You don’t have to clutch, or do you?
CLUTCHING is to motorcycling what chewing is to eating. You can’t ride a motorcycle without doing it, so I was a little suspicious of Yamaha’s FJR1300AE clutchless sport tourer.
Riding a motorcycle without a clutch seemed a bit like drinking non-alcoholic beer. Why bother? But clutchless doesn’t mean sissy, and it isn’t a coy, linguistic coverup for automatic. It’s shorthand for a manual transmission that uses an electronic control unit to engage and disengage the clutch. Instead of squeezing a hand lever, kicking the shifter and releasing, the movements required for each gear change have been reduced from three to one: Click the shifter and you’re done.
The YCCS, as Yamaha calls it, is not a sport performance thing. It wasn’t designed to aid speed demons in their smokeouts, but to ease the strain on long-haul bikers who think nothing of logging 500 miles before lunch. Personally, I wasn’t sure it was necessary.
Any fears I had that the FJR1300AE was just a scooter in sport-tour clothing were squashed when I mounted the 678-pound beast. It was sturdy as a football player and just as geared up, with not only saddlebags but anti-lock brakes, a DC power outlet and grip warmers, all of which come stock.
Other bells and whistles: The seat, handlebars and headlights are adjustable. So is the windshield -- which can be moved up and down (while riding) at the push of a button -- and the shifter, which can be operated by hand as well as by foot.
I decided to put the AE through its paces by taking the long way from L.A. to Malibu. For my 200-mile day trip, I traveled up the 101 through Ojai and out the other side, doubling back to the beach for a little sun time before blowing down PCH. I packed the saddlebags with girl stuff, hopped on and was ready to go.
Being clutchless, the bike’s fire-up has a different M.O. It starts only when the front brake lever is squeezed and the bike is in neutral, which is at the bottom of the shift pattern. Unlike traditional five speeds, which are one down four up, the AE is five up. Neutral was relocated to the bottom as a safety feature, the idea being that a sequential transmission and a complete shift stroke, rather than a half, makes it easier to find.
The AE can be shifted two ways: with a finger-operated hand shifter, located on the left grip, or by foot. I started with the latter, since it’s what I know. Even so, the first few times I kicked through the gears, I couldn’t help feeling that I was wrecking the bike. In 15 years of riding, I was hard-wired with the knowledge that shifting without clutching, if it were even possible, is the precursor to a transmission’s imminent destruction. But on the AE, it was just a simple click.
Easy.
Even easier: I didn’t need to roll off the throttle when I did it. I just held it steady.
Stopping at a light was also a piece of cake because I could do it in first gear. There’s no need to shift into neutral because the clutch disengages just above idle speed to stop the bike from conking out. Once the light gave me the go-ahead, I just twisted the grip and was off.
If only twisting the grip were easy. The throttle was stiff as a week-old baguette and about as enjoyable. The throttle cam was adjusted on 2006 model FJR1300s so the throttle wouldn’t need to be twisted as far for the power to kick in, but it doesn’t feel as if it was adjusted enough. I still felt like I could have read a book in the time it took to kick in. And I wanted it to be easier to twist. If this weren’t a brand new bike, I would have said the throttle was rusty. It was that stiff. Throughout my ride, I was constantly adjusting my grip.
While my left hand was on vacation, my right hand was getting a callous. I ached for cruise control, but if Yamaha had put it on the bike, I might have fallen asleep. The living is that easy on this year’s FJR1300, due in part to a longer aluminum swing arm that’s smoothed the rear suspension, and a windshield that’s been moved up and in a bit to reduce the windy-blowys.
I’d been riding for a while when I decided to stop shifting with my toe and put my fingers to work with the hand shifter. There was no need to pull over to do this. I just extended my left thumb and hit the button marked “hand shift.” A green light went on, and all systems were go.
To upshift, I used my forefinger to squeeze a button that was easier to pull than the trigger on a Windex bottle. Ditto for the downshift, which is operated by thumb with a button just beneath the horn.
It’s logical, if unfortunate, positioning. Until I got used to it, I was honking whenever I downshifted. But once I did get used to it, I never switched back to the foot shift. I loved it.
That said, I still don’t think a clutchless bike is necessary. Call me old-fashioned, but I like the clutch. I like the extra control and smoothness it provides.
Sure, there have been times when I cursed the clutch for working my hand into a worthless claw, but the clutch is a major part of what makes a motorcycle a motorcycle.
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Contact Susan Carpenter at susan.carpenter@latimes.com.
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2006 Yamaha FJR1300AE
Base price: $15,299
Engine: Water-cooled, inline 4-cylinder, DOHC, 4 valves per cylinder
Displacement: 1,298 cc
Transmission: 5 speed
Bore and stroke: 79 mm by 66.2 mm
Maximum torque: 81.8 at 4000 RPM
Seat height: 31.5 to 32.3 inches
Dry weight: 678 pounds
