A hydraulic clutch won’t make you a better rider. Except for when it does.Last year, when I trained for the BMW GS Trophy Qualifying, I spent a lot of time practicing full-lock turns and other slow-speed maneuvers that rely on the clutch as the primary control for carrying momentum. Feathering the clutch with precision, feeding power in and out smoothly and with to-the-millisecond urgency, can be one of the big differences between making it through a supertight cone course—or a stretch of technical single-track—and, well, not. To live in the friction zone of the clutch requires that it’s a habitable place to begin with—that its boundaries are clearly delineated, and there’s a little room to stretch out. That’s where hydraulic clutches often have a big advantage over conventional cable-actuated clutches.If your motorcycle is equipped with a conventional cable-operated clutch, however, it doesn’t have to be the end of the story. Renowned German manufacturer Magura builds its Hymec (hydraulic-mechanical) clutch conversion kit for a wide range of motorcycle models.

After begrudgingly returning my GS press bike last fall, I’ve continued to practice slow-speed drills on the Husqvarna Norden 901 I’ve been riding (and loving) for the past few seasons. The Norden is exceptionally well balanced for a tall adventure bike—not unlike the GS in that regard—and its relative light weight makes it forgiving when the front end starts to tuck at full-lock. But, at least in one regard, the Norden isn’t as easy to hustle through a cone course as the GS: It’s far easier to stall. The GS’ high inertia wasserboxer is, after all, one of its superpowers. To compensate for the Norden’s comparative lack of flywheel effect requires incredible precision with the clutch—more precision than I could get out of the stock cable clutch. Although the stock clutch is completely adequate for most applications, for what I wanted to do with it, it lacked a clearly articulated bite point and had a small friction zone that was difficult to modulate. Ultimately, I struggled to consistently perform maneuvers I’d gotten pretty good at on the GS.

To help me get my practice back on track, I installed Magura’s Hymec clutch conversion kit ($359). The kit comes as a pre-built assembly—from lever to slave cylinder. The hydraulic master cylinder is even prefilled with mineral oil. Installation on the Norden required removing the fuel tank, but was otherwise plug and play, involving little more than removing the stock unit then bolting the new master cylinder assembly to the handlebar, routing the line, attaching the slave cylinder to the stock clutch arm, and splicing the clutch switch’s wires to the new unit. Once installed, I barely even needed to adjust clutch free play.

Pulling out of my driveway after installing it revealed light action and smooth, consistent feel through the distance of the lever’s throw. Some hydraulic clutches can engage abruptly and feel like they have small friction zones—especially when they’re sampled next to a cable clutch that has a broad—but indeterminate-feeling—friction zone. Fortunately, that’s not the case with the Hymec unit. In terms of feel at the lever, it has little spring resistance at the fingertips. I mention this because the GS’ clutch lever gives a feeling of spring-back that I’ve always liked. The Magura isn’t better or worse; it’s just different.

To thoroughly assess its merits, I rode straight to the closest parking lot to do full-lock figure eights and circles. Let me be clear: The clutch didn’t magically transform the Norden into a GS—naturally, it’s still much more prone to stalling at idle when playing at the fringes of the clutch’s friction zone. However, the Magura’s friction zone is more articulated than it was with the cable clutch. The difference, at first, wasn’t night and day, but it was certainly palpable—enough so that I quickly realized I was able to do Trophy maneuvers with nearly the same level of consistency as I had on the GS. My real-time thought process went something like this: “This doesn’t feel that much different than before. Wait…I haven’t stalled or fallen over yet. Huh, I think this is gonna really help.” It’s the same story off-road too.

The Magura clutch enables me to encroach on the tipping point of stalling with accuracy and repeatability. Two years ago, before I started practicing this stuff, I’m not sure it would have made that much of a difference to me, but with more experience living in the friction zone, I’m now able to take full advantage of the Hymec’s benefits. Not only do I take advantage of it, I rely on it.

For anyone who isn’t working the clutch in the same way, the Hymec conversion kit is still a worthwhile modification. Since the clutch is one of the rider’s main points of control, giving it a premium feel upscales the riding experience. Quality German engineering is always welcome. Magura, founded in the foothills of the Swabian Alps in 1893, first introduced the Hymec clutch conversion kit in 1999, so quality and long-term reliability should be of little concern.You may be thinking that $359 is no paltry sum for a mod that doesn’t make your bike look cooler, sound better, go faster, or shed weight. But to me, it’s an under-the-radar essential. For how I want to ride—for how I want to improve as a rider—it’s been totally clutch.