Why a finger on the clutch mid corner?

I recently learned this trick for use on a 125 2-stroke GP bike - if you're in too high a gear coming out of a corner tut, you can slip the clutch to get the revs up and save your drive coming out a turn.

of course, it helps to be in the correct gear in the first place, but mistakes happen...

on bigger bikes, this probably would work too, but I imagine there are other reasons to do it (as others have mentioned)

 

I still remember when I bought my first bike... I was as green as lever, and I asked the sales people if they had any advice, and they told me to keep the clutch covered, and to pull it if I had any trouble.

 

I agree with everything except for #3. It doesn't seem like you've much dirt bike (or at least 2 stroke) riding under your belt, 'cause what you're talking about is called "fanning the clutch" which, if done on a RR bike at corner exit, would high-side you to the moon with a quickness. :wow:

It might be just me, but I use the "throttle" to modulate power on exit

 

All of the speculation is baloney!

Men like the feel of hard cold steel! Yes and aluminum too.

Carry on.

 

Well, there's that...

 

i think some people also use it to control the "jolt" you can get when you turn the throttle on from an off position.

 

I use a dyno to tune that out.

 

man..we might have features like that on our street bikes in 5 or so years.
that sounds Aws...well scary...im not sure I can mentaly go clutchless down shifts...

I still have to try not to blip the gas on upshifts with a Quick Shifter. I mean its hard for me to not do that.

 

You blip the throttle on upshifts? Whatever for?

 

I think he meant cutting the throttle manually to upshift without the clutch. He got used to doing it manually before he got a quick shifter, and now has a hard time unlearning it.

 

I cover both the brake and clutch levers with two fingers on each. I saeldom need more than two for braking, and I can certaly disengage the clutch easily with two.

But there is another reason, learned from something I saw way back in 1979 at Daytona. Will Harding (from down Florida way) was riding the old Honda 750 that Dick Mann had won Daytona on ten years earlier (1969 for the math-challenged.) Will came into the paddock after the SuperBike race and his face was as white as a sheet. He rolled up beside me and took off his helmet. I looked at him and asked what happened. He said "I was going down the back straight, and felt something tap my right elbow. I thought it was a small bird. When I got to the chicane, I reached for the front brake, and the lever was GONE!" Luckily, Will was able to thread the space between the hay bales and scrub off speed with the rear brake and downshifting.

So I keep fingers on both levers, all the time, to make sure they haven't fallen off. It's also handy if the motor or locks up, but just a waste of time if the transmission locks.

 

If you aren't old, like I am, you wouldn't remember The Time Before Slipper Clutches. (B.S.C.) Keeping a couple fingers on the lever was all you needed to keep the rear wheel from hopping when going into a corner, particularly if you were on a high-comp single or twin. (brake hard = eerie silence) Then you had guys like Tom Kipp, (IIRC) who would go into a corner on the brakes, de-clutch, crash down thru the gear box all at once, and then let out the clutch again. I've ridden bikes w/slippers and still can't kick the habit. None of my own bikes have slippers... don't need it! Saves me $900!

 

I've ridden with and without a slipper. Before I tried one I thought that only lazy people needed slipper clutches. Now I love slipper clutches, my ZX-6R clutch is retarded good. You can bang down changes stupid hard. I still blip the throttle a good bit, though I'd like to try out and see how it feels not to. I've seen more than a couple of experts not blipping anymore at all, pretty interesting.

 

I don't think I do this anymore. I have not been to the track in like a year so I cannot recall but when I first started on track, on a 700cc Hawk Motor, I did it for the same reasons, in the event it went boom. Not just smoker concern!

 

Funny thread...here's a shot of me pulling the clutch in mid-corner in Fontana.




Why was I doing this? Bike didn't go completely in gear and popped out...didn't want it to suddenly engage on me.

 

Same here, the thing with me is my clutch has has no play in it and with my small hands i can't pull it all the way in with just two fingers. I als keep the front break covered but not the rear

 

You ever ride a 125GP bike?? Listen to one at say Nashville....

 

I never noticed this as well. You can see my index finger covering the clutch. Nothing over the brake. I looked through all my photos and I do it everytime. Hell I never even rode dirt bikes.

 

a quick tap to raise rpm's ?

 

Sometime coming out of corners, when I get held up or something and wasn't able to carry the corner speed I thought I was going to have, I will tap the clutch to bring the RPM's up and the bike will accelerate harder. This is something I brought over from riding 2-stroke dirt bikes.