Clutch alternatives?

Mini Dirt Bikes & Pit Bikes Forum

Help Support Mini Dirt Bikes & Pit Bikes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jack180

Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Hi All,
Long time lurking first time posting. Super forum and have learnt a lot here so far.
Reason for this post is looking for some advice on clutch alternatives.
To explain, my son whom is 12 has a Atomik 125 pit bike - 4 speed auto.
He has an issue with the nerves in his left had due to a previous accident (not on a bike) and does not have enough strength in his fingers to pull a clutch lever.
He is outgrowing his bike, looking for something with some more power, but everything up in size has manual gearbox with a clutch which he cannot operate with his left hand.
Was wondering of the gurus here have some ideas or suggestions?
Want to get him into a bigger engined bike and was thiking of fabricating some sort of foot clutch - not sure if this is practical?
Any other suggestions or ideas?
His arm is good, and he can safely hold handlebars and is becoming a pretty good rider, just dosent have the strength in is left hand fingers to grab and pull a clutch lever.
As riding our bikes together is our weekend fun, i fear that soon dissaperaing if i cant work out a way to get him into a bigger bike as he is outgrowing the current 125 pitty...
Look forward to some ideas...
Cheers,
Jack180
 
welcome mate, there is a china hydraulic clutch kit, or have you tried rigging up a longer lever for him, or is his left finger strength non existent and you would rather not have him stress his nerve prob, welcome mate
 
what about having a clutch lever on the right side, just means no flat throttle gear shifts and he will need to focus on the rear brake more when clutching?? Kinda like 2 brake levers on different angles.
 
why not do up the 125 big bore kit or something like that and you may need to get a hd semi-auto clutch to handle it
 
welcome mate, there is a china hydraulic clutch kit, or have you tried rigging up a longer lever for him, or is his left finger strength non existent and you would rather not have him stress his nerve prob, welcome mate

Thanks for the reply. He has strength in his first two fingers only, but not full strength - his two smaller fingers have no action or feeling at all, so i would like to avoid him using a clutch on that hand altogether as his hand does ache a lot when he has to use only his good fingers, but he does have reasonable strength in his firs two fingers (next to his thumb) , Never really tried a hydraulic clutch. Are they much easier to pull than a standard cable clutch? Perhaps he could do that.
 
Thats what i was thinking Mick, you could maybe set up a short lever clutch above the brake lever. Set them both up with bifold levers and have the brake red and clutch a different color, just a thought! Ive got a hydrualic clutch on my bike and they are lighter, you could also mod that and drop a bearing or teflon sleeve in where the pin joins the lever to the cylinder and keep the rest of the arm and joints lubed up and it will be heaps lighter to pull in.
 
what about having a clutch lever on the right side, just means no flat throttle gear shifts and he will need to focus on the rear brake more when clutching?? Kinda like 2 brake levers on different angles.

Yeah - kinda looked at it but couldnt see how i could get it to work. I actually tried moving my clutch handle over to the brake sie on one of my bikes, but it was just impossible to work either lever effectivly.
 
Thats what i was thinking Mick, you could maybe set up a short lever clutch above the brake lever. Set them both up with bifold levers and have the brake red and clutch a different color, just a thought! Ive got a hydrualic clutch on my bike and they are lighter, you could also mod that and drop a bearing or teflon sleeve in where the pin joins the lever to the cylinder and keep the rest of the arm and joints lubed up and it will be heaps lighter to pull in.

hearing that the hydraulic clutch is a bit lighter might be worth exploring.
 
hmm I'm not sure myself but I lnow there are people out there riding with only one arm so would have to have something set up. Try looking into what they do but I wouldn't know where to start looking, sorry bout that.
 
i only ever use my first 2 fingers to use the clutch anyway.. i spose you've already tried making the lever is soft as possible by changing the adjusters? most bikes you can change up gears without even using the clutch by dropping the throttle off a bit at the same time he would then just have to use the clutch to change down.. sorry i cant be of more help i hope you find something that works mate. hate to hear if he cant ride a bigger bike :(
 
wow i just looked at your link to the button operated gear change... that would be perfect
 
wow i just looked at your link to the button operated gear change... that would be perfect

looks great until i googled it and found the price ... argh - $1800 AU - thats as much as the bike if not more.
 
thats crazy? have you seen the bigger bikes with a hot start lever? my old yz450 used to have a little lever just above the clutch that was sposed to make it easier to start if you stalled it. i wonder if you could put the same sort of set up above the front break lever and connect it to the clutch. its bugging me now you'll have to let us know what ya figure out. i saw a bloke riding a harley yesterday and he didnt have a left arm from the elbow down. although if he's riding a harley around he's probly crazy enough to spend 1800 bucks on a button shifter haha
 
why has nobody mentioned rekluse? they make automatic clutches. Quite a few bikes of all sorts from 250's up to 650's riding around with them. They're great for hill climbs and supposedly last many times longer than a normal clutch
 
OP is talking about upgrading. I'd presume a jap bike is on the cards, the rekluse would fill the bill perfectly in that case.

Another alternative - if the OP is feeling like an engineering challenge - would be to rig up an actuator to pull the clutch cable, this could be operated in one of 3 ways I can think of
Throttle position sensor - Could be as simple as a magnet and pickup attached to the bars and throttle tube. Or rigged directly onto the throttle cable. When its closed, actuator is triggered and pulls the clutch.
Button - like a killswitch button on the left side where its easily accessible
RPM sensor - Probably run it off the spark plug wire. Actuator kicks in when RPM below 1800rpm

None of which are ideal, but if a RPM sensor is controlled by a small programmable computer chip, it would permit smooth linear pull between 2 preset RPM ranges and function exactly as intended, rather than simply on or off. And provide for some really good DIY read
ing material

If it remains 'digital' then the power/speed of the actuator can be adjusted slow enough to make it viable from a standstill.
Note that a clutch is not necessary for up or down shifting. Not on a jap bike anyway :)
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top