mate, honestly, super easy. go to the local pet shop and get some pipes for fish tank. will cost you couple of £££, attach it to the bottom nipple and pull the clutch, keep on doing it till all the air come out. I've done it on my bike first time in my life and took few mins only
start with bottom. if it doesn't work move to the top, but i recon it will be fine. well it fixed mine and i had same problem as you (mind you , on my pani, not 1098r)
I always found that the air was at the top at the master cylinder when I had a 1098. I just used to open the bleed nipple a fraction, then gently squeeze the lever until fluid started to come out, then close the nipple and the job was done. I added an 11mm spanner to the tool kit just for doing this. I never had the lever coming back to the bar though, just a bit of softness in the lever after a hard day on the track.
its fine mate, just a lot of air in the system. best case scenario - bleeding will sort it and will cost you couple of quids only, worst case you will have to replace cylinder, but it is not super expensive for a mighty 1098r owner especially???
Similar...I managed a whole 200 miles before the regulator/rectifier crapped out on me. Welcome to the club, SP45!
I really hope just bleeding the system will sort this but, frankly, I'd be surprised. I really can't see how a system that works fine at the start of a ride and then gets so much air in that the clutch is unusable can be sorted by simple bleeding. There has to be a reason for all that air getting in there and imho, that will have to be sorted first. If it's air in the system that's the problem - it could be something mechanical, although air does seem likely.
I hope it's nothing serious as really strapped for cash at the moment. Will start with top nip first in the morning. Whereabouts is the bottom nip? Seems as though I haven't damaged the Sprag clutch as it fires up immediately. God, it's loud. Neighbors are going to love me. Finally home. 1 hour journey took 7.
Slave cylinder to bleed, as you say bottom one is down near the front sprocket, it's a round thing with a fluid pipe running into it, follow the clutch pipe down from the lever. Steve
For what it's worth, across the board, ( and more likely if the bike has been standing) on nearly all of our bikes with hydraulic clutch it's nearly always the slave cylinder. A bleed can often restore things to normal but it's a sign that the slave seal is a bit compromised and might need doing properly in the future.
