how does suicide clutch or shift work on a motorcycle?

Question

how does suicide clutch or shift work on a motorcycle? I believe this was normally on older bikes, pre 1950 and is still used on some new custom bikes. But I'd like to know how it originally worked without modern things like the "auto clutch"

Thanks

Answer 1

I'll add my two cents since I own a '48 pan with a foot clutch and jockey shift. The foot clutch works exactly like a hand clutch. When you push down on it, it disengages the clutch allowing you to use your left hand to shift into higher or lower gears. Then, you let out the clutch by lifting your foot off the pedal. It is not a very easy way to control a bike since you cannot put your left foot down at a stop light unless you shift into neutral and on a hill it's miserable plus you have to take your hand off of the handlebars while moving to shift. That's why it's called a suicide clutch. These went out of production in the '50s. You can convert a foot clutch to a hand clutch by using what is referred to as a "mousetrap" which is a spring assembly that will snap shut as referrenced in the above answers. For the more adventurous and experienced riders, a foot clutch/hand shift is nostalgic and shows a degree of riding ability. This is something I would not recommend for beginning riders no matter how "cool" it sounds or looks.

Answer 2

Suicide Shifter Motorcycle

Answer 3

It works just like a car's clutch pedal, push in to disengage to shift, release to engage to take up the drive.
In the original days, Harley's had a foot operated "rocker" heel & toe clutch pedal. Push down on the rear with your heel to shift, push down on the forward part with your toe to engage. The pedal had a friction disc, so you could disengage the clutch, and remove your foot and it would stay disengaged until you rocked the pedal forward.
These were used with a shifter mounted to the side of the gas tank. The problem was, when you adjusted the primary chain (the only way to do that at the time was moving the transmission rearwards), it loosened the main drive chain, so it had to be readjusted also.
Then, beings as the transmission is moved, the shift linkage needed to be readjusted to aligned the shift lever in the proper spot on the shift gate.
To eliminate part of this problem, some people removed the tank shifter, and bolted a shift handle directly to the shift drum on the transmission.

Answer 4

"Back in the day" motorcycle clutches were based on their automotive counterparts, mainly because that's all there was out there. You stomped down on the clutch pedal, shifted with one hand, and controlled the throttle with the other hand. They're called 'suicide' because only one hand is available to hold onto the handlebars. Modern motorcycles still use clutches, but the controls have been moved to the handlebar, allowing the rider to maintain better control. Some bikes have been built with automatic transmissions, just as in cars, but they have never made much of a dent in the market.

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
how does suicide clutch or shift work on a motorcycle?
how does suicide clutch or shift work on a motorcycle? I believe this was normally on older bikes, pre 1950 and is still used on some new custom bikes. But I'd like to know how it originally worked without modern things like the "auto clutch"

Thanks

Answer 6

A "suicide" clutch is a foot clutch, which you must hold down to keep disengaged, as on the old Indians, without a spring or friction pad, and a Harley, if you took the overcenter spring off, and loosened the friction disc. Not fun when you needed both feet on the ground, or just the left foot for that matter. The normal Harley clutch stayed disengaged, until you pushed it down with your toe, it was heel down to disengage, toe down to engage. It was a bit awkward. Indian just had a pedal, foot on or foot off, they were dangerous. A handlebar mounted clutch is not considered suicide, as you keep control of the bike at all times.

Tomcotexas.

Answer 7

Also referred to as Jockey shift.

Hand off bars to shift, left foot on clutch pedal. Hmmm, that means left foot not on ground if you are stopped.

http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mcfeatures/indian.html

On some of the 1950s harleys, the mechanism involved a huge spring loaded 'box' on the front right side, that would transfer the input to the tank shift, to the transmission.

Setup right, it worked fine. but setup wrong, there were huge springs ratcheting big metal bits back and forth, get your fingers anywhere near it? snap!

(i had to set one of these up on a customer bike, and if I was not fast enough? I would have lost some digits)

I've roadraced a jockey shift Indian scout. There is a thrill dropping off the bowl at Texas World Speedway, into turn one, 100+mph, taking your left hand off the bar, to grab the tank shifter, and hearing all the bikes around you roll off their throttles, as they were staring in awe.

after the races, they would come in and say "I had you in turn one, but when you reached down to shift? I nearly pooped myself, and let you take that turn"

I would not ride one of these on the street, and I am mystified by people who intentionally convert their perfectly good modern motorcycles to this outdated system

Answer 8

Jockey Shift

Answer 9

Nowadays they mount the clutch lever right on the suicide shift arm. you still start out with one hand on the bars, but you can keep both feet on the ground at stops.