Suicide clutch
Videos
The terms suicide clutch, and suicide shifter or jockey shifter, refer to some motorcycles' foot-operated clutch and hand shifter to change gears. Foot clutches and hand shifters were found on early m
A chopper with a clutched hand shifter
A Harley motorcycle with an aftermarket "jockey shifter".
Old-style tank shift.
ABC motorcycle with hand shifter at the Cité de l'Automobile museum.
The Panhead is an overhead-valve Harley-Davidson motorcycle engine, so nicknamed because the rocker covers resembled cooking pans. The engine is a two-cylinder, two-valve-per-cylinder, pushrod V-twin,
Suicide clutch
…mid-20th century Harley-Davidson motorcycles and many custom bikes today still employ this system. Harley-Davidson introduced the hand clutch on the 1952 Panhead. More technically, "suicide clutch" can refer to clutch controls lacking a detent on the foot clutch, which would otherwise allow the rider to lock the…
Harley-Davidson Panhead engine at the Harley-Davidson Museum
Harley-Davidson panhead motor
Replicas of the Captain America bike and Billy Bike at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee