So, we have two hydraulic systems (Three physically). The clutch lever and the brakes levers (Front and back thus the 3rd element in the equation)

Geekness aside, I've been having problems for some time now with my shifting gears heavy clunking, I know that the '14 clunks on first as most bikes, I know that the '14 clunks heavy but mine really CLUNKS and it does so too on 2nd, and 3rd, sometimes 4th and 5th... although as you go up on gears to a much lesser degree...

So I finally followed a suggestion given here (Was it Hub?) a few weeks back and I bled (For the first time in my life my brakes and clutch)

I'll start with the clutch since we were on that topic. Once you learn the procedure you can get it done with your eyes blindfolded and do it to perfection,,, easy as cake, I don't know why it took me so long to learn it. So anyway, it has improved my clunkiness minimally but not because I bled the system and got any imaginary air bubbles out and changed it to some fresh DOT-4 brake fluid,,, no, it was because the bloody rubber diaphragm was bent in, as in bent towards the inside of the reservoir,,, lemme try to explain this... it's supposed to look like a flat square more or less and not a cone. If you remove the plastic cap you will see another smaller cap sitting on top of the diaphragm, once you have the rubber diaphragm exposed you can pull it out, right. Well, the problem here was that the middle of this diaphragm was pushed in allowing less fluid in the reservoir and creating more room with empty space,,, which is counter productive on a hydraulic system.

Now the front brake. EXACTLY the same crud BUT worse!!!!! The diaphragm in the front brake reservoir was grotesquely pushed in, again, the front brake diaphragm is much larger, a rectangular piece that should be flat and NOT like a freak rectangular cone. Once I fixed the shape of the diaphragm, to my dismay, the front brake fluid level was at the lowest,,, all that empty space, robbing the hydraulics from the compression needed to do its job even better,,, no wonder my front brakes have sucked for so long despite having done inspections on the pads and rotors to no avail (Another thing someone said here to do with the brakes, bleed them. Was it Hub again?)

Lastly and my apologies for such a long post.

CHECK your rubber diaphragms in your hydraulics reservoirs, they could have been installed pushed in or what not... how all of this has happened I do not know, no stealership has touched that (that I know if) for any reason...

Well-how's your brakes and clutch NOW?The diaphragm is there to basically keep a minimum of air from getting sloshed around inside the reservoir and sucked into the line.If it's beginning to pull down,it's a sure sign you're losing fluid.(somewhere)It doesn't need to be "pushing down"into the fluid.The cap assures that the pressure isn't going anywhere.You can just push that diaphragm rubber there up into the cap,fill your fluid to the top line,and cap er off.So I'd say-check for any leaks in the line or fittings.You've got the front brake line junction attached at the LOWER fork clamp-That's not leaking is it?It's going somewhere!That diaphragm should NOT be getting sucked down in the reservoir.You did pull the cap as you bled your lines,yes?(dumb question).The diaphragm on both is round,and accordions downward as the fluid drops.It can get misshapen however as it pulls downward. No big deal-just redo it.What's wrong with your front brakes?And the clunkiness-how are you shifting?I know,another dumb question.Is your clutch engaging and disengaging properly(NO SLIPPING on accelerations when opening her up aggressively?)(or as your engine gets up to temperature?)

* Last updated by: blue07 on 6/4/2009 @ 11:10 PM *

Maybe you need new brake pads?
Sounds like your hydraulic system is working as designed.

As the brake pads wear, the the pistons in the calipers push out, allowing more room in the calipers for fluid.
This fluid comes from the reservoir and sucks the diaphragm down to take up the available volume.
When you replace the pads and push the pistons back in, the reservoir will fill back up.
If you top off the reservoir between brake pad replacements, be careful when installing new pads because you will overflow the reservoir.

You know-I completely overlooked that!Thanks Cyclejunkie-I was completely thinkin something else!!!!Ride safe!!Now that I think about it-my reservoir was doin the same thing just a while back-for the life of me I never even thought about pads.I did however replace with new pads here just a couple o weeks ago.Thanks for the info-just awesome!!!!

Try lowering your idle to about 1k rpm to help with the first gear clunking. Also, when your first put in gear, give the clutch a little time to disengage.

The brakes are better, no doubt about it.

The clutch,,, perhaps minimally better.
Ironically, I have just started experimenting with clutchless upshifting (Only upshifting to 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th) and it does it SURPRISINGLY smooth!!! I kid you not! I would have never guessed!!! WAY smoother than. I use a combination of semisimultaneous slight decrease of throttle and quick toes tap on the shift lever,,, it goes unbelievably smooth...

"another satisfied customer"!The quicker you can transition from chopping(ever so slightly)the throttle and shifting,the smoother it will be.That's why I asked about your "shifting".The trans is made to run clutchless shifts.Any interruption in power input to the trans,it will pop right in.It will be very hard to get it to shift into the next gear if you let off the throttle slowly while trying to force the shift lever into the next gear.In fact,if the interruption isn't right,it won't shift at all.Same with DOWNSHIFTING.Same principle,however,the rpm range is somewhat different.If you try to shift"slowly" or "cautiously",without the clutch,she's gonna CLUNK real bad.So time your throttle "off's" with your toe shifting.Just a TINY interruption of throttle.Barely noticeable.She'll go in like glass.At different rpm's you'll notice different "techniques" for smoothing the clutchless shift.Practice!!!Yeah Baby!!!I noticed with mine when downshifting without the clutch,I have to VERY SLIGHTLY increase throttle for just a split second,then do as I mentioned above-chop throttle and push into the next lower gear while adding throttle(not much mind you).If you linger with toe shifting using the clutch,it will also NOT be very smooth.Sportrider.com(online magazine)has a complete article concerning the clutchless shifts.VERY GOOD READ.I recommend!!!!!Take care-enjoy!!

* Last updated by: blue07 on 6/5/2009 @ 6:56 PM *

yea, you're definitely right about that blue...mine would clunk really bad when shifting up until i started to get used to the hydraulic clutch and throttle response, then the gears just fell into place, however it still is kinda rough when going from 1st to 2nd when it's jumping neutral, seems like it skip stones over neutral, doesn't feel right, imma check that cap and seal for the fluid like kat600 mentioned, not sure how that would help, because the way i see it is that if anything, that cap not letting fluid get back into the container wouldn't allow the clutch to re-engage and the plates would feather, the air however will mess things up and not let u disengage it when u pull the handle because air is compressable unlike the fluid and you get the spongy feeling. I did notice that depending what oil i put in makes a difference with the shifting...currently i'm using spectro golden, semi-syn, and it's been the best so far, gonna try repsol next, that might make it even better

Ya-1st to 2nd's a pretty good throw(I miss a shift between there once in a while if I don't lift pretty firm).You might give a clutchless upshift from 1st to 2nd there,see how that works for ya.And the oil is a big factor in these bikes I've noticed.10/40 full syn Kawachem(motul)works really well in mine.Tried Motorex once.VERY NICE-for about 1000 miles.(think it was 5/40?).Another trick to these shifts I've found.You don't need to pull the lever all the way in-just BARELY.Takes some gittin used to though!Ride safe!

* Last updated by: blue07 on 6/5/2009 @ 10:34 PM *

The trick, if you could call it that, is to shift from 1st to 2nd (clutchless) without letting the rpm's go up to far, another words short shift between these two gears and you'll fine very little clunking noise. Of course in this mode of riding is just for tooling around normally, without pouring on the coals.

* Last updated by: extrapilot on 6/6/2009 @ 9:53 AM *

yea ur right about that... u kinda have to do a motogp type shift from 1-2.