OK to hold clutch in at red lights?

[Ed L.]

I sometimes leave it in gear on flat ground but, like mieody1 above, I always am more comfortable with having it in first on a bigger hill (for me, due to my short legs and the hop back and forth to get the bike in gear, many hills in SF). I've never had a problem with my clutch over 15 years on two different Hondas.

However, I have heard that it can wear your clutch cable more quickly. Not sure if that's true though.

Ed

 

[EastBayDave]

This is probably not relevant for most of you, but it depends on which bike I’m riding & traffic conditions…like most I split to the front most of the time if the line is long, sometimes I won’t depending if I may get the squeeze or there’s not enuf room…

However, on the ZX12R, they are notorious for burning up clutch plates, to the point of even exploding hubs, baskets, & parts straight through the clutch covers & even sometimes the cases! (See pic below) This is causes by not enough oil in the basket, which has been fixed/upgraded each of the last 3 years this bike has been in production. Someday I’ll upgrade the parts to a later model…

Until I do, I tend to just sit at lights with the clutch in so it gets more oil into the basket, unless I know it’s a long light, then I use the auto-neutral finder & be lazy….On this ZRX, this is not an issue, I’m lazy & use neutral if I’m not at the head of the line….

Check out the explosion pic>

 

[EastBayDave]

a different bike:

 

[dzapata]

Being a new rider, I recently encountered a problem with going into neutral at lights. Sometimes when the light turned green, I couldn't shift into first! This seems to be a somewhat common problem with F2 and I was told to rock the bike back and forth to engage the gear. So because of this and all of the reasons stated above, I hardly ever put my bike into neutral.

 

[girish]

1st gear holding the clutch and watching your rear view mirrors. You want to be ready to take off in case the cager coming behind at 60+ MPH doesn't see that the light is red...

I leave it in first in case I'm the only one or the last one in line, if I'm sorrounded by cagers and I know I have a while I'm in Netural, but if I'm splitting to the front (usually the case) its in first for sure, to jet out of there first off the line.

If your question was, is it bad for the bike? No.

It's not a long enough wait to burn the clutch. You will burn the clutch a lot more by not shifting properly.

 

[Black93GT]

There are some that believe that the clutch throwout bearing (yes some bikes have them) will wear if you hold the clutch lever/pedal in for extended periods.

I've never worn out the throwout bearing in any of my cars, and they all had over 100K miles on each.

Enchanter is right, the TOB is usually why people say not to hold in your clutch at lights. I haven't had a TOB get to the point where its makes the cracking and clunking noises when i shift/ push in the clutch, but on all the clutches I've changed the throw out bearing has always been a gonner. When I pulled my ACT performance clutch out of my last car the TOB was just wasted within 25k miles... then again it needed so much pedal presure that it ruptured one of my hydrolic lines. :shrug:

On a bike i'm with the general consensus... leave it in first to make a clean get away from the cager who's talking on the cell phone and fixing hair in the mirror, paying zero attention to the road or red light.

 

[Roundboy]

clutch lever pulled in
always in first ready to go
mirror checks
proceed when green and clear

when i see bikers at lights stretching hands off the bars looking around and not in the mirrors behind them i laugh and feel sorry for them


where is that pic from south america where the car hits the biker wearing no helmet and you can see the skid marks and the biker is flipped up on top of the car.....

pic was taken by the intersection camera....

ya'll remember that one.....

be ready to go quickly if that cager doesn't know the light is red and you aren't ready to "move!!! beeotchh get out the way.... get out the way like woooooahhhhh" you'll be airborn

 

[deaconblues]

I'm a 'hold the lever" kinda guy, again cos I want to be able to jet if someone runs up behind... if I know the light is a long one, then I'll slip into neutral.... but the only times i use neutral these days is when starting the bike, and at parking garages and toll plazas (ever had to reach across your body with your right hand while keeping your left on the bars? trust me, it doesn't work too well.)

 

[mine_ghames]

Always watch your Six, check your review mirrors. In neutral and will put in 1st gear once there's a car approaching. And leave an out for Ur six. Ur just split lane at Stop light. And be ready once the G turns.