I noticed on my last dirt bike ride that working the clutch can be a great skill to learn. If fact, it can help you become a better rider.
How do I develop dirt bike clutch control? Use the skills below to develop your dirt bike clutch skills.
| Technique | Benefit |
| Know Your Levers | It will prevent you from wrecking by grabbing the wrong lever. |
| Clutch Coverage | It will give you better control by having a better grip on the handlebars. |
| Clutch Lever Placement | Keeps in you an attack position whether you’re standing or sitting. |
| Know How to Slip The Clutch | This improves control and traction. |
| Practice Clutch Control Exercises | This will create muscle memory and can be fun. |
What Do My Dirt Bike Levers Do?
Do you know what the levers on your bike do? The lever on the right handlebar is the front brake and the left handlebar lever is the clutch.
Imagine the consequence of aggressively pulling the lever thinking your back wheel will lock up when in fact you fly over the handlebars.
There are many dirt bike riders who switch between mountain and dirt bikes.
Even experienced riders have trouble sometimes while moving from dirt bikes to mountain bikes or vice versa. I know when I have been riding my dirt bike for a while then switch to riding my mountain bike there have been several close calls.
Pro tip: when moving from one bike to the other, specifically from a mountain bike to a dirt bike, take time to ride around in the parking lot and practice a few drills so you become familiar with the bikes and the levers, stopping and starting. This will reduce the likelihood you end up in an accident. Change that it reduces the likelihood that you wind up in a serious accident. When you push yourself, accidents and wrecks will happen.
On the left-hand side of a dirt bike handlebar, you find the clutch. On a bicycle, you find the front brake.
Applying The Clutch
Now that you know the clutch lever is on the left-hand side of the handlebars you might wonder what the clutch lever does?
For new riders, the clutch lever engages and disengages the clutch. The clutch is a set of disks located inside of the engine that transfers power from the motor to the drivetrain.
When you pull the clutch lever in, the clutch disengages. The motor cannot transfer power to the drivetrain or the rear wheel with a disengaged clutch.
When you let out on the clutch you are allowing the engine to engage the transmission and drivetrain transferring power to the rear wheel.
As a young rider, I always thought the clutch needed to be engaged as quickly as possible. Specifically, I thought the lever needed to be let out smoothly and quickly. My notion was slipping the clutch was not good for the disks in the motor.
This belief has stuck with me for many decades. It is only recently that I realized slipping the clutch allows you to become a better rider.
In fact, many of the professionals take the time to teach this technique to help improve riding skills. It amazed me when I saw this show up several times.
When to Slip Your Dirt Bike Clutch
Now that you know what each lever does, it is time to talk about when we will slip the clutch.
When You Move The Motorcycle
Believe it or not you slip the clutch every time you go to take off on your dirt bike. As I mentioned earlier as a young rider, my belief was the clutch engagement needed to be quick and smooth to prevent damage to the discs.
You want to slip the clutch when you want to transfer power through the drive train, but not slip the rear wheel.
You will also slip the clutch to wheelie your dirt bike. Doing a wheelie on your dirt bike is important for getting over the many obstacles on the trail.
Drag Racing and Slipping The Dirt Bike Clutch
If you drag race your friend, you will slip the clutch. Likewise, if you need a quick start for a motocross race or an enduro race, you’ll likely slip the clutch.
Slowing Down To Come Through A Turn
Sometimes coming through a turn slows the bike way down. When this happens, the dirt bike may struggle at low RPMs.
One way to prevent this from happening is slipping the clutch. The bike still slows down but you keep the RPMs in the power band. So coming out of the corner while slipping the clutch, you’re able to speed up at a faster rate than you would if you had not slipped the clutch.
Slipping the clutch also prevents you from downshifting into first gear. Went down shifting into first gear the motor they over rev taking you out of the power zone.
Going Up High, Losing Power and RPM’s
Similarly to disrupting the bike’s power band in a corner, going up the hill is another place to slip the clutch. The bike naturally loses RPM running up a hill.
You have two choices as a rider.
The first is downshifting into a lower gear. The challenge with this is over revving the engine. You move the RPMs beyond the peak of the motor potentially keeping you in the same situation that you are in at a lower RPMs.
The goal should be to keep the motorcycle at peak torque. However, downshifting quickly moves the bike through the power band applying to much torque and potentially losing traction.
The second option, slipping the clutch and staying in the same gear, keeps the motorcycle engine at peak torque. Do not confuse this with the torque at the rear wheel. To much torque here can make you lose traction.
You can modulate the clutch or keep the engine at a consistent RPM while slipping the clutch. Enough power may apply to the rear wheel keeping momentum up but while not applying too much torque to break the drive wheel loose.
Many of the drills we discuss and practice ourselves involves slipping the clutch.
If you were like me and believed slipping the clutch was bad, it will take some time to retrain yourself. The best way to do this is by practicing the drills we talk about on this website and in this post that you’ll see you later on.
Dirt Bike Clutch Coverage
Let’s talk about the different ways to cover your clutch lever. Before I realized the importance of clutch control my left hand was wrapped around my handlebar. This is not the right way to ride.
