C: Clutch Comet Clutch information

Bikermark22

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I’m Looking for a complete clutch for my Comet rebuild and see loads of Burman clutch adverts for British bikes. Can anyone tell me was the Comet clutch a generic Burman item ? And if so what other bikes was it fitted to?
 

erik

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VOC Member
What is about the replacement clutch of conways? I have one on the shelf,it looks good.Erik
 

A Nut

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The Burman clutch as fitted to the C Comet is a generic item. They were also fitted to Matchless, AJS and quite a few other bikes of that era. But a word of caution. The early type (which Vincent fitted) has a basket with slots to take the ears of the friction plates where as the latter type ( which the Spares Co now sells has a solid basket with bars spot welded inside and consequently uses friction plates that have wide 'slots' inside them. Therefore you will need a basket with its matching friction plates in either case. Beware, Burman clutches were made in 2 different widths. A wider one as used on Vincents, larger engined AMC bikes and narrower ones that uses less plates on 350cc machines. The plain steel plates are the same design on all variants except for the thickness. I never use the very thin plates as they suffer from buckling. From experience the cheaper friction plates of both designs have a tendency to stick very badly and pulling in the clutch lever and kicking sometimes fails to free them. Surflex plates do not suffer from this problem.
Series A clutches are similar design except they are fitted with shock absorber rubbers on the back of the basket as the Series A's were not fitted with an engine shaft shock absorber.
Brian Werrett
 

Bill Thomas

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Just a thought about the Conways Honda clutch,
I think the main parts are second hand, Not a problem, But some people expect new ?.
 

A Nut

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The parts used to be second hand as I remember years ago that Colin Jenner ran out of them and couldn't get any more from his local breakers. I managed to get 10 clutches from a breaker near Swindon. They may be using new parts now as I bought some plates and springs from David Silver. I did find that as supplied with the Honda springs the clutch was too heavy so I substituted some Suzuki springs but they were too soft so ended up with 2 Honda and 2 Suzuki on opposite sides.
Brian
 

Shane998

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Non-VOC Member
Just a thought about the Conways Honda clutch,
I think the main parts are second hand, Not a problem, But some people expect new ?.
I got a clutch from Conways for my mate about a year ago The basket is used part They told me they had a clutch in stock if my mate wanted it Once that one was sold could not say exactly how long to supply another as that part is getting harder to find Everything else is new I think. Maybe the situation has changed.
 
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