I know from driving cars you can burn out the clutch from an all day session trying to teach a newbie how a manual transmission works.

This bike shifts so smoothly, I love it. However I give the clutch a workout on the trails by slipping a lot in 2nd gear, since 1st gear stock is so twitchy.

What's the service life of the clutch? Does the "burning clutch" smell the same as a car clutch when it's being abused? Is slipping it OK, as long as I'm not dumping it at high RPMS?

 

Slip away my friend. When it's done just fit some new plates (they're cheap.) Too easy.

 

why slip the clutch on this bike? i have only had to do so a few times.... i can see a bike with alot more power.... but i hardly ever have to slip it... but im with westoz.

 

In tight and technical trails. Many times 1st is too low and too jerky. Smooth power instead of just ***** to the wall is sometimes necessary. It's hard to be smooth in 1st, so I keep in 2nd. If I don't slip the clutch, it lugs the motor a little.

With the stock gearing, there is a certain gray area on trails where you could be in 1st or 2nd and it depends on how you want to deliver the power to the wheel.

1st - lots of power all at once (good in some situations bad in others)
2nd - able to give smoother roll on power

I'm new to all riding and I went trail riding with a guy with experience and he was on a Yamaha WR250F, and he suggested that I keep it in 2nd and slip the clutch in many sections. It definitely helped a lot.

 

If you are doing tight trails spend $10 and go down to a 13 tooth front sprocket. I can crawl trails easily, couldn't before. We must be riding similar terrain.

The drawback is top speed but I ride mostly trails and dual sports and rarely go over 55 on the roads.

 

Yep, I used to have to slip the clutch a ton in the tight slow technical stuff. Went down one in the front, up three in the rear and a 300cc kit solved it. I can almost idle now in 1st gear and pull clean away.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty torn about this mod. It seems the cost to performance ratio is so huge it'd be dumb not to. I'm just not sure I want to be at 7500rpm at 70mph for 30 minutes at a time. Then again, it's only 500rpm, right?

 

I'm no expert and so take it with a grain of salt, but I don't think you should be slipping the clutch in second gear. You're gonna kill the motor a LOT easier than if you were slipping and crawling in first. Your trails can't be THAT tight if you're slipping it in second. If second is too big then shift down to first and slowly let the clutch out, less jerky. I slip the crap outta my clutch in first, which is why I'm gonna move up to a bigger rear sprocket.

As for your original question, its my understanding that motorcycle clutches will go a long time, especially those in a dirt bike. So slip away my friend, and when it craps out, replace it

 

So basically you're saying I should slip in 1st, BUT if I do decide to do it in 2nd all day I will kill the clutch faster. Once killed, the clutch is an inexpensive item to replace?

It's just tough, because I'm constantly shifting

 

The best thing about a motorcycle clutch vs. a automotive clutch, is the number of plates. A motorcycle clutch has multiple plates (somewhere around 3-8). An automotive clutch usually only has 1 plate or 2 plates if its tuned up. The more plates, the better it gets, and the less chance of the clutch burning up. Also the KLX is a wet clutch, so if you do cook the clutch, you're also cooking your motor oil. Hence one of the reason to change your oil more often during trail adventures.

As for service life? No true guess, but I gotta say at least 10k miles or more. And if it does out, its easy to replace.



Really not that hard to replace.