger, fiddled with the cable etc. etc. No luck.

Now I'm reading about a worn clutch basket (which I didn't even know to look for). I assume I should pull the assembly and look for those signs. Any hints here on the clutch basket?

Any hints in general? Other than the clutch this bike runs like a bat out of hell, but need to get clutch on board.

Thanks.

I pulled the clutch back out. The basket has very small signs of wear, hardly anything. It is really more discoloration than a "notch". If you run your finger along this, it feels pretty smooth.



Here is another shot.

Your clutch basket looks ok to me ... I've seen worse.... Usually the notching will only make the bike judder when you pull away or drag the clutch , you can in serious cases file down the notch marks as a temp fix but the plates will rattle around & cause a noise....
I have a Wiseco billet clutch basket & Barnett HD plates with springs & a magura hydraulic clutch lever on my 220 & even with this set up I still get a little drag .....you could try running a different grade clutch oil to see if it works or replace the springs with HD items also look at the clutch plates themselves & even the actuator arm that presses onto the pressure plate as this may be worn ....

I'm going out on a limb here and question if it is reasonable to expect to be able to roll the bike around like you are describing. I can't do that either and haven't seen too many bikes that will. Basket looks good to me. Any other issues with the clutch? Does it drag when running?

My 89,90, and 97 200's all did the same. I took apart my current 2004 clutch to check the basket and it looked fine also.

"first gear, engine off, pull in the clutch and try to roll the bike around, it will roll. But it "catches" and stutters about every 1/4 or 1/8 wheel turn as the gear tries to engage."

This is correct. This is normal.

KDXs have a wet clutch, so it drags when the bike isn't running. Push it in Neutral, like you should.

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OK, thanks guys. I guess my KDX is lucky. In first gear, engine off, clutch in, I can roll around easy, like I'm in neutral. But I guess that is an exception.

On the plus side, trying to "debug" this my son and I learned a lot about the KDX clutch. Woot.

Clutch drag on wet clutches is normal, every KDX and RMX I have owned drug when not running. You can affect the feel of it by trying different oils, but there will usually be some drag when the bike is not running.