Is Blipping Dead & Did Slippers Kill It?

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no luddite and in general I’m all in favour of performance enhancement through technical improvement and innovation but I struggle with the idea of a slipper clutch in the SD for the road.

It is true that for ultimate pace on the track a slipper clutch can be a great advantage. I had one on the K5 and appreciated its contribution to shaving lap time in a ‘one less thing to worry about, carefree’ sort of way. I used that bike on the road as well but never once used the slipper in anger whilst road riding.

Was I going too slow? No, I just enjoy blipping the throttle on down changes as part of the hard won muscle memory type pleasure of riding. Some well executed blips matching engine speed with road speed whilst braking hard and changing down always registered at least a flicker on the pleasurable sensation monitor.

All the more so with the SD. A big, high inertia twin with a barking exhaust and slick gearbox just begs for big blips on the way down and, because the penalty for getting it wrong is larger, in my experience the pleasure when getting it right is also magnified.

The SD is a hooligan bike, it’s a blade but not a scalpel (more of an axe if you ask me) so why would anybody want to add a slipper clutch unless they were chasing ultimate lap time? We apparently don’t want ABS (another system to mitigate incompetent rider inputs) or traction control but slipper clutches are somehow different.

Is it just me that enjoys blipping on down changes as part of the rider skill set, is it a dead or dying art?

Riding, and especially on something like the SD, is surely not about convenience or safety. It's about man & machine, about control and exhilaration. Simplicity rules with mechanical (or other) interventions kept to a minimum.

What do you think, to blip or not to blip and slip......

I love blipping while heavily on the brakes. Just love the whole experience. Never actually ridden a bike with a slipper on it so can't offer any opinion on whether one ruins the experience but I would def miss my blips and would probably still do them which I guess would kind negate having one in the first place

Just cuz you have a slipper doesnt mean you cant blipity blip to your hearts content

Personally id love traction control, but my SD does tend to live on track!

Sippers are a waste of time on a road dedicated bike but make huge sense for any track riding

I had an SD without a slipper, and then bought one, because I was doing a lot of track days, and if you dive into the hairpin at Brands on full chat you find yourslef spending more time thinking about gear choice and clucth use than you do about lines and the people around you... so a slipper seemed like a good idea.

The minute it was fitted I forgot about it, as it's action is invisible (although you do feel it through the clucth lever) - but on my first day back at Brands, I found the hairpin a lot easier to get around, and realised that I was thinking more about my bike's route through each corner and less about my bike's mechanics or gear selection.

And regarding your comments about laptimes, etc, it's not about that at all, it's about enjoying the bike's handling more and thinking less about the inherant problems of big CC twins with gears.

If you ride hard or do track days often it's a great mod, but I do also get it working on the road, and with one less thing to think about I think it makes for a safer and more rewarding ride... ...but they're not cheap and of course you can ride hard without one.

...oh, and I still blip a lot.

Interesting.

I raced 2 strokes and have not had the sdr on the track as yet so cant speak from that perspective but I sometimes get it chattering and hopping like buggery on the way in and instinctively try to control it with my clutch lever.


In the days b4 slippers I dont remember seeing racers (at scarborough say ) chattering and hopping on the way into the hairpin ,so those guys must have had the knack of manually controlling clutch slip.

When you have a slipper fitted to a bike like the sd, do you loose a lot of engine braking of can you fine tune it to slip just before the chattering begins ???

And does a slipper make backing it in easier by taking the clutch control out of the equation ???

...not sure if slippers killed blipping
I'm certain video killed the radio star tho.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laZw3Y3JCJ8

Brake..clutch...blip...change...brake...blip...turn...brake...blip...fook....crash....

Way too much to think about!

my first track day I nearly run into the back of a ducati 1098 and not the standard one , that was my first experience of rear end hopping and bouncing, came in after that session and was told dab the clutch to stop it, never botherd me again

So with a slipper clutch it goes like this does it...
your approaching a corner and your in top and know you want 3rd say,you just get on the brakes,pull the clutch stamp down to 3rd and release the clutch and when your ready to drive out of the corner its all back in sync ??


Can you feel how many you have gone down o.k ?

I'm an old time biker and I love my blipping. These V twin engines sound lovely when you blip. I love the matching of revs to speed to gears to road. Like been stated it's part of the riding experience.

But i have a slipper fitted and it's a better bike. I still blip on most of the road tiding I do but on those occasions where I go down to fast or misjudge entry speed then it's a godsend. I don't just whack down through the box and dump the clutch but when you do it makes things OK. But I'm not a racer. On track I know that when I'm riding as fast as I can then like Dutch says it's one less thing to worry about and I can concentrate on more important things like apexes and tyre grip.

Same with a quickshifter by the way. On the road I still use the clutch most of the time. It only works on hard acceleration really - the more you pin it the more it makes sense - not something you do much in town ever. In fact when I miss it and try to use it in town you realise just how much faster you have to ride and then you're going too fast for the situation usually.

If your back wheel is off the ground 'cause you are on the brakes , it's a mote point.
Fearless- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M23zjNrG9M

The first bike rhat I know of with a back torque limiting clutch was the First Year Honda interceptor(VF750F)
It is also the only bike that I have riden with one. It was quite an experiance, downshifting and not feeling any rear wheel tug of war. I had a Honda Superhawk (VTR1000) that was a bugger to match engine speed and road speed entering a corner downshifting and on the binders. I never felt at ease on that bike at corner entry on track. This is at the tyme that the slippers had just made thier way into the race bike arena. I purchase a Suter slipper and never installed it as I did not want excessive ware of my clutch plates and the flywheel on the SD is soooo much lighter that it mitigates a great deal of the situation. I believe that the new SD in the twelve hundred cubic centimeter configuration will be all but impossible to deal with without the use of some type of back torque limiting function.
The SD came off the showroom floor with all that was needed to thrill even the best rider. Throw more money at it at as you like but a blipping will still get you into that corner just fyne.

Once out of town I do clutchless up changes and blip the throttle on down changes - it's an automatic way of riding that I don't have to think about. In long decreasing radius bends such as the entrance to a lot of roundabouts it means I can be leant over, on the brakes and just concentrate on the line I'm taking and looking out for traffic.