Guide transmissions are a dying breed within the four-wheeled world, however we motorcyclists nonetheless use them as our major methodology of connecting engines to wheels. We study clutch management from day one of many MSF, the place we’re instructed that bike clutches are extra forgiving than their automobile equivalents, however we’re not instructed why. What’s so totally different a few bike clutch? Why are they happier to be feathered than automobile clutches?
The reply comes from their design, which is vastly totally different from a clutch you’d discover in a automobile. Bike clutches are multi-layered, with much more discs than even the highest-horsepower modified Subarus, which provides them some additional torque-holding capability for his or her total dimension. The massive distinction, although, is that bike clutches are bathed in engine oil whereas automobile clutches sit completely dry within the transmission bellhousing. Watch Ari Henning run you thru the fundamentals:
Bike clutches work in another way
All these discs let the clutch deal with extra torque than a single disk of equal dimension ever might. The fixed oil tub retains temperatures regular, making it tougher to burn out a motorbike clutch — that is why bikes are extra amenable to being feathered or partially engaged, which could be a godsend for metering energy over tough terrain off street. Driving a automobile with the clutch partially engaged is a demise knell, however on a motorbike it is customary grime working process.
Henning additionally factors out that this moist clutch design means you should be pickier within the oil you place in your bike. Since engine oil is shared with the clutch, homeowners must be cautious about utilizing lubricants which have friction modifiers — widespread sufficient in vehicles and limited-slip differentials, however they’ll mess along with your bike’s powertrain in sudden methods. Bikes want bike oil, as a result of that clutch design is definitely affected by the alternatives you make. Except you experience a KLR, through which case it’s best to simply fill it with Rotella T6 like a Subaru and name it a day.
