I recently passed an exciting milestone. Since buying my V-Strom last July, I have clocked 5,000 miles in just less than one year. My odometer reads something like 18,500, now.

I truly can not get enough of this motorcycle, but I have the hardest time finding time to clean it. I have met and heard from so many V-Strom riders from around the world, and I am looking forward to the rest of this year and those to follow.

My first year has not been without issue, however. Last week, I lost my clutch! I had parked the bike after a Sunday of riding around visiting friends. Monday morning arrived, and I fired up the beast to ride to work. I did not move! My clutch would not engage. Upon further inspection, I discovered my outermost clutch plate had skipped a beat.

I shot this picture through my oil filler hole. You can see the second clutch plate sticking up, but the similar colored flat spot in front of it is the first clutch plate. The protruding tab that holds it in the basket had fallen free, rotated out of alignment, and fallen back into the basket in another position.

Here is a better picture of the clutch assembly with the side cover removed that clearly shows the deviant clutch plate.

Perhaps my clutch springs are worn, and are allowing the clutch to force the plates out of the basket. I have ridden about 100 miles since fixing the problem, but I have not observed any strange behavior yet.

If you are interested in the details of how I discovered the problem and, perhaps more interestingly, removed the side cover and fixed the problem without draining the engine oil, read my thread over at the stromtrooper forum.

I am a bit behind schedule on the mods I planned on performing this summer because I had to sink some time and money into my car. Now that my cage is back on the road, I have more time to tool around the strom. Stay tuned!