How Many Fingers To Use On A Motorcycle Brake And Clutch

In case you’re recent to motorcycling, you will have wondered about your levers — specifically, which fingers you need to be using to grab them. The MSF may perhaps have taught you to make use of all 4 fingers, however the MotoGP pros never seem to try this. What gives? Is Marc Marquez some type of moron who doesn’t even know basic riding? Well, no. The actual answer is that any variety of fingers might be the precise number to squeeze your clutch or brake with. It’s only a matter of adjusting for the situation you are in. 

Some kinds of riding call for fewer fingers, others call for more. Neither is mistaken in a vacuum, but either might be mistaken for a given riding situation. Sometimes one may be the precise answer, sometimes 4, but we’ll assist you sort out the difference. Just bear in mind that you just don’t, in reality, know greater than Marc Marquez. None of us do. 

MotoGP riders, one of the best of one of the best, rarely if ever grab their front brake with 4 fingers — and barely grab their clutch in any respect, but that is a subject for one more day. The rationale why is easy: Control. Putting 4 fingers in your levers means there’s nothing left to grip the bar with, and also you lose a level of precision over your steering. Similarly, it could actually be easier to modulate brake or clutch pressure with fewer fingers fairly than more. In case you can fully disengage your clutch and have interaction front ABS (or lock up the front wheel), then you definitely’re in a position to provide enough pressure to the levers. More fingers will only lose you precision. 

Once I’m out riding, I’ll normally use two fingers each for my clutch and front brake. It’s my very own personal muscle memory at this point, however it’s not written in stone. Once I did Yamaha Champ School last yr, I found myself using only one finger on the front brake much more often than I used two — all due to extra precision in braking and steering it afforded me, particularly when doing each at the identical time. 

Towards the tip of an extended ride, though, I’ll often find yourself with 4 fingers on my clutch. A friend of mine whose riding involves loads of Boston traffic uses 4 fingers in any respect times. This too has an easy reason, even simpler than the precision of keeping your fingers on the bars: Pulling levers all day is tiring. 

That is why moto cops, in videos of police rodeos, continuously resort to a three- or four-finger pull on their clutch levers to maintain their control up through a full day of clutchwork at a rodeo. This can also be why I often find yourself using 4 fingers for rides home from the mountaineering gym, where I’ve already exhausted my grip strength. Fewer fingers in your levers may offer you more control, each over the bars and the brake or clutch, but 4 fingers allows you to keep riding for longer without getting drained.