Description
A lighter clutch! A lot of enduro riders want this because they spend so much time slipping the clutch in rough terrain or as part of their throttle control. For adventure riders, it's often more about just taking the pressure of our left hand as we get older, especially if we have problems such as arm pump, tendonitis or carpal tunnel syndrome. Welcome to Cross Training Adventure, we are into all things dual sport and adventure on the east coast of Australia. If your motorbike has a cable clutch, see our video for various techniques to get a lighter clutch pull. We have also done a video that focuses more on hydraulic clutches. Of course they are always young enough (and lucky enough) not to have problems yet with arthritis, tendonitis, arm pump, carpal tunnel syndrome, vascular or neurological disorders, ganglion cysts or osteoarthritis. One of the most effective solutions for hydraulic clutches is the Midwest lever. I have been using this for over 10 years on my enduro motorbikes. And now I've finally bought an adventure motorbike with a hydraulic clutch so I've fitted a Midwest lever to the mighty AJP PR7. How does it work? Leverage. You need to pull the clutch all the way to the handlebars to disengage the clutch. This extra distance means a lighter clutch pull. Midwest claim it's 50% lighter but in our tests it's usually 30%. This still makes an incredible difference though! Another advantage is increased clutch control as you can make small adjustments very easily when slipping the clutch. Keen on adventure riding in Australia? Check out our vids. The lever is made in the USA from 6061 billet alloy and the other fittings are stainless steel. The lever is thicker and flatter compared to stock clutch levers for better ergonomics. It's short to encourage only using one finger on the lever which is the ideal for better control while riding. The shorter thicker profile also lessens any chance of the lever breaking in a crash. Which motorbikes can use the Midwest clutch lever? It can suit a wide variety of models using the Brembo, Magura or Nissin clutch. The Midwest lever has made a huge difference with reducing these issues. And it's great to get the same benefits on my AJP PR7! Long rides on the DR650 were tough for my left hand. A final thought. Are you a wimp if you want a lighter clutch? I'm always surprised at the judgmental comments from some riders who say real men don't need lighter clutches. The only problem here is the Midwest website has always focused on enduro and motocross models and there are probably plenty of adventure motorbikes that can use the Midwest lever. But the only adventure models on the website to date are KTM 690, 950 and 990. The B2C lever definitely worked on our AJP PR7. Check your lever against the stock levers on the website. Installation is quite easy. Just remove the stock lever. Remove the stock plunger. Remove this spacer and put it into the Midwest lever. Insert the Midwest plunger then install the Midwest lever. Adjustment is critical! This screw adjusts how far the lever is from your handlebars. It needs to be a good distance in order to fully disengage the clutch. You don't want any 'free play' in the lever. If your masculinity is challenged by the idea of a lighter clutch lever I think you have some serious psychological issues to deal with! Have you tried a Midwest lever? What did you think? Have you tried other mods for a lighter clutch? Let us know in the comments. Adjust this second screw to remove any slack. Then adjust the position to suit using one or two fingers on the cluth lever. Correct adjustment is critical. If you don't get this right you won't be able to fully disengage the clutch, or you might encounter clutch slippage at full throttle. If you don't have the lever sufficiently far away from the handlebars you can have these problems. If you like dual sport riding in Australia then you might like our adventure riding vids. It's worth noting that if you have very short fingers this could be a permanent problem. The only issue we found with the AJP PR7 was it's slightly harder to find neutral. Check out our reviews of various adventure bikes and dual sport bikes. There is just enough clutch drag to make this trickier so we have got into the habit of clicking into neutral just before the motorbike comes to a standstill. Over the past 10 years I've had increasing issues with arm pump and carpal tunnel syndrome on enduro rides.
INDEX
0:00 Why a lighter clutch?
0:37 Midwest lever review
2:02 Which bikes does it fit?
2:42 Installation & adjustment
4:35 Is it just for wimps?
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