I am hard on clutches. Why? Well…Instead of letting off the throttle when the front wheel starts to loft upward, I simply just slip/drag the clutch a little to modulate the power, so I can get to point A to point B in a faster manner, without letting off of the throttle. This way of riding puts a lot of strain on the clutch and the plates that are inside any given bike’s engine. I usually can get anywhere between 8-10 hours on a Yamaha YZ450F clutch and the boys at Yamaha are frankly sick of handing me clutch plates every other week. We have tested the Rekluse Torque Drive kit in our Honda CRF450R. However, if you do not want to spend that kind of money on your clutch, Rekluse offers a Torque Drive Clutch Pack that utilizes the OEM clutch parts that replace your stock fibers, steels, and springs with their thinner plates and basket sleeves.
The Torque Drive Clutch pack on the Yamaha YZ450F utilizes 12 friction plates, 10 steel plates, six springs, and steel basket inserts to fit over every finger of your clutch basket. The idea behind Rekluse’s clutch pack is to use what they learned with their Torque Drive system and put it into an OEM platform. Rekluse is setting out to increase your OEM’s clutch capacity by increasing the number of plates, so you can get more of a positive connection at the rear wheel (AKA less slipping).
I wanted to do this test and run the stock clutch and Rekluse clutch back to back, so I started the test with one moto on the stocker and one moto with the Rekluse. The clutch pack doesn’t take much time to install, but be careful sliding the steel sleeves onto your basket as sometimes they can be slippery. You don’t want to be fishing sleeves out of your engine/clutch basket all day. Once installed and out on the track (with the Rekluse) the first thing I noticed is a lighter clutch pull feel than the already fairly light feel of the Yamaha YZ450F. After doing my first 25 minute moto with the Rekluse I could tell that there were some improvements in performance. Coming out of corners I could roll on the throttle without modulating/covering my clutch because I had increased positivity to the rear wheel. With the Rekluse I also felt like I had a small increase in throttle response from 0-10% throttle opening. There wasn’t much of a torque/pulling power increase, but I did notice (at crack of throttle) the Rekluse had more bite/snap. The good news about getting this extra response is that it didn’t affect control or power delivery through deep ruts.
The clutch engagement however was little more grabby on/off feel than the stock one, but wasn’t so bad where I couldn’t feed my clutch properly while doing starts. The real benefit to me was the lifespan of my clutch in two aspects. One aspect is the toughness this clutch pack has in longer motos (Testing Term: Track Toughness). Since it’s been raining a lot in Southern California I have been testing on sand tracks more than usual and the Rekluse Torque Drive Clutch Pack has provided me with less clutch drag when the engine heats up. I love to run third gear through corners, lug coming out, slip the clutch while exiting, and start to accelerate down the straight. Doing this puts a heavy load on my engine and the Rekluse Clutch Pack allows me to do this more without getting the plates too hot to where they start slipping during a moto. The second aspect that the Rekluse has sold me on was the overall lifespan that I am able to get out of the Rekluse. I have used the Rekluse Clutch Pack almost 14 engine hours and am just now starting to feel it slip/drag. I am getting a six hour increase in life, which is huge for me!
The only downfall to the Rekluse Clutch Pack is that it is more expensive than buying an OEM clutch kit. At $349.00 it’s over a $120.00 more, but then again, you will be getting more life out of a Rekluse Torque Drive Clutch Pack than your OEM plates. The cool looking Rekluse cover (which you don’t need with the kit) doesn’t come with the kit, but if you want to bling out your steed, the cost for the cover is $159.00. If you’re hard on your clutch or maybe you’re a hard core racer that wants the benefit of a Torque Drive clutch without the cost, the Rekluse Torque Drive Clutch Pack is an excellent purchase.
