I am wanting to something about riding a wheelie on a 400ex. The question is when you guys ride wheelies on your 400ex do you only use the clutch when shifting gears or do you like slip the clutch a little bit the whole time you are riding one? The reason I want to know this is because I am hoping the buy a 2001 Honda 400ex in the upcoming months and I don't want to have to slip the clutch everytime I ride a wheelie because everytime you slip it the clutch burns a little bit which comes to buying new clutch kits. The other reason is the other day I was riding my bike and I heard a 4 wheeler so I went to take a look and I saw a guy on a 400ex and he had the clutch pulled in half way with the front wheels in the air.

 

I never use the clutch except when stopping and taking off. Havn't had any problems yet, hope i wont.

 

There have been mixed feelings on using the clutch or not using it.
I try to use it every chance I get. As far as riding wheelies goes. You should not even need the clutch to get the front of the 400ex lofted into the air. 1st, 2nd and even third gear has plenty of power in stock form to raise the wheels high. A goose on the gas and a slight pull depending on your weight should be plenty. I don't think you would want to have the clutch slipping the whole time. It seems it would be harder to control the power delivery that way.

 

I don't even touch the clutch when riding wheelies, I just feather the throttle a little to keep it up. Sometimes in 3rd or 4th, just to get the front end off the ground, I pull in the clutch, rev the engine, and dump the clutch to pop the front end up, but after I get it up, I don't touch the clutch.

 

You do have to use the clutch sometimes during wheelies. Once you learn how to do them, I think it will be needed less often, so don't worry about it. My clutch is still original (2 years old). I do quite a bit of hill climbing, which takes a lot of clutch use. My clutch is still going strong. I even ran some 22" All Trax rear tires for a while. I am sure that was really hard on the clutch. I have gone back to smaller 20" shredders for racing and thrashing now. I still slip the clutch a lot, but mostly coming out of corners, not on a steep hill.

 

I use the clutch all the time. I am almost out of ajustment on the cable. I wonder why ATV Action and dirtwheels say that 400ex's have weak clutches. I have not heard anything bad about them on here.

 

there is no need to ever use the clutch to pop a wheelie in first... when i drag race my friends i have trouble keeping the front down so i end up ridin a wheelie to 4th... i only use the clutch when starting and stoping also