You should always keep your clutch covered in some fashion. It was not uncommon for me to take my four fingers grab the clutch and pull the lever.
Don’t feel bad if you are doing this now. After more than 30 years of riding, breaking that habit is still something I work on every day.
I do know this is not the right way to ride your dirt bike. You should work on using one or two fingers to cover your clutch lever at all times. We will talk more about the one or two finger technique but it will likely depend on your hand strength and resistance of the clutch that determines whether you shouldUse one or two fingers.
Do you use one or two fingers to cover the clutch?
The ideal situation is to only use one finger to cover your clutch. This one finger should be you’re number one finger or you can look at the picture below to see which one.
Using this finger allows you to keep the other three fingers wrapped around the handle bar ensuring a tight grip. The downfall is that if your finger does not have a lot of strength having the clutch continually gets tiresome.
The second downfall to using this finger happens when you ride with an unadjusted clutch. If your clutch does not disengage the further you pull back on the lever, your bike may still want to go as you pull in with your index finger. So make sure your clutch operates properly.
The Two-Finger Pull
If your index finger is not strong enough, try using your index and middle finger to pull the clutch. Additional hand strength from the second finger should make this very doable.
Similar to the index finger pull, make sure both fingers are covering the clutch at all times.
The downfall to using two fingers to pull comes in the way of less leverage and grip on your handlebars.
I would encourage new riders using the two finger pole to come back and work on using the one finger pole for a few reasons.
1. Coming back to the singer finger pull keeps the rider from getting used to using two fingers all the time.
2. The new rider will also build strength allowing the single finger pole to happen all the time.
When The Two-Finger Pull Is Tough
If the two finger pole is still tough look at the stiffness of the clutch lever.
Does the lever move smoothly from beginning of the pull to the end? If not, then you may need to lube the cable. Try putting some lubricant near the top of the cable near the handlebars and near the motor case.
If the lube does not work look at replacing the cable. This obviously will cost more and putting some lube on the cable.
And as a last resort and the most expensive, try installing a hydraulic clutch.
If you end up using a hydraulic clutch, you should be able to implement the single finger pull.
Building Hand Strength For Single-Finger Clutch Pull
During the off-season it will be a good idea to continue building your And strength.
Try looking at one of the hand strength squeezers.
They come in many resistance levels and are cheap. You will reap big benefits in the next riding season.
Lever Placement
Placing your levers in the right position will be very important as you ride different conditions. Sometimes you will stand, sometimes you will sit, and other times you’ll lean in awkward positions.
Placing your clutch lever and brake lever in the correct position will ease strain and allow you to ride longer.
Clutch lever placement
You want your levers just below the handlebars. However, placing them to low will create the strain we are trying to avoid.
My suggestion is to place the bike on a stand. Then get on top of it and stand on the pegs. Reach down to your handlebars and grab your front brake and clutch lever.
Did you strain to reach them or did it put your wrists in an awkward position? If so, your levers are in the wrong place.
Grab your quarter inch socket set and loosen the levers. Chances are you will need to move them down.
Tighten them back up and stand on the pegs again to see if the new position feels more comfortable.
Hand Placement On Handlebars
Another important aspect of clutch control is where you place your hands on the handlebars.
When you stop and think about it, it really is a matter of basic physics. Remember when you were in middle school learning about levers and fulcrums. The longer the lever the easier it is to lift objects or move them. The closer you are to the fulcrum the more difficult it is.
In relation to your handlebars your fulcrum is the steering head, and the lever is each end of the bar. There is a second aspect of this as it relates to your hand position and clutch lever.
You can usually tell if you have a bad hand position because of the blisters you might have on the inner part of your hand where the thumb and index finger rub up against the hand grip. When you grip the bars wrong, you usually end up with blisters on your thumb, index finger, and maybe the part of your hand in between your index finger and thumb.
This could also be an indicator you were grabbing the handlebars too tightly but for our discussion today we will focus on how this grip affects clutch control.
Wide Grip
When your hand is wider on the handlebar and you’re using one or two fingers to pull the clutch, you’re able to disengage the clutch or pull it further than what you would if your hand is closer towards the inner part of the handlebar. Sometimes the clutch lever is so short you can pull it all the way back to the handlebar itself. Most of the time you’ll be able to pull it 60 to 75% of the way back to the handlebar. If your fingers are fat, you may look at 50% of the way. In which case you might need to change your clutch lever.
The additional leverage on the handlebar also makes it easier to steer the bike at slow speeds which can also affect how much you engage or disengage the clutch. I have specific drills in this article that show how to practice slow drills or you can use drills outlined in this article.
Finally, grip the clutch lever further out applying the same principles that we just talked about with the handlebars. The further out on the lever you are the easier it is to pull the clutch. So if pulling the clutch in is difficult with two fingers try moving your hand out on the handlebars half inch or maybe even a few millimeters to start.
Another key to helping control the clutch is maintaining a proper grip on your handlebars.
How to Slip the clutch on a dirt bike
Now we get to where the rubber meets the road.
