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At least he has a garage. I usually park mine in one of two places: on the street in front of my home, or on the street in front of my office. I have a very dirty bike.
Most weeks I ride more from Monday-Friday than I do on Saturday-Sunday.
First, as mentioned, there absolutely zero clutch wear from holding in the lever.
What? Are you serious? Please do share some facts that backs this up because I have always been told/believed certain parts would wear out due to the pressure being put on them like throwout fork/bearing, even on a wet clutch bike! Zero wear? Me tends to disagree.
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And if your hand/arm gets tired from holding in a clutch for a minute, you have bigger issues to deal with.
How so? On some of the bikes, the clutch is really stiff by design. Even my V-Strom's hydro clutch is quite stiff and just holding it in for a few seconds is a workout, holding and keeping it 45+ seconds at every red light would give you carpal tunnel and I am a fairly strong guy.
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I've escaped several of those nasty little incidents by just being in gear and ready to move NOW.
I got lazy once (with 8 or 10 cars parked behind me) and put the bike into neutral at a red light. This bit me in the azz because the cnt in front of me put her car in reverse and ran me over. I had a place to go, could have gotten out of the way if I were in gear but it happened so fast that I never even got my hands back on the bars or foot to the peg (sitting up, both feet on the ground) before the impact.
So, in short:
--- <- Car
\ <- you
Aim to one side or the other and be ready to move. Opt for the side that doesn't have a curb unless you're on a dual-sport bike.
Since I do go in between cars at stop lights, probably never seemed to be a concern for me!
I do understand and agree why you would want to do it.
My unscientific experience leads me to believe that holding the clutch in has a few negatives over time. Cable stretch, throwout bearing, spring-sag, glazing, etc. Im a weakling too . . . I remember fast riding through the mountains of central PA, MD, etc, and my clutch hand being sooooo tweaked I could barely pull it on at the end of some rides
Holding it in would have been impossible.
In traffic, aside from being hyper-vigilant, I roll up to lights slowly so cars notice Im slowing for a while. Worked for the last 40 years or so, but I ride an automatic now, so its in neutral and in gear ???
i don't think that's sad. he could be driving a poorly handling four wheel beater to work. sounds like a big improvement to me
some people work a lot. whether or not that's sad depends on how they feel about their work...
that said, he still should be parking in gear
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