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i'm having trouble making a smooth start from a stop, like at a stop sign or stoplight. i'm either real jerky or more often than not i stall the engine. any tips out there? i'm letting the clutch out slowly while slowly rolling on the throttle, but i dont know if i should be doing anything different. thanks.

Give it gas first, then let out the clutch until you hit the "slip point". You'll get the feel of it soon enough. Its omne of those things all new riders experience. Even an experienced biker on a new bike has to learn where that "slip point" is.

bennettoid wrote:Give it gas first, then let out the clutch until you hit the "slip point". You'll get the feel of it soon enough. Its omne of those things all new riders experience. Even an experienced biker on a new bike has to learn where that "slip point" is.

Hell even on manual cars it's like that.

shawn2k2 wrote:

bennettoid wrote:Give it gas first, then let out the clutch until you hit the "slip point". You'll get the feel of it soon enough. Its omne of those things all new riders experience. Even an experienced biker on a new bike has to learn where that "slip point" is.

Hell even on manual cars it's like that.

never driven a manaul car. i also did take the msf class and this really wasnt discussed at all. seemed like they just threw me on a bike and said go. good thing i atleast did some reading before i took the class, otherwise i would have been completely lost.

bennettoid wrote:Give it gas first, then let out the clutch until you hit the "slip point". You'll get the feel of it soon enough. Its omne of those things all new riders experience. Even an experienced biker on a new bike has to learn where that "slip point" is.

thanks bennettoid

ajg238 wrote:

shawn2k2 wrote:

bennettoid wrote:Give it gas first, then let out the clutch until you hit the "slip point". You'll get the feel of it soon enough. Its omne of those things all new riders experience. Even an experienced biker on a new bike has to learn where that "slip point" is.

Hell even on manual cars it's like that.

never driven a manaul car. i also did take the msf class and this really wasnt discussed at all. seemed like they just threw me on a bike and said go. good thing i atleast did some reading before i took the class, otherwise i would have been completely lost.

I taught my wife to drive manual, the biggest learning curve is the "slip knot" it'll also help when on a hill.

so the best way to do this is to roll on the throttle alittle bit before you put the clutch in the friction zone?? this is the way i do it now, i guess i just need more practice. thanks.

You stall for one of two reasons - either not enough throttle or releasing the clutch too quickly. Since you are saying that you also start "jerky' when you do start I am going to guess it is the latter, you are releasing the clutch too quickly. You might be releasing it slowly until you feel it grab then losing focus on the clutch and letting it go quickly the rest of the way. You must release it smoothly through the entire friction zone and not forget about it after it starts to grab.

In my MSF class they focused on this quite a bit. We were required to ride the bike as slowly as possible using just the clutch to control speed. This was built directly in to the exercises we did.

Fangarr

Go to an emply lot and practice with the friction zone. Keep your feet on the ground and slowly let the clutch out until you feel it start to roll, then pull it back in. Keep doing this until you get the feel of the friction zone and know exactly where it is. As it starts to roll, give it a little gas and practice this until you get it smooth. The road is no place to practice this and can be down right dangerous when the car behind you thinks you're going to go and the bike dies.

One way they taught us this one was to go ahead and give it a good ammount (e.g. like a lot), hold this throttle position and then begin to release the clutch slowly. If you're doing it slowly enough, then you'll not sprint off but ease off just as if you had rolled on the throttle. The clutch can work wonders for you on a bike, much better to ride the clutch on a bike than on a car.[/quote]