Believe it or not, you already know how to slip the clutch unless you use a special clutch like the Rekluse.
Every time you start off moving the bike you’re slipping the clutch. What we need to do is break this down and talk about how to apply it in different situations.
Obviously the aim in slipping the clutch is to transition the power from the engine through the transmission to the rear wheel. To do this, we have to keep the engine running. When the clutch is engaged too quickly, the engine does not have enough momentum to overcome the friction and sudden static force of the drivetrain. That kills the engine. Therefore, we need to rev the engine just a little to get the bike moving or slowly engage the clutch. We will most likely end up doing the former more than the latter.
In the 30-plus years of riding motorcycles, I’ve seen two approaches to getting a motorcycle moving.
The first one is giving very tiny revs to the engine. This builds up the momentum of the engine overcoming the static friction we discussed. The rider just tiny wraps to the throttle.
The second method I have seen is more related to a constant application of the throttle to increase the RPMs to overcome the friction of the clutch engagement.
There has been no consistency in which method you should apply to get a motorcycle moving. However, it is important to note that these techniques have advantages in applying clutch slippage to other areas of your riding. More on these techniques in a moment.
Applying The Techniques
For example, when you want to give a quick shot of throttle as you might be in the middle of a corner and don’t want to change gears. That is a good time for the quick braap technique.
However, when you’re approaching a log Graham Jarvis, who is a world renowned Enduro rider, suggest that you keep a constant RPM in the motor and slip or pop the clutch slightly to lift the front wheel to get over a log.
The point is learning which technique to apply in different situations should be part of your clutch control exercise. This will take time and the most important aspect for new dirt bike riders is properly slipping the clutch.
Then apply the brap technique or the constant RPM technique with no obstacles so it creates muscle memory. You can then later supply this “slippage technique to those individual situations.
Dirt Bike Clutch Control Exercises
We have already reviewed the concept behind the brap technique and a constant RPM technique. Now it’s time to have a small practice drill.
Braap Technique
Have you ever been to the motocross race and watch the riders at the starting line? What have you noticed? If you haven’t watched dirt bike riders at the start of a race, take the time to YouTube it that and see what you noticed.
You will find our quick rips on the throttle. We could debate the reason for this.
Watching them quickly grab lots of throttle and let the throttle position return to normal that is a perfect example of the braap technique. So the next time you go to start your dirt bike and warm it up, try to give it a few of these types of revs. Doing this every time you start up your dirt bike is a great way to help create muscle memory.
Now as you practice this, you need to know not to grab lots of throttle. That is not we what we want for slipping the clutch as a new dirt bike rider. Try applying the throttle in tiny increments. Do you go over 25% of the throttle capacity? As you get better, you’ll be able to work on doing this 50% or 75% of the throttle to better your braap technique.
Constant RPM Technique
I can remember in driver’s Ed when my teacher tried to show us the constant application of the gas pedal and the advantage of doing so. He talked about consistency helping make your driving patterns more predictable, how that helps your fellow peers on the road, and how it helps gas mileage. This principle of constant application of the throttle has different benefits on a dirt bike.
Specifically, having a constant rpm helps you eliminate how much gas to apply or win to apply the throttle. I believe this is one reason some professionals like to teach this technique. Before in the braap method we talked about quick grabs of the throttle in small increments.
Once your warm up the dirt bike, a follow up exercise might hold a small amount of throttle to see if you can keep the engine at constant RPMs.
As you get better with this slowly increase the RPMs. Make sure you do not grab large amounts of throttle and hold the bike wide open. Do not use more than 25% of the throttle.
An additional benefit of learning this technique is learning what the engine will do at different RPMs. So if your bike is out on the trail and things miss behave you might notice something different is going on with the motor.
Slow Ride
Everyone knows the aim of a race is to go fast. Have you ever taken the opposite approach in trying to see who can go the slowest?
The point of the slow ride is to go as slow as you can and not put your foot down. This requires you to practice great clutch and throttle control. This exercise also requires that you have great balance. To practice your balance check out this article/ and scroll down to where I talk about how to improve your balance with a few static exercises.
If you go to slow, you won’t have enough balance to keep your feet up. Specifically, as it relates to the clutch, if you do not have good throttle and clutch control the motorcycle will stall out. Or you may end up going “fast. “
As we talked before with the throttle exercises this drill will also help you manage traction when riding in difficult situations like slippery uphill claims.
Higher Gear Ride
Taking a slow ride to the next level puts us at the high gear ride.
Find a place where you would normally ride in a low gear like a first or second gear. A great example might be a backyard enduro track or maybe writing through your local woods.
Try writing in the next higher gear. For example, if a local trail requires a lot of time spent in first gear, try riding in second gear.
The point of riding in a higher gear is like the slow ride but it takes your skill level to the real world with application. Riding in second gear like in our example, you will have to slip the clutch or the bike will stall similar to our slow rate exercise. However, it is different because the slow ride to drill takes place in an open area while the high gear ride puts you in a situation that you normally ride.
The high gear ride sharpens the skills you develop from the slow ride and is more difficult because now you have obstacles in the way.
Now get out there and give it a brap or two.