Atlas Throttle Lock, happy, not, what?

[FIRE UP]

Totally agree that throttle locks are not cruise control. The only disadvantage in using a cruise control is when you need to do long twisty mountain pass.
You need to constantly increase or decrease throttle pull and cruise control becomes almost useless. Found that out recently when I did a mountain pass. I wish I had put on my throttle rocker for that portion.

Well Sir,
This is not meant to sound condescending in any way. Not even close. But, there are logical times when a cruise control should or can be used, and there's times when it shouldn't be used. And in my worthless opinion, using either a throttle lock or cruise control while in the terrain you described, as in mountains and curvy roads is not one of those times. There's way too many variable speed conditions for either of those to work accurately or, even work at all in most cases. Cruise controls can handle STRAIGHT variable hills and some "slight" curves and keep things on an even keel. And there's some cruise controls that can actually hold a set speed while the vehicle is descending long grades. That depends on the engines ECM and how well develpped the cruise control is for that particular vehicle. My old '07 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland with the 5.7 Hemi in it would hold speed down grades. Throttle locks are extremely limited in capability. They only hold the throttle in a set position, not speed. One just happens to engage a throttle lock at any speed. But don't expect it to hold that speed if the motorcycle encounters up or down hills or twisties with either of those. They do fairly well on nice and flat roads. Good enough that it allows for the relaxation of your throttle hand, fingers, wrist and arm for even a short while.
Scott

 

[dduelin]

The Go Cruise doesn’t use friction to hold a set throttle opening like other friction locking devices do. It’s an important distinction missed by those that diminish or dismiss non electric speed control devices. I’ve posted too many times about the GC but I’ll say again I have no use for the friction locks I’ve had but I have traveled over 100,000 happy miles with a GC on different bikes.

 

[FIRE UP]

The Go Cruise doesn’t use friction to hold a set throttle opening like other friction locking devices do. It’s an important distinction missed by those that diminish or dismiss non electric speed control devices. I’ve posted too many times about the GC but I’ll say again I have no use for the friction locks I’ve had but I have traveled over 100,000 happy miles with a GC on different bikes.

Sooooo,
Let me ask then. If it "doesn't use friction" to hold the throttle in a set position, then how EXACTLY does it work? I'm no engineer, not by any stretch but, to me, there's only two ways to obtain CRUISE CONTROL. One is to have it done electronically which is a fairly complicated add-on if your motorcycle/car does not come with one. The second way is locking or "holding" the throttle in some way or fashion. Friction (in some form) is the only way I can see to make a throttle stay in a given position to hold a given speed. And when I research the Go Cruise, And as I stated earlier, with any friction locking device for the throttle on a motorcycle, you're only locking it for the speed at which it was originally set, on a given set of road conditions. If you change those parameters, i.e. start a down hill or slight grade down hill or up hill, that setting will not hold the speed at which it was set at.

Don't get me wrong, they (just about any of the aftermarket throttle locks) work. And they work as intended.
Scott

 

[dduelin]

Sooooo,
Let me ask then. If it "doesn't use friction" to hold the throttle in a set position, then how EXACTLY does it work? I'm no engineer, not by any stretch but, to me, there's only two ways to obtain CRUISE CONTROL. One is to have it done electronically which is a fairly complicated add-on if your motorcycle/car does not come with one. The second way is locking or "holding" the throttle in some way or fashion. Friction (in some form) is the only way I can see to make a throttle stay in a given position to hold a given speed. And when I research the Go Cruise, And as I stated earlier, with any friction locking device for the throttle on a motorcycle, you're only locking it for the speed at which it was originally set, on a given set of road conditions. If you change those parameters, i.e. start a down hill or slight grade down hill or up hill, that setting will not hold the speed at which it was set at.

Don't get me wrong, they (just about any of the aftermarket throttle locks) work. And they work as intended.
Scott

Take this or leave it. My opinion is free and worth about as much. I knew someone would take me literally at friction and need further explaniation and I'm not in the mood to explain it again so this is cut and pasted from a previous thread

The one thing that separates devices like the Go Cruise from other friction locks is that the GC does not simply hold the throttle at one place like friction locks do. The GC keeps the throttle from dropping below a throttle opening the rider sets by pressing the GC against the front brake lever but the rider is free to open the throttle more but when released it goes back to the previous speed setting. This removes half of the fiddly micro adjustments one must make with simple friction locks to account for hills and for passing slower vehicles. Yesterday I was riding in north central Florida where the terrain is gently rolling hills (yes, there are hills in Florida). So imagine riding along at 60 mph. I push the GC down against the brake lever so it keeps the throttle set for 60 mph. The GC is free enough to be pushed against the lever but tight enough hold a set speed but when the throttle is rolled closed the GC is pushed up into the OFF position. So riding along at 60 mph I start up a hill. I want to hold 60 so the natural response is to roll on a little bit more throttle. As I sense I am nearing the crest of the hill I ease off the extra throttle and the GC hits the front brake lever again and holds to the previously set setting. If I don't time the approaching crest correctly the bike might still sag to 58 or 59 at the crest and on the down grade it might pick up to 62 or 63 but as the road flattens out it resumes running at 60 mph.

If you have had a real cruise control all this prattling about throttle locks is a bit pedantic. No add-on friction device works as well as a well engineered cruise control but there are big differences in friction lock functionality. You can