Total Motorcycle Community Forums

NorthernPete wrote:I cheated when I was learning how to use my clutch... I turned the idle screw up, and when I would release the clutch, it would just start rolling and away Id go...I slowly turned it down to normal RPM range as I got the hang of it...

Could you possibly elaborate on this a bit, in detail.

Explain it to me like i'm 5.

most bikes have a little knob under the seat (going towards the carbs) that allows you to adjust the idle speed. The owner's manual for the bike will have instructions for using it.

If you set the bike to idle at maybe 7000RPM, it should be damn near impossible to stall it.

I say just practice. After a while you'll be able to start out in 2nd as easily as you start out in 1st the first few days.

If you try this method, don't go to 7,000 rpm. Try more like 1'500 or 2,000. It will be much safer and better for your bike engine.

Better yet, don't try that method.

Nothing against northerners, but c'mon!

What would be bad exactly, the fact that I could launch myself?

It ain't that hard to learn to shift in the first place.

From a safety/danger perspective I don't see much problem except the bike will keep going faster if you release the throttle... which could be bad if you panic. When I took the MSF course one person panicked twice when coming to a stop behind a bunch of other bikes at the end of an exercise and couldn't figure out how to apply the clutch... something like that happens and you'll be going quite a bit faster which means less time to unpanic yourself.

Meh, I just found it easier to learn how the friction zone would feel. when it would grab.... plus Im lazy...

Also my bike was running like crap (carbs were messed up) so the only way I could really run it was to have the idle way up... its fixed now.

3K RPM worked for me.

Too lazy to twist your wrist? Damn that's lazy!



Seriously, I'm betting the bike not running right was the real issue.... if your bike had been running better you wouldn't have felt the need. I could be wrong though.

it just eased my mind when I was around people and what not. I didnt have a good area to practice, and was having the "clutch anger blues" I never drove a standard car or truck before either and was self taught on the bike.

You learn though. practice and you learn.

practice is for wimps....

I thought Canada was totally nanified to the point where you couldn't ride a bicycle without sixty hours of training and a kangaroo suit... how come you get to teach yourself to ride a motorcycle?