An Old Man and His Rekulse Clutch!

Tired of stalling? You might be a candidate for a new clutch.

No matter how, when or what we started riding on most of us older riders end up trail riding, some more serious about it than others. I started out riding on a gold tank Yamaha DT1250 that I paid about $800 for brand new and here I am forty years and probably a hundred bikes later. The last new bike I bought earlier this year cost over $8000, that’s mind boggling but on the other hand there’s no comparison between what a DT1 and what one of today’s bikes can do off road. Most of us started out on two strokes; at some point most of us switched to four strokes and now more and more of us are switching back to two strokes.

I mostly trail ride now but I still ride a few enduro and cross country events a year. A year or so ago I wanted to see if I could turn a Suzuki RMZ 450 into an off road bike. (The product of an idle mind and desire to spend my retirement money) Suzuki’s are noted for their handling and turning ability, but I found low gear to be really too high to chug around tight trails with. Besides stalling and trying to kick start a hot four stroke on a tight trail is no fun at all. So I thought an auto clutch could be the hot set up.

 After studying what was available I ended up choosing the Rekluse Z-Pro Start for one main reason, flexibility. You have adjustability in at what RPM you want the clutch to engage you can also adjust the rate of engagement to be soft, medium or a hard and perhaps best of all you can either allow the clutch to slip coming out of a corner until it’s fully engaged or fan the clutch lever and the clutch will fully engage.

The advantage of allowing the clutch to slip as you exit a corner is traction with virtually no wheel spin you simply move forward. (One of the added benefits of the Rekluse is tire wear; rear tires last at least twice as long) I find myself riding into and out of corners in higher gears and with the power of a 450 you don’t get that flopping around wheel spinning arm pulling power that wears you out in five minutes. Or you can down shift make the corner or hit that berm fan the clutch and rocket way.

Since I’ve been using the Rekluse on my bikes (I’ve used them on a 250XCF, 450 RMZ, and currently a 300XC-W) I’ve come to enjoy riding really tight trails. (Like Chalk Bluff) not having to worry about the clutch allows me to concentrate on making those tight turns, or bouncing up over and around rocks, and of course stalling only once in a great while is a huge benefit. I know I wouldn’t want anything to do with those kinds of trails otherwise.  I’ve heard a few riders say using a Rekluse is like cheating, well so what?

Now, using a Rekluse is not going to be for everyone, there are some disadvantages.  If you’re riding style is to bounce off things fan the clutch and rocket off into the next corner it would take some adjustment.

You can’t bump start your bike, the engine basically free wheels until the RMP reaches the engagement point (approx 1800 RPM) if you lock the rear wheel going downhill the engine can (not always) free wheel when you let off the brake, usually the clutch will reengage immediately, but if not blipping the throttle will engage the clutch again, giving you back engine braking. It honestly took me about a half a ride to get used to doing that, I found it to be no big deal.

At an average cost of $600 to $700 the Z-Pro Start is not cheap, eventually though the savings gained by not having to purchase rear tires as often will go a long way toward paying for it. For me it’s been well worth it, anything I can do to make riding easier the older I get, I’m all for.

 Doug

21J*

* Doug is a little modest, he has been one of the top District 36 Enduro riders for many years. He still go goes very fast in the woods auto clutch or not.