Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: Clutch, motorcycle clutches, car clutches

Question
I am new to riding a motorcycle and I have been trying not to use a lot of clutch because I am afraid of wearing it out. A friend who is a more experienced rider told me that a motorcycle clutch is different from a car and that over riding the clutch is fine on a motorcycle because it sits in a bath of oil to keep it cooler than the clutch in a car. Is this true? Is over riding the clutch on a motorcycle acceptable?

Answer
It's true, motorcycle clutches are different to car clutches, not only are they generally a 'wet' clutch, (There are a very few exceptions like on some American machines such as older Harleys, typical!) they also tend to have far more plates. Mine has 10 fibre clutch plates in between 10 metal plates.
Make sure though that you ALWAYS use motorcycle oil and not car oil. The minerals in car oil can actually fuse the clutch plates together, jamming it so that the only way to change gear is to "crash" through the box.
Try not to let the clutch slip too much if you can but your friend is right, holding the bike on the clutch is perfectly fine as long as the clutch is properly looked after.

Andrew.