Rekluse

[bobpara]

I rode a bike with a Rekluse clutch the other day and came away with mixed felings

 

Its great in that it becomes like a snowmobile....like an automatic transmission or a centrifical clutch. You can go 1 mph without stallling. Great on rocky steep hill climbs, esp good if you do not have elec start in that if you tsall on a hill, forget it!

 

The negative was something a bit harder to describe. It was too easy. it stopped being a bike. a bike has a clutch. You can fan the clutch for a burst of power. The engine seemed like it was on prozac and did not have the same zip. Forget about the sudden burst of power you need for a wheelie.....this clutch didnt hook up quickly or abruptly enough to pull the front end up. 

 

I know I SHOULD like it, but I didn't

 

What have others experienced?

[jufberg]

You can still use the clutch for that little extra or a lot

[080]

Think of the auto clutch as a performance mod to the existing clutch, not a replacement. You still need to feather and drop the clutch when you need to get power to the rear wheel. Its kind of like a steering stabilizer, you still need your arms to steer but it helps when you get tired and start making mistakes.

[woods-rider]

I didn't like the feel of the autoclutch either the few times I have ridden a bike with one. I thought the same thing about the lack of a "hit" in the powerband. It just seemed to mellow the whole bike down which can be a good thing, but IMO it made the bike less exciting to ride.

 

My buddy that has one actually take it out in favor of the OEM clutch for technical areas (as strange as that sounds) and puts it back in for more open desert type areas. This sounds backwards to me from what I have read, but he says that it makes big hillclimbs nearly impossible with it in for some reason.

Edited September 22, 2014 by woods-rider

[notoriouspig]

Love.. Mine .. But some of what you say is correct.. Having it properly cad just do makes a big difference..

[FORMA MOTO]

I rode a bike with a Rekluse clutch the other day and came away with mixed felings

 

Its great in that it becomes like a snowmobile....like an automatic transmission or a centrifical clutch. You can go 1 mph without stallling. Great on rocky steep hill climbs, esp good if you do not have elec start in that if you tsall on a hill, forget it!

 

The negative was something a bit harder to describe. It was too easy. it stopped being a bike. a bike has a clutch. You can fan the clutch for a burst of power. The engine seemed like it was on prozac and did not have the same zip. Forget about the sudden burst of power you need for a wheelie.....this clutch didnt hook up quickly or abruptly enough to pull the front end up. 

 

I know I SHOULD like it, but I didn't

 

What have others experienced?

 

 

Yup

 

The experience is very pleasant, and the bikes power delivery becomes very linear......unfortunately, you can no longer use higher gears on steep hills, as the clutch will slip (at least for me).

[DRZ04]

From my experiences you will need more than one short ride to get used to the Rekluse clutch. It needs to be adjusted & tuned to function properly then you must get used to it. I have one on my DRZ435S that had some work done to it & it didn't work with out modifications. Rekluse will help you set it up but they develop primarily for specific stock bikes and if they have had any performance work to the engine the stock settings probably will not work. For my DRZ I had to put heavier wedges & springs in it before it operated correctly. My '13 WR450F is stock except for the FMF GYTR silencer, & programmable ignition and it worked very good straight out of the box after the basic clutch tension adjustments. I am sure there are situations where the stock clutch would work better and for those situations you can pull the Rekluse & reinstall the stock clutch in 15 minutes. I like it off road so far. 

[notoriouspig]

I run mine tight . it will slightly bogg the bike but not stall if you stop or slam on the rear brake.. But doesn't slip as much.

[notoriouspig]

I have an exp 3.0 on stock rmz450.

[Just_a_trail_rider]

Yup

 

The experience is very pleasant, and the bikes power delivery becomes very linear......unfortunately, you can no longer use higher gears on steep hills, as the clutch will slip (at least for me).

For me... anything slightly above idle will cause full engagement by the rekluse. NO slipping on uphills.   

