Clutch Feathering

The clutch is your traction control. Feathering lets you move at sub-walking speeds and place the bike exactly where you want it.

A lot of hard enduro happens at that speed: rock gardens, root-covered climbs, stream beds, steep technical sections where the next move is a metre away. Going slowly isn't the problem. Going slowly without control is: the bike stalls, lurches, spins the tyre or falls over, and you get off to push.

A controlled crawl gives you three things:

• Grip. A tyre turning slowly and steadily bites. A tyre hit with surges of drive spins.
• Time. At walking pace you can pick the next rock, see the root, and choose your line before you commit.
• Energy. Australasian Dirt Bike (ADB) editor Mitch Lees describes the payoff of a good crawl up a rocky hill: "Groveling up hills with no energy used will make a hill look easier than it is".

His instruction for the crawl is the core of this page: "meter your speed with the clutch so that your feet can walk slowly with the bike."

Feathering isn't holding the lever still at the bite point. The ground changes under you every second, so the drive has to change too. Your throttle hand stays put and your clutch fingers do the adjusting, in movements of a few millimetres:

• The bike slows but the revs hold: let the lever out a touch.
• The revs sag and the engine starts to labour: pull the lever in a touch so the revs recover, then feed it out again.
• The bike surges or the tyre starts to spin: pull it in a touch.
• The bike needs to stop: pull it in and use the rear brake.

The engine note is your gauge. Lees describes the sound to aim for as "low, almost stalling and not spiking". He calls it monotone: "You want the bike to stay at the same revs the entire time." If the revs rise and fall, your right hand is moving. If they sag, the clutch is too far out.

Good feathering is quiet. No lurches, no clutch smell, no bursts of revs. From the side it looks like the bike is idling along on its own.

• Gear. Second on flat or gently rolling ground. It's smoother than first and less likely to jerk. First on steep climbs and descents, where Lees describes the target crawl as "walking speed and in first gear". The gear selection lesson explains why.
• Throttle. Set it slightly above idle and leave it. On a two-stroke, a little more engine speed makes the crawl much more stable.
• Fingers. One or two fingers on the lever. Lees: "Four fingers on the levers will limit your feel and cause fatigue."
• Right foot. Over the rear brake pedal. You'll use it constantly.
• Stance. Standing on flat ground and over roots and rocks, knees soft and weight through the pegs. On a steep, rocky climb where you're learning, sitting with your feet ready to paddle is acceptable. That's the technique Lees teaches on the climb.

Feathering is also easier on a clutch that's adjusted and serviced. A cable clutch needs the right free play; a hydraulic one needs clean fluid. The clutch control lesson covers lever setup.

The most useful crawl technique in hard enduro is to feather the clutch against a light, steady drag of the rear brake.

The brake gives the drive something to push against. Instead of balancing a slipping clutch against nothing, you balance it against a constant resistance. Small clutch movements then make even smaller changes in speed, and the bike can't run away. It also keeps the drivetrain loaded, so there's no slack to snatch when the tyre hits a rock.

Dirt Bike Magazine's balance feature describes a rider on a rock ledge who "held pressure with the rear brake and clutch while applying steady throttle". That's the same technique at a standstill. Use it at walking pace through rocks and roots, on tight turns and on steep descents where you need drive and braking at once.

Keep the drag light. The rear brake heats up, just like the clutch. The rear brake lesson covers fade.

Every second the clutch slips, it turns energy into heat in the plates and the oil. KTM's owner's manual for its 250 and 300 two-strokes warns against frequent and long clutch slipping because it heats the gear oil, engine and cooling system, and advises riding at low engine speed rather than high revs with a slipping clutch.

At hard enduro races it adds up fast. Enduro21 reported knowing of Sherco riders "replacing their clutches every day at an event like Romaniacs". Cooper Abbott told Enduro21 that on long uphills with a clutch that faded, "I would have to either stall the bike or pretty much just give up".

Keep your clutch alive:

• Feather only when you need to. Let the lever fully out whenever the ground allows it.
• Low revs, not high revs. A steady low engine speed with a light slip makes far less heat than high revs and a lot of slip.
• Use a lower gear when the crawl gets long, so the engine can pull without so much slip.
• Expect more slip with less power. On a climb at Sea to Sky, Graham Jarvis notes that altitude cuts the bike's power, and on a 250 that means "a lot more slip in the clutch". A small bike or thin air will heat the clutch sooner.
• Watch the signs. A bite point that moves, a lever that feels different or a hot smell means stop and let it cool.
• Rest in practice. Two minutes off every ten.

Do these in order. The first three need only flat ground and some markers. Keep the throttle still in every drill: if the engine note moves, your right hand is cheating.

Flat ground with markers, plus a short trail with roots or rocks nearby. Two minutes' rest every ten.