Covering the clutch.

[bgd]

Well we've had the clutch and then the brakes but this morning I was covering the horn. Something has been wrong on my route all week and the traffic has been murder. This means impatient drivers and lots more sudden lane changing. I can go for months without a beep but this morning had to use if 4 times.

[magnum]

no need to,cover front brake around town for survival purposes only.

[bgd]

Well we've had the clutch and then the brakes but this morning I was covering the horn. Something has been wrong on my route all week and the traffic has been murder. This means impatient drivers and lots more sudden lane changing. I can go for months without a beep but this morning had to use if 4 times.

[scumdog]

Mules?!? Y'had mules!?? Pure luxury, that is! We had a dead dog, and had t'carry fleas 'round fer it. Used t' dream 'bout havin' a mule. But me Da' used to say "Transpor'??! I'll give y' ruddy transpor'!!" and give us a kick fair oop t' jacksie! Ooh, how we did larf!

Eee-oop laad! sounds lahk your father wus my father 'cept mine spoke eith a Scots accent and said " Trransport???! I'll give yoo bluddy trransport" etc

[erik]

I previously posted that I cover the front brake around town, and also probably the clutch.

But the last couple of days I've kinda been paying more attention to what I've been doing and I've found that I only really cover the brake if or clutch if I think I might need to use them, like if I'm coming up to an intersection, or following a car in busy traffic, etc.
On the ride to uni, I think I'm pretty much covering the front brake the whole time though, because it's rush hour and traffic jams the whole way.

[jrandom]

On the ride to uni, I think I'm pretty much covering the front brake the whole time though, because it's rush hour and traffic jams the whole way.

Have you not yet become as one with the Tao of Filtering, young man?

[erik]

Have you not yet become as one with the Tao of Filtering, young man?

I filter a bit depending on my mood, but I still cover the brake just in case someone decides to change lanes or the gaps get too small or something.

[Coldkiwi]

i have front brake, rear brake and clutch covered at all times when filtering. At 60kmhr you don't have a lot of time to identify which idiot is going to change lanes without using their indicators and if they do its
-back brake firm very closly followed by
-clutch partially in and front brake on pronto !
-rest of back brake until it threatens to skip

[vifferman]

Eee-oop laad! sounds lahk your father wus my father 'cept mine spoke eith a Scots accent and said " Trransport???! I'll give yoo bluddy trransport" etc

Mine should have had a Scottish accent (ancestry), and his name was Roger.
"Rrrrrogerrrrr? Ah'll gie ye a rrrrrright rrrrrrrogerrrrrrring, lud!"

[pete376403]

The adjustable forks seemed such a good idea at the time (to an 18yr old) did you ever try different axle positions?

Yeah, the "hatta" fork (named for the designer, Mr Hatta). I put the axle in the front position, wound up the spring tension and dropped the yokes down the stanchions, all in the hope of quickening the steering a bit as the main riding area was karipoti, which is pretty tight countryside.
Actually the whole bike was pretty adjustable. The advertising was based around all the adjustments you could make to set the bike up - 3 spring preloads front and rear, footpeg position, front axle position etc. I don't know if it really made that much difference. I do know that with the later kawasaki trailies such the F11 250 they dropped the hatta fork and all the other adjustments and the bikes were probably better for it.

[Skyryder]

another thing is try free wheeling through a corner with clutch in, repeat normally and feel the difference a bike will handle heaps different without the enigne-wheel conection going on.

Not a safe thing to do. Engine compression helps the bike to track. Get it wrong freewheeling and you are out of control.

I rarely cover the clutch unless I have been forewarned that I may have to shift. I like both my hands firmly on the handle bars. There have been times when I have had to down shift and brake at the same time. But prefer not to have to do this.

Skyryder

[F5 Dave]

Not a safe thing to do. Engine compression helps the bike to track. Get it wrong freewheeling and you are out of control. . . .

Total urban myth.

One I used to believe & I’m always advocating being in the right gear at the right time when you need to open the throttle again. Engine braking does have its part whilst normal riding, but we were talking about emergency braking.

If you are braking at the limit then the front wheel is just off locking, the rear wheel is just off locking, then extra engine braking would just lock the rear wheel. The throttle is shut so there is no real power, certainly nothing that could be effective against the power of the rear brake. So how can the ‘compression’ help?

When I’m racing, depending on the corner I may go down 3 gears at a time & the clutch is in, yes I’m feeding it back in later so I have a stable platform & so I can have some driving force to keep the weight off the front wheel at the apex, but the point is these are hairpin corners at max braking & the clutch is in for a reasonable part of it.

Maybe previously you had an older Guzzi where the brakes consisted of 2 cinder blocks rubbing against a piece of wood & any assistance from the engine was welcome.

(That should get the purists on my case).

[James Deuce]

Total urban myth.

One I used to believe & I’m always advocating being in the right gear at the right time when you need to open the throttle again. Engine braking does have its part whilst normal riding, but we were talking about emergency braking.

If you are braking at the limit then the front wheel is just off locking, the rear wheel is just off locking, then extra engine braking would just lock the rear wheel. The throttle is shut so there is no real power, certainly nothing that could be effective against the power of the rear brake. So how can the ‘compression’ help?

When I’m racing, depending on the corner I may go down 3 gears at a time & the clutch is in, yes I’m feeding it back in later so I have a stable platform & so I can have some driving force to keep the weight off the front wheel at the apex, but the point is these are hairpin corners at max braking & the clutch is in for a reasonable part of it.

Maybe previously you had an older Guzzi where the brakes consisted of 2 cinder blocks rubbing against a piece of wood & any assistance from the engine was welcome.

(That should get the purists on my case).

I took 4 seconds off my Manfield time on the RC30 after reading how Mick Doohan used to pull the clutch in whilst braking and then turning on the RVF750 at the Suzuka 8 hour. 2 strokes have just about no engine braking and he used to find the 4 stroke difficult to manage until he did that. It allowed him to have the correct exit gear sorted and he could concentrate on traction up to the apex.

[Mongoose]

Total urban myth.

One I used to believe & I’m always advocating being in the right gear at the right time when you need to open the throttle again. Engine braking does have its part whilst normal riding, but we were talking about emergency braking.
(That should get the purists on my case).

Yep, emergency stopping its all levers in. That is hit the front brake, jump on the brake lever and haul the clutch in. Mind you with the super light weight Guzzi clutch, stopping would probaley take another block if you did not pull the clutch in!!
Besides if things pan out and you manage to miss what ever caused the emergency, you are now in a position to find a gear and get the hell out of there and not have a stalled and probabley flooded engine to contend with