Clake One Light Clutch – A trail riding revelation
CLAKE ONE LIGHT CLUTCH – A TRAIL RIDING REVELATION
- Julian
- April 30, 2019
- 1:22 pm
- No Comments
If you trail ride a lot, you are going to be using your Clutch a lot. And over a long day in the saddle, that’s going to start to hurt. So what if you could reduce the effort on clutch lever action by 75% and be able to use just one finger to do it ? Well that’s exactly what the Clake One Light Clutch system promises – we had to investigate …
Clake One Light Clutch – A trail riding revelation
COMPLEX BUT SIMPLE
The Australian-made Clake One Light Clutch might look like a piece of complex, high-end tech straight off the Enduro GP grid, but in practice the internal design and engineering doesn’t need to concern the rider. All you need to know is that the Clake system uses an unique force balancing system to store the energy from the lever being released to reduce the effort needed to pull it back in. It’s a really clever innovation that translates to needing only 25% of the effort being required to disengage the clutch compared to the stock unit. That is a serious improvement!
ADJUSTABLE ACTION
Because the Clake One LIght Clutch reduces the effort quite so much, some riders actually feel it’s too light – you just can’t please some people! But in this case you can adjust the action to stiffen up a tad, or you could just get used to it!
You can also adjust the position of the lever to adjust for span and hand size so that when pulled in, the lever comes right back to the bars and yet doesn’t affect your grip on the other three fingers.
The lever itself has a central section of a composite laminate that makes it incredibly strong but still be able to flex by up to 45 degrees up or down in the event of a crash. That said, with the unit significantly more expensive than a stock unit, Clake recommend you fit a good set of wrap-around hand guards such as Bark Busters to adequately protect your investment!
And don’t worry if you have a cable clutch – Clake also sell an conversion kit – perfect for that killer clutch on the old XR400 …
Fitting and initial set up can apparently be a bit fiddly, but Clake have prepared a great video to help you get it sorted first time – can’t say fairer than that!
ON THE TRAIL
Our chance to test the Clake One Light Clutch came on a recent trail riding trip in Europe. The unit had been fitted to a Beta X Trainer, one of a number of upgrades fitted by the TRF rider to the already competent trail bike from the increasingly popular Italian brand.
Leaving the trusty KTM EXC250 in the garage for the afternoon, we jumped on the Beta to give the Clake unit a thorough test in the achingly beautiful scenery of the Cantal region in Southern France.
And straight away the Clake clutch action feels incredibly light – one finger action really is no exaggeration as it almost feels wrong to use two! Slipping the clutch to maintain drive is ridiculously easy and allowed us to get on with riding without wasting effort on the clutch. But the time it came into it’s own were the series of long rocky climbs with multiple switchbacks and steep turns that cut up through the Cantal countryside. The Clake One Light clutch was perfect for this environment as the super-light one finger action meant we could maintain a good grip and control on the bars while feathering the clutch effortlessly. Having done similar climbs on the previous days on a stock KTM hydraulic clutch, the Clake was significantly easier to use and over the afternoon’s w ride was much less tiring on the left hand and forearm.
The Clake is creditted to reduce arm-pump, cramps and rider fatigue and those claims seem entirely consistent with how easy the clutch action is. It’s also a great addition for riders who suffer from arthritis or carpal-tunnel syndrome but who don’t want to had for a Rekluse auto-clutch system. And of you have either of these stopping you ride, that’s going to be a massive help.
Over the course of six hours of continuous trail riding, we couldn’t fault the Clake Clutch – it’s consistently better and easier than anything you will ever have tried. Period.
Yep – we like it a lot!
APPEARANCE
DURABILITY
OK, so the Clake One Light Clutch looks a bit odd compared to a conventional Brembo or Magura unit, but not in a bad way. And all your mates will want to try it out!
One correctly set up – there’s a video to help you – the Clake should be fit and forget, It’s strong enough to take the hits and the lever is reputedly unbreakable
COMFORT
VALUE
In terms of clutch action, the Clake One Light Clutch is beyond compare – the only thing easier is to go to a Rekluse and forget manual clutches.
The Clake unit is expensive and if that’s your criteria, then shelling out 475 AUD or £281 is probably an issue. But if not, it’s a great upgrade for the price and works well.
RIDE EXPEDITIONS RATING - CLAKE ONE LIGHT CLUTCH
If you’ve already got a bike with a properly set up hydraulic clutch. it’s hard to imagine it needing improvement. And then you try a Clake One Light Clutch.
The Clake unit is truly astounding in terms of reducing the effort needed to operate the clutch. If you are coming from a heavy cable clutch then the Clake will improve your life immeasurably, but it will cost you another 220 AUD or £130 on top of the unit cost for the conversion kit from Clake, although the Magura kit from Venhill may also be an option at considerably less cost than the Clake and the conversion option.
So is it worth the upgrade? Compared to swapping the end can to something that offers no noticeable improvement, the the Clake One Light Clutch is a great option, and you will be able to transfer it between bikes for many years, thus spreading the initial cost. Try one on a mates bike and you will be convinced within roughly 2 seconds …
LOOKING FOR AN INCREDIBLE RIDING HOLIDAY
This post first appeared on Cambodia Motorcycle Tours | Ride Cambodia, please read the originial post: here
