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Tassadar
08-10-2009, 08:40 PM
Hi all. I am brand new to motorcycles. I am going to a MSF course this weekend and I am beyond excited! Soon after wards I plan to buy a motorcycle... maybe a Vulcan 800.

I hope to be a positive and productive member of this forum :)

My first question is about clutches on motorcycles. As someone who prefers to drive "stick shift" cars (my current vehicle is a Jeep Wrangler TJ) I know the wrong clutch/shift/throttle combo makes a car "jump and jerk" usually followed by a full stall. Is the clutch throttle on a motorcycle the same... in that is it sensitive enough that the bike will jump jerk and die? Or is there some mechanism that makes it different than a car's shift mechanism?

Thanks for any response guys.

Carl
NOS-Nelson
08-10-2009, 09:06 PM
Yes it is the exact same principal.
Bob Wall
08-11-2009, 05:56 AM
Yeah it's the same principle but if you do manage to stall it it's kinda embarassing as you are struggling to keep your bike upright and regain your balance :drool2
Tassadar
08-11-2009, 09:21 AM
Yeah it's the same principle but if you do manage to stall it it's kinda embarassing as you are struggling to keep your bike upright and regain your balance :drool2

That is one of the reasons I am dreading the MSF course this weekend :) But my thinking is... need to learn somehow, lol.

Thanks for the responses guys.

CC
vince224
08-12-2009, 11:22 AM
CC,

as mentioned, the principal is largely the same. one big difference is with the inertia of a moto engine...which is much less than w/ a car.

what does that mean? well, in a car if you drop the clutch, you are prone to the thing "bucking" wildly. but often the engine will not stall.

drop the clutch on a bike, even a big 1000cc+ motor and often you have a single lurch and then...silence!

i like the latter!!

hth,
vince
:D
ineedspeed
08-12-2009, 03:24 PM
As everyone has said, it's the exact same principal. Don't psych yourself out before you even get to the MSF, getting a bike going is even easier than a stick shift car. Just absorb what the instructors tell you and you will do fine. My mid day of your first day you will be slipping that clutch well enough.