The Rebel’ s neutral seating position puts the rider in charge. Below: The new E-Clutch takes up very little real estate on the bike.
Although a single update doesn’ t seem like much to write home about, this one is more significant than it appears.
The E-Clutch system is a clever bit of technology that adds a lot of utility for no more space than it takes up. The bike still has a regular manual transmission, but the E-Clutch takes over the clutch work when the rider chooses to use it. The system is operated by two electric motors that engage and disengage the clutch, using information taken from the electronic control unit, such as shift-lever load, gear position, throttle position, rpm, and wheel speed. A three-part clutchlever shaft allows the transition between manual control of the clutch, motor control using E-Clutch, and override control that allows the rider to momentarily use the clutch.
In simple terms, the E-Clutch does the rider’ s clutch work for them, and although the bike still comes with a clutch lever, the rider can choose to ignore it completely, shifting with the foot lever as they normally would but never touching the clutch lever. This versatile system also allows the rider to turn the E-Clutch off completely, or riders can turn it off for a few seconds by grabbing the clutch lever.
Although it would seem to fill a similar role as Honda’ s Dual Clutch Transmission, the two systems provide quite different experiences. The DCT uses two clutches, one for odd gears and the other for even gears, to provide a fully automatic ride without the rider needing to shift. Riders can switch a DCT bike into Manual mode and shift via buttons on the left switchgear, but bikes with DCT do not include a clutch lever or foot shifter. In contrast, the E-Clutch is more like an extra-duty quickshifter.
14 / MARCH 2026 / RIDERMAGAZINE. COM