Yes. The clutch can be fully used like normal. You must use the clutch lever to take off from a stop and to engage neutral. It can be ridden as a normal motorcycle in every sense except your thumb will shift with an up button and a down button. So you can slip the clutch when needed, and have full control. However when spirited riding is wanted this system can shift without the clutch. I did a lot of research into the various systems out there. Air actuated, solenoid actuated, the methods used to control them. I felt this Translogic system would work the best in terms of fitment, quality, weight, and very advanced electronics. You get your clutchless shifts by allowing a computer to retard your ignition for a fraction of a second. This unloads the trans briefly allowing the shift to occur. A lot of motorcyclist do this already by quickly slightly backing off the throttle and making the shift. A lot of riders use a quickshifter that uses a load cell installed in line with the shift rod, that cell sends a signal to a computer that retards the timing allowing full throttle clutchless upshifts. Translogic has very advanced software that monitors and controls each individual cylinder, has a soft restore feature to bring the power back on, and allows for incredibly smooth shifts even at lower rpms. As for shift times, they claim that on an average Japanese street/track bike it can shift 4 times in a second. Under full power. It also does clutchless downshifting by using a throttle blipper. It sees the current rpm, receives the signal from your thumb to downshift, and raises the rpm to the proper mesh point to allow the lower gear to engage. On throttle by wire bikes this is easily done. On my application I will either use the clutch manually or once I master it use the twist throttle to quickly blip it manually.
So my concerns with this system. Falling off. This is going to need a bullet proof tether system. This machine will not automatically return to idle once the throttle is released like a normal sled. If when you exit this sled it doesn’t stall, it will continue to turn the track. Would be funny to see an unmanned sled happily cruising until it hit something. Or it could be very ugly if you were pinned under it. It does have a tip over sensor on it from the factory speed triple. This kills the power when the bike is laid over. I’m going to do some experimenting when it’s up and running to see how intrusive it is. Don’t need the sled turned off while turning out of a high mark or dropping out of a sidehill etc. It can be bypassed but if it doesn’t spoil the fun and still kills the sled when needed I’ll leave it alone. Another concern is when it’s stuck. When someone gives you a ski pull. When you’re standing next to it pushing on the handlebars to help pop it up out of a hole. All of these things motorcyclist and sport quads have been living with for years, so I know it’s 100% doable, it’s just a matter of how fast the learning curve sets in and new techniques are developed.
Whew. Long winded.