Honda has today announced a new Honda E-Clutch for motorcycles, aimed at smoothing out clutch control in moments of change in the driving force.
The new Honda E-Clutch, which Honda describes as a motorcycling first, can be most easily described as a ‘clutch assist’, where the clutch is electronically operated during periods where the driving force changes.
These moments of driving force variance are identified by Honda as starting, shifting, and stopping. In these areas, the Honda E-Clutch will erase the necessity for the rider to manually operate the clutch.
That, though, does not mean that the clutch is beyond the control of the rider. Even in the moments where the E-Clutch is in operation, the rider can still operate the clutch in the normal way, via the clutch lever. The electronic control, though, provides “instantaneous, fine-tuned clutch control for optimum performance in situations where the driving force changes,” Honda says.
The goal of the new motorcycle E-Clutch, Honda says, is to allow “the rider to comfortably concentrate on the pleasure of riding.”
Honda says the system does not require any major changes to existing engine layouts to be installed. Therefore, it says, it is planning to implement the new E-Clutch on its “fun” motorcycles “over time”.
The new E-Clutch is not the first innovation Honda has brought to its motorcycle clutches, of course, having made its Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) available on bikes such as the Honda NT1100 and Honda Gold Wing with affirmative success; on the Gold Wing, for example, the DCT choice has proved more popular in Europe than the standard transmission.
There is currently no specified timeline on the arrival of Honda E-Clutch to production motorcycles.
