Comming to a stop sign on your four

[stan]

I don't get out much on my 36. I took it out for a new years ride in southern California. Nice sunny day after a big rain. I have trouble at stop signs. What I do when rolling up to the stop, I lock the clutch pedal down. At 74 I am a little unstable to leave my left foot holding the clutch pedal down. Soon as I lose my balance down goes my left foot, and I stall the motor. It's always a procedure to re start the motor, even though it starts easy. Most times I just creep through stop sighs if no cars are present,which is begging for a ticket. Around here anyway. Do you guys do anything different? Stan

[Tom Lovejoy]

Stan, I don't have an Indian four but have a Henderson. You might try like a Deluxe rider does. Has you come up to the stop, just slip it into neutral and put your feet down. When ready to start off, put her in first and take off. A little slower perhaps, but not bad. On the deluxe the peddle is only down while you have your foot on it. Like a car or truck , good luck and have fun with your four, Tom

[PRG]

Howdy Stan,

In the interest of mechanical preservation I limit the clutch to essential use only, snicking into neutral when coasting to a stop for more stable two feet on ground, anticipating the moment of a light change or intersection cleared, then flicking it into first. Assume you have a real clutch on 8 springs and idle set reasonably low this action should be absent of clash, but, as first is dog engagement as opposed to gear teeth, there may be some resistance in which case with my right foot I may ease the machine ever so lightly backward with tension on the gear lever to find a gap in the dog teeth for quicker engagement.

Bears mentioning again here, the clutch lock should be avoided for all operation other than freeing a long-stored machine's clutch. This devise dates to a quaint era when these now valuable machines were mere commmodities of convenience for which the mucipalities they often ended up in service of cared little for their longevity. Clutch fingers, throw out bearings and crankshaft thrust washers even with modern lubricants will be unnecessarily stressed if this device is brought into the operator's equation for ease of use.