Dual Sport Motorcycle Skills - Controlling Speed with Clutch-Throttle-Brake

Many riding skills can be learned well in a parking lot, before they are needed on the trail. Information on such skills is to be found in Skills documents like this one. These articles present more detailed breakdowns of specific skills mentioned in the Challenges document, along with thoughts on how to teach yourself those skills. For more information on why / when this skill is required, see the Challenges post.

Remember to check the "Links: Riding Technique" section in the sidebar for more thoughts on how to handle your motorcycle off pavement. As I find pertinent links or they are sent to me, I will add them there.

Keep in mind that however definitive the text may come across, this is just some blog and I am just some guy. Neither of us knows all there is to know about riding motorcycles, and some or all of what we know may be dangerously wrong.

Last Update: 12/10/06

This is key. Start now. I tell you, sometimes, researching the rides we will be doing in the near future, I stop just to rest my hands, I spend that much time working the clutch / brakes.

There are many times where you need to maintain a generally slow speed, accelerating or decelerating with great smoothness. Maneouvering slowly through tight turns / around obstacles, and controlling a powerslide, are two common situations in which integrated throttle-clutch-brake, or just throttle-clutch, control can be incredibly beneficial. Reading the Challenges article will make it clearer just when you will need to be good at this.

The thing to get over, for me, was my worry about wearing out the clutch, or for that matter, the brakes. I came to the conclusion that the extra fun I have riding the way I do is worth having to replace some bike bits a little sooner than I had originally thought. That said, I have yet to have any clutch problems.

You could practice this skill in the standard DMV test ride circle, but the best situation would include a slope you can ride in a circle on. The slope should be pretty steep; so steep that in order to get up it, you have to use the throttle, and in order to get down it slowly, you have to use the brake. Now draw out with 2 lines a narrow track – about 3-4’ wide – forming a loop about 25’ in diameter. You can probably find all sorts of similar setups that will work, and skip the lines, but this should give you an idea of what to look for.

Now try – seated and later standing – to ride keeping your front tire between the lines, and maintaining a constant speed. You will need the brakes when going downhill; if you just let out the clutch to use the engine to slow you, it will lug jerkily in such a low gear (do this in first – second at the outside). You will need the throttle to get up the hill; it is steep enough that idle speed is not enough to get you up the hill. You will need the clutch to switch from brake to throttle and vice versa; if you just throttle uphill and brake downhill, you will jerk into and out of engine braking, over and over again.

Just try it for a while and see what works. You will likely end up maintaining a little throttle most all of the time, releasing a little clutch on the uphill, and possibly leaving it out and just adding brake on the downhill, easing off the brake at the bottom, maybe adding a little throttle as well, braking early on the way up, with power, easing off the clutch, then power, as you descend, but holding the brake…

As you can see, there are many ways to skin this cat. You aren’t trying to learn the way, here, but to get your body familiar enough with the hand and foot motions and the results they achieve that when it matters, you just do it right, more or less without thinking. That’s why you might want to start working on this early; so you don’t have to think of it when we hit the “7) in or right next to possibly 1)y 6)s, on 4)s” (see the Master Plan document)!

Experiment on flat ground making tight turns using all three controls simultaneously. I find that simultaneous brake and throttle at slow speeds creates a feeling of stability in tight turns. Again, we are talking slow speeds here, near walking speed -- near stopped, in fact.

In another situation wherein I use throttle and clutch simultaneously to control speed, I am also using them to control steering: Once you are standing up and countersteering around corners, the next step is to use power to spin the rear tire, which will allow it to slide toward the outside of the turn. This is a bit like steering a boat with a rudder at the back, and is extremely effective -- and fun, once you get the hang of it. And, it is easier to get the hang of when you can control power transfer to the rear tire with the smoothness you will develop by integrating clutch and throttle control. You can start by simply making a point of pulling in the clutch as you approach turns, and letting it out and adding throttle as you leave them. If you continue to add power more and more aggressively on the exits of turns, you will eventually break the rear tire loose. Controlling the extent of the slide is easiest using a combination of throttle and clutch.

In fact, I would say that I learned clutch/throttle integration while maneouvering through tight narrow turns / obstacles, and then began to apply it to steering with the rear tire. It's of great value in both instances.

By the way; when you pull in the clutch a bit while still carrying some power, because you will be using it in a second, the engine will rev a bit. That’s fine. Just don’t redline it; if you are having trouble with that you are carrying over more throttle than you need. This may be tricky at first, but if you keep practicing it should become second nature.

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