Recent filings with the United States Patent Office reveal that Honda is working on a clutch system similar to Ride-By-Wire, which has the potential to bring some pretty remarkable technological advances to motorcycles. Patent filings are not very easy to understand or digest, and is this system really useful?
Like Ride-By-Wire accelerator systems, where the accelerator cable has been replaced by an electric wire and are now legion on recent motorcycles, a clutch managed electrically by the ECU could appear at Honda.
The Ride-by-wire system uses the ECU to convert the rider's engine torque demand into optimized throttle position, ignition timing and injection timing. Likewise, Honda's clutch-by-wire system would completely eliminate the use of a clutch cable or conventional hydraulic setup. Instead, the position of the clutch lever would be monitored electronically and that data would be transmitted to the clutch, telling it what to do without any physical connection between the lever and the clutch itself.
According to the patent drawings, this system will use a traditional clutch lever configuration positioned on the handlebars. Hydraulic pressure would still be used to engage the clutch, although via an electric motor rather than a direct physical hand connection.
But what’s the point, then? In theory, this type of configuration opens up many possibilities. Like Ride-by-wire, which has brought us technological developments such as the appearance of driving modes, traction control and launch control, the clutch developed by Honda will be able to recognize when the position of the lever is The clutch is not optimal in relation to wheel speed, rpm, etc. Smoother and more precise gear changes are an obvious reward for this setup, but consider launch control: the bike can now integrate the position of the clutch lever in addition to existing data such as revs or speed to optimize more acceleration.
Given Honda's success with the Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) setup, we see no reason why this technology won't become a reality in the near future.