[avlisj]

Still got to be conscious of what gear your in. Rode a friends 510 with one. Not sure witch type. After coming off a 250 2t, the torque of the 510 was awesome and must have left it in 4th gear all day. After a short break in a deep river ravine I had no clutch to climb the hill to get out. Took 2 hours to pull/ yank/ drag that bike up to the nearest fire road and get pulled back to camp. This was after my 250 ate its own piston skirt, so I was loaned the 510 for day 2. Payed for a new clutch for him, rebuild my 250. Expensive weekend. Ended up riding a friends wr450 for day 3 and it was the only bike I couldn't break. So I bought one 3 yrs later.

[FORMA MOTO]

For me... anything slightly above idle will cause full engagement by the rekluse. NO slipping on uphills.   

 

I am talking about being in the gear I normally would be, say  10 mph , 14/50 in second gear....with the stock clutch I can go down to 2500 rpm and manually modualte the clutch to accelerate and maintain traction.

The Rekluse does the same thing, only it cannot react to increasing load (incline) without more acceleration (centripital forces on it's wedges), which may or may not be possible....hence, it slips.

[Just_a_trail_rider]

I am talking about being in the gear I normally would be, say  10 mph , 14/50 in second gear....with the stock clutch I can go down to 2500 rpm and manually modualte the clutch to accelerate and maintain traction.

The Rekluse does the same thing, only it cannot react to increasing load (incline) without more acceleration (centripital forces on it's wedges), which may or may not be possible....hence, it slips.

10mph???   My 05 WR with the stock engine simply did not have the balls to climb any meaningful hill at 10mph.   I'd always hit the big hills wide open in 3rd, downshift to 2nd and work the clutch to keep the  rpm's up.   The only slipping going on for me was rider induced.    Pretty sure I was going faster than 10mph.    When I made the mistake of letting the rpm's drop, then yeah, it would slip....  so I tried to never let that happen.  

 

I personally see the rekluse as a great anti-stall device.  Its best  (for me) when configured for low-hard engagement so it doesn't really feather the clutch and forces you to do that yourself.  With the rekluse pro, I added tungsten balls to achieve this and could feel the clutch chatter or the bike bog instead of the slip.     It did mean that my heavy rear-braking would cause an occasional stall, but I am used to clutching more anyway to help reduce the engine braking effect.   Its just something I learned to do  (still learning).

 

I will say however that the newest rekluse core 3.0 is SIGNIFICANTLY smoother than previous models and certainly has a much firmer feeling engagement without slipping and retains the engine braking we are used to.  I would imagine that there are little to  no adjustment to your riding technique needed with the newer rekluse.  They are worth a look.

[notoriouspig]

Yep my 3.0 still has considerable engine braking.. But I have found they I am muck less fatigued if I let it do the clutch work for me.. And I find that if you are thin the. Right gear traction is awesome hills.. I wish I had the money to spend on a full core 3.0 which retains the stock lever pull.

[Just_a_trail_rider]

Yep my 3.0 still has considerable engine braking.. But I have found they I am muck less fatigued if I let it do the clutch work for me.. And I find that if you are thin the. Right gear traction is awesome hills.. I wish I had the money to spend on a full core 3.0 which retains the stock lever pull.

I hope you find the money soon.  The core 3.0 is the shit!      You honestly cannot even tell that its in there.  Clutch lever feel is completely normal.  It does not slip like the other clutches nor do you feel any extra heat  (there isn't any).   Ride like you don't even have it.  It is expensive... but worth it.

Edited September 23, 2014 by mauricedorris

[Toooldtooslow]

I have a Core Exp 2.0 in my crf450r and works great still has engine breaking you just have to blip the throttle every now and then to re-engage it. I have a Core Exp 3.0 in my WR 450f and love that one too, both clutches are adjusted as per instructions and are just ever so slightly engaging at idle. The settings to the tic marks were not as exact as the say in the videos but after run in came back closer to what's suggested. By the sound of things the bike the OP rode was not set right or the fibres were on their way out, which will happen on big four strokes if you ride in too high a gear. My only complaint is I put a Z pro in my 12 year olds CRF 150 and he rides the bike like an auto and doesn't use the gears enough.