stewmills wrote on 09/08/16 at 13:02:35:Remember that unless you are in the process of changing gears or starting from a complete stop, a clutch (like many water valves) should be either fully "on" or "off". Riding a clutch partially engaged for an extended period of time and slipping it over and over for extended periods of time is not good for it. On or Off. On or off.
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ZWC, that's a very good point stewmills just made. I most definitely was NOT suggesting you ride around for long periods of time with the clutch half engaged. That is a good way to shorten the life of your clutch. But I never really learned to drive a manual transmission car when I was younger so the first motorcycle I ever owned was really scary for me to operate. I had to learn a lot about how a clutch worked before my old Honda Nighthawk 250 would move more than a few feet.
Now, the smarter and more experienced guys here on the forum might disagree with me, but in my humble opinion, it's not going to hurt anything (or at least it won't cause serious damage to your bike) for you to sit on the bike with it running, put it in first gear, let the clutch out very slowly and try your best to learn how far you have to let that lever out before it begins to tug at the transmission and pull you forward.
Once you get to that point on the lever, pull it back in and try it again. Try that exercise 10 or 20 times until you can predict where the clutch grabs the gears (and therefore, it engages). But like stewmills said, just don't leave it half way engaged for more than a few seconds at a time or you'll start smelling something really awful.
Do you have anyone you know who already rides? I think a 60-second demonstration using a clutch would be invaluable for you. And please let us know how you're progressing.