Deegan Tomac No Clutch Drills…

Teaches you how to carry momentum and speed throughout the track without relying on the clutch to "boost" you or make up for poor technique. 

Tomac is notoriously tough on the clutch. No clutch drills are two parted. One: you save the clutch and don't fry it early in a race. especially important in the mud. Two: it teaches you to be smooth with the throttle inputs and carry as much speed mid corner as possible. 

The clutch is there for a reason...just use the hell out of it.

I feel like as long as you're in the right gear, you don't need to abuse the clutch.  Roczen is easy on the clutch and only goes through a couple clutches per season.  Eli goes through a clutch every 2 practice motos.  It's a matter of riding styles.

Clutch abuse is partly a legacy of habits learnt on two strokes in juniors. However nowadays on full sized four strokes it’s mostly only used to modulate power delivery, such as in the whoops or on the start.

One of the best drills ever for a young rider is to get them to cut timed laps on a 65 or 85 without the clutch lever until they can match their times with clutched laps. Then you put the lever back on and miraculously they can gain seconds a lap that otherwise may have taken weeks or months of training.

But as far as Tomac goes, let the dog eat.

I have ridden big bore 2 strokes exclusively the last 12 years or so, and I almost never use the clutch.

Learning to keep up your entry speed and roll speed through the corner then rolling on the throttle is considerably faster than coming in super hot, braking super hard, sharp turn stabbing the throttle and dumping the clutch.  Keeps your heart rate down and conserves energy.

I am not the fastest Vet A rider BUT I usually make up lots of ground on guys through corners with this approach.  I’m not Eli or Deegan, but they already know how to ride the thing WFO and abuse the clutch.  Being able to utilize a mix of approaches is helpful im sure 

Alternate thread title: "Discussions we never had when 125s roamed the Earth."

The benefit would be winning the last 4 450 championships. Jett and Chase look very easy on the clutch to me. Eli is a different animal. Not a lot of people can replicate that style successfully.

Traction control can't do it's thing if the rider is slipping the clutch as the ECU typically uses an algorithm that assumes the clutch is completely disengaged and transmitting full torque through the transmission. Clutchless drills allow the rider to build trust and confidence in the ECU settings and also provides the team with more data where the clutching variable is eliminated from the system, allowing for a better understanding of torque application performance.  

#endclutchabuse

I have also tried no rear or no front brake drills.  Similar concept of no clutch.  Learning to carry more speed and only use the controls as truly needed.  I still go back to old habits eventually but for a short time they helped.

The truth of it is that a dirt bike would be faster with no rider at most points on a track. If you can stay off of the controls and let the bike work as intended it goes a long way. 

Hahaha. I remember when I was on 80s racing my local 125 class, there was a guy who would just hold the throttle WIDE open through every corner and just use the clutch instead of letting off. I saw him in practice and he LOOKED fast as hell. Then I blew his doors off. But yes, way more common to use the clutch and rev the hell out of your bike back in those days. 

I'd be willing to bet there is a fresh clutch in Kenny's bike every race weekend.

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You may very well be correct.

I'm only repeating what both Roczen and Tomac have said in interviews.

Eli does things with clutches they were never meant to do. But he sure does it well! If you buy clutches in bulk and don’t mind changing them it can certainly work.