How does a clutch and gears work on cars / motorcycles?
In: removed
A manual car connects the engine to the wheels through a clutch and a gearbox.
The engine works best if it turns at certain speeds, but the wheels need to cover a much wider range. So, we use the gearbox to handle that.
For each gear setting, the gearbox has one gear connected to the engine, and one connected to the wheels. The speed of the wheels is determined, both by the speed of the engine, and the size of each gear – the bigger the engine gear and the smaller the wheel gear, the faster the wheels. The gearshift lever controls which set of gears is used.
But, if you shift gears while the vehicle is running, the engine will be forced to speed up or slow down very suddenly, which is bad for it. That’s what the clutch is for.
The clutch allows the engine to be disconnected from the gearbox. Then, the gears can be adjusted, and the engine reconnected slowly, to give it time to speed up or slow down before the clutch reconnects fully.
(Automatic cars work roughly the same, though the gear set is selected automatically, and often a non-solid connection between engine and gearbox is used to avoid suddenly speeding or slowing the engine when the gear changes.)
If you engage your throttle to the max, without releasing the clutch, the motorcycle will not move a single inch.
If you engage your throttle to the max, and completely let go of the clutch lever quickly, the bike will dart off with so much power that the front wheel will lift off the ground, resulting in an accidental wheelie.
The clutch lever controls how much of the power from the throttle actually transfers into the wheel.
So the objective is to engage the throttle a weee bit, while slooowly releasing the clutch for a smooth start in first gear. When the bike starts crying for dear life, you release the throttle, pull the clutch back in, shift up one gear, then roll back onto the throttle while releasing the clutch lever again. Repeat until you reach the top gear. Then when stopping, either downshift and engine brake. Or just stop completely with your brakes, while holding the clutch and shift down into first or neutral.
Rinse repeat.
[Here you go](https://youtu.be/HY_PjmHRxuE)
Pedal or lever unhooks gear holder. Other lever changes gear positions. Put back lever to make gear holder hold the new gear.
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