Spears Slipper Clutches

Spears Racing Slipper Clutches

All of the clutches, springs and components on this page are for the Spears Racing purpose built Slipper clutches. The parts shown here will not work properly on your “OEM” Slipper clutches Like the Kawasaki Ninja 400cc,Kawasaki Ninja 300cc.Those items will be found in the particular area of the “Bike Your Working with”

When you are riding at high speeds and suddenly you encounter a sharp corner – the obvious reaction would be to slow down by applying the brakes and shifting in lower gear. But what if you have less time and you want to shift 2-3 gears at a time? And when you do this, you do it at the cost of damaging the gear box and putting your safety at risk which arises due to engine braking force. As a mechanism to reduce these issues, Slipper Clutch (also known as back torque limiter clutch) was introduced. Slipper Clutch helps by allowing the clutch to partially slip until the engine speed matches your own speed.

In normal clutches, the engine braking force is transmitted to rear wheel via chain drive (or shaft drive) which causes rear wheel to shake, jump or lose traction. This is the main concept behind slipper clutch – to control rear wheel under hard braking and downshifting that causes the rear wheel to lose traction. It is particularly helpful especially on higher displacement bikes where the engine braking force is massive and may cause the motorcycle to go out of control, resulting in a high-speed collision/accident!

Slipper Clutch Advantages

The following are the advantages of slipper clutches over normal clutch…

Slipper clutch reduces sudden forces on the inside of the transmission and hence, reduces wear and tear on the transmission
Correctly installed slipper clutch improves performance.
It can prevent disastrous rear wheel lock up in case of engine seizure or transmission failure.
It also reduces work of suspension by absorbing engine braking force hence less bumpy ride while cornering.
The rider does not need to concentrate on clutch operation which allows him to concentrate on other things such as body posture, braking etc while cornering.

Slipper Clutch Disadvantages

Practically there are no disadvantages of slipper clutch but hypothetically there are a few, such as…

It’s mechanically complex. Some slipper clutches are really complex to install and deal with (not many of them).
They are expensive (not against the saving they make by reducing wear and tear of transmission, less suspension movement and increased rider safety).
Sometimes you really need the engine braking force to slow down the bike (but how many times?) which can work against the concept and investment on slipper clutch.
Slipper clutch can’t give desired results if not adjusted according to requirements.(Plate Installed Height)