holds the motorcycle in place with pressure on the rear brake pedal with the right foot, while engaging the clutch with the left hand. On a motorcycle equipped with a suicide clutch, the clutch is held in with the left foot, requiring the right foot to hold the bike in place, with the right hand applying pressure to the front brake. Early Harley Davidson foot clutches used an over-center spring to hold the clutch pedal in the disengaged position and used a friction disc to allow the rider to adjust the sensitivity of the return. Often riders removed the spring to keep the clutch pedal from returning to the disengaged position while riding. While this spring removal allowed for the clutch to stay engaged better, it also removed the safety feature of the clutch pedal holding itself in the disengaged position. With the pedal not returning to its natural disengaged position, the rider must either shift into neutral or hold the clutch pedal with the left foot when coming to a stop. Early Harley Davidson racers removed the clutch return spring to ensure the clutch stayed in the engaged position throughout the race. This practice soon caught on with other riders. The term "suicide clutch" was coined by those who could not operate the foot clutch proficiently enough to ride a tank shift (or hand shift) motorcycle in normal traffic. Types of shifters Regular clutch hand Shifter - This is where the shifter is a regular knob either located on the tank, which operates through a linkage to the transmission (tank shifter) or on a lever bolted directly to the top of the transmission (jockey shifter or slap shifter depending on the transmission design) and involves the semi-complex task of foot clutch operation and hand shifting. The foot is used to operate the clutch pedal clutch lever and the second hand is used to shift gears. Clutched Shifter - This shifter has a clutch lever on it allowing one-handed shifting. This design allows the left foot to be free. Technical history Foot clutches with tank shifters were standard on American motorcycles such as Harley-Davidson and Indian up to the mid-20th century and many custom bikes today still employ this system. The system used by Harley-Davidson arranged the controls with the tank shifter on the left side of the motorcycle, with the throttle operated by the right hand and the shifter,