• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

First ride with a Rekluse

ptkatoomer

ptkatoomer

Husqvarna
Pro Class
So after work today I went out to our local singletrack spot to check out the Rekluse I installed on my 300XC. I went thru the run-in procedures per the manual to set the actuation. I don't know if it's because of the Belleville clutch on my bike but it was REALLY hard to find a good setting for that thing. It was super sensitive to adjust; just one change on the hash marks made a notable difference!
I had to set my idle really low to get it to engage well and not slip. I messed around with the slave adjuster a bunch to get it working. With the idle set so low the bike would stall if I hit the brakes hard. I found if I kept just the littlest bit if throttle that would prevent it from dying. However, if I turned the idle up any higher the bike would start to creep when I stopped.
I tried installing the lighter springs into the exp pak ( since they included them) but that made it worse. Recluse suggests installing the Ktm hardparts aftermarket Belleview spring if you want a more "aggressive" engagement. I'm assuming that's a stiffer spring and that might allow me to up the idle? (But then I might not like the engagement). I did notice that the problem lessened noticeably after riding for about an hour.
I now find that I can run second and third gear where I was using first and second before. Its kinda fun to be able to stop halfway up a hill in second gear and then just roll on the throttle and keep going. I can even start the bike in gear without the clutch pulled in.
There's definitely a learning curve. I have to keep reminding myself that I don't have to keep covering the clutch anymore, and on the flipside, now that I'm not coasting thru the turn with the clutch pulled in I have to be careful with my throttle because I'm "driving" thru it now .
All in all I'm pretty pumped about this addition!
 
as you get used to it, you'll find yourself using the clutch less and less. get the left hand rear brake setup and you can cover the front and rear brakes with your hands as you come into choppy, gnarly stuff like a mountain bike. I don't even use the pedal anymore at all. But I still have it for stopping on the trail to have both hands free
 
I keep thinking about a recluse and then delete the idea. As I get older I think I need to reconsider this option.
Love the notion of the foot brake relocating to the LHS handle bar>
 
I love my Rekluse on my FE501.

Climbing and plowing through the most difficult terrain becomes an absolute breeze. You will learn to ride the bike more relaxed and not roll the throttle on hard down low when you are in a taller gear to the point of it feeling like its slipping through its engagement. You'll learn to ride it by ear and you'll know when you need to downshift.

I had been running the heavier KTM clutch spring in the bike before I installed the Rekluse and although it says to use it with the Rekluse clutch too, I never have put it back in. Been running the standard spring ever since.

First time I recently took my freshly rebuilt G450X for a ride, I found myself coming around the first turn a few gears too high and had to stab it down a few times. It took me awhile to get used to having to shift it so many times and it has a wide ratio transmission.

I doubt I'll ever go back to riding off road bikes without a Rekluse clutch. As long as ones available for the bike I'm riding, I'll likely get one. More likely I won't buy the bike in the first place if they don't make one for it.
 
Wow, that's a serious statement BT. I keep riding bikes that never got one (449) or just too old to get one because Rekluse discoed it. What will I do with my Fanmaster skills if I'm lucky enough to get a bike that I can install one in?
 
Oh, I forgot to mention. I run the Rekluse left hand rear brake also.

At one point EFM did offer an auto clutch for our G450/449 clutches "Huskynoobee" I've had the opportunity to pick a used one up for cheap several times for my G450X but I never had any interest in setting the bike up with one. The lack of my interest in the EFM was simply due the fact that it eliminates the use of the lever and manual override all together. Having the lever operate as normal when wanted, I think is the best feature of the Rekluse, it can still be ridden with the lever used as normal. I've had people ride my bike that didn't even know it had the Rekluse installed.

What prompted me to steer towards getting the Rekluse in the first place was having 3 surgeries on my left wrist from breaking it in July of 2012. It still only has about 70% of limited motion. My left thumb has about 50% limited motion as well.
 
I used to use and sell them when they first came out. Then kinda moved away form them as I just feel like I did not need it. Now I have installed the new Radius in a 2017 KTM 500 I ride a lot and I'm really loving it. Here is my overall feeling about them after decades of use and selling hundreds of them.

  • They are excellent for big 4 strokes when riding technical areas where you have to clutch a ton. In this situation they are fantastic
  • They are good for 250 and up 2 strokes for technical riding
  • I don't like them as much on smaller displacement bikes as they take that snap off the bottom away some and the clutch feel and response is not 100% when you need it which you need it more on smaller bikes.
  • I dont like them on technical hills when you dont make it and have to turn around because the bike does not lock up the rear wheel and its hard to keep it from rolling down hill while you turn it around.
  • I sometimes miss the ability to snap the clutch real quick when I need to.
Overall I think they are an amazing product with lots of usefulness. Rekluse has been a great company to work with. They just got bought out so we will see how they do going forward.
 
"I dont like them on technical hills when you dont make it and have to turn around because the bike does not lock up the rear wheel and its hard to keep it from rolling down hill while you turn it around."

I have learned to use the old Auto technique of throttling up to get more lock up and blipping the throttle to keep the lock up harder/ more engaged. Hard to explain but I think you'll get it.
But also mine as its set up/tuned seems to always have some degree of lock up on deceleration as long as the rpm is up, as I've stated I really like the slipper clutch function of the Rekluse more than anything.

BTW our local AMA legend just installed his on his YZ450FX and is raving about it, firstly because of his old racer numb hands issues making clutch use more difficult, then to mention how smooth he can control speed on acceleration with traction as well as corner speed and chop throttle deceleration smoothness. And "he" talks about smooth...Mr. Smooth himself...and now he's more smooth.... jeez I will racing against him on Saturday!! Also note he is a Flexxbars proponent and as well.
 
I love mine on my wr450 , really saved my hands. I wish I would of tried one on my XCW 300 before I sold it .
 
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