I was talking to a friend who has owned a number of Ducati bikes and he was discussing forearm pump after a days riding. I said “But why, you only use the clutch to get going and to stop” I was quite amazed to find out that he uses the clutch for every change up and down.
Racing motocross bikes you don’t even roll the clutch back, just kick it up to the next gear and you don’t go near the clutch at any time other than to feather out the wrong gear (pull the clutch in a little with the throttle flat out and watch the front wheel doesn’t rise too much and control maximum traction/ wheel lift with the clutch and not the throttle) or if you’ve stalled from locking the back wheel under brakes you can pull the clutch and release to start the engine again otherwise the clutch doesn’t exist on a dirt bike (for me).
I owned lots of dirt racers and never had a gearbox problem. Not owned many road bikes but did find I needed the clutch for up changes between 1st and 2nd if the revs are not correct when you snick it up a gear other gear up changes have not been a problem at all.
Down changes, yes, road bikes like the clutch from what I can tell. Especially 1 or 2 cylinder bikes.
Haven’t done a lot of riding but did my big bike course in the UK and they teach you to use the clutch all the time. Was told it is the opposite of a car and you should use it as much as possible.
Go figure.
Oh I failed my test twice and have never passed so don’t put too much store in my memory.
I was taught to use the clutch with both car and motorcycle, otherwise it causes excessive wear and tear to the gears. I’ve heard of people not using their clutch (speed shifting?) but never did it myself for fear of causing damage and having to pay an arm and a leg for transmission repair.
As far as I’m concerned for most modern road bikes…
Clutchless upshifts:
sure, best way to make rapid progress through the gears if time really counts… as long as you have a good (Japanese) gear box, you roll off the throttle before snicking up and have a sense of touch with the left foot, you and the gearbox will be fine…
Clutchless downshifts:
Not good… Easily leads to gearbox ‘quirks’…
[note: in this case the definition of “quirk” should be expanded to include “sheared”, “catastrophic” and “expensive”… ]
Clutch works better than brakes in my opinion. I guess you don’t really need it, but it’s second nature for me now. I have been trying to teach my g/f how to use the clutch to slow down our car, but she rides the brakes continually. In wet weather, this can quickly erode the pads. Isn’t the engine built to take the torque of compression? In fact, if kept well lubed, should present no traumatic stress to it at all? It’s what I’ve always thought, but I could be wrong.
[quote=“Edgar Allen”] Was told it is the opposite of a car and you should use it as much as possible.
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I like clutchless changes in manual cars as long as they belong to somebody else or the hire company. You have to be quite careful with the rev range or the grinding noises can be irritating.
Two-stroke race bike? No problem. You are going to be stripping the engine every few hundred hours for a crank rebuild anyway, so it’s easy to inspect the transmission while you’re in there. Bike with cassette gearbox? Sure, have at it as long as you cut the throttle for a moment and the shifter doesn’t seem to object to that kind of treatment.
Would I do it? Only when racing. Otherwise, I can spare the 0.01 second I save by not using the clutch.
I pamper my bikes way too much to think of not using the clutch.
At age 16, I dropped my GS 550 and I snapped the clutch lever. I rode it daily without a clutch for over a month. I would tickle the shifter to hit neutral when coming to a red light. Then I would turn off the engine, go to first gear and simply push the starter button to go when the green light came on. The starter would make the bike move forward in first gear until it fired up and off I went.
Downshifts were noisy… I ended up wrecking the transmission. At the end it skipped like a loose chain on a warn out sproket anytime I accelerated too hard in second gear. The other gears were OK.
I often pull out of gears into neutral when driving a car, but otherwise I clutch.
Bit off topic, but I am the only person who pushes the button while pulling the handbrake so it doesn’t always make a chchchkkkkkkkk sound everytime you stop ?
[quote=“Ducked”]On a manual though I just leave it in first gear, especially when parking a “pool” car in front of a wall. Can’t please everyone.[/quote]That won’t fool me though, I always give the gear stick a waggle to make sure it’s in neutral. I park in first when pointing up a hill.
From what I know and have heard, it’s better to not use the clutch on a bike than it is on the car. On a car it will mess up the synchros but motorcycles do not have any. They are designed to be rode with clutchless shifting (besides the lower gears unless you want a rough ride, of course). Other bikers say that it might not be good to keep doing that to your motorcycle just because there is an obvious load put on your engine while engine braking.
Personally, I would do it on high gears or at the track. I used to clutchless shift my Ducati all the time, but now I just shift it with the clutch. I figure an engine/transmission problem will be fairly expensive, but to replace a burned clutch will just be a couple hundred.
I don’t understand why anyone would forego the clutch on their own machine for normal driving. It’s there for a reason.
It takes a great deal of skill to clutchless shift nicely every time. We used to do it on the racing 2-strokes because it does give an edge in competition, plus you’re keeping the revs much higher than on the street, but then, the mechanics were constantly rebuilding the engines anyway. Look over those guys’ shoulders while they’re working and you’d see some really really LOVELY gearboxes. Not.
Clutchless shifting as a habit at normal road-use revs is going to fuck your transmission up eventually, while even a puny rider isn’t going to get real problems with a heavy clutch except on long trips. Even then, it doesn’t take long for your hands to build up the required strength. I’m absolutely not a Popeye, and I’ve had bikes that needed a block and tackle to work the clutch – the Jota actually needed two hands to properly work the clutch, or at least it felt like it, and I practically couldn’t ride it home from the showroom – but I got used to it in just a week or two.
[quote=“sandman”]the Jota actually needed two hands to properly work the clutch[/quote]Oh man those things were heavy, up to Commando standards. I had a race clutch in my last T140 and still have tendonitis over 20 years later.
I had a spin on an old T140 a week or two back and have to admit I was astonished at how heavy the clutch was – and it wasn’t a race clutch! These Jap bikes have made a pussy outta me!
Stock T140 clutch is a little heavy, but not tooo bad. The springs are a bitch to set right though, and any wear or lack of lube, or tight bends in the cable make it really heavy. All part of the Triumph ownership experience. Funny how 20 years make all that trouble seem cool, interesting and fun.
Remember the phrase, “…when men were men and boys rode Bantams”?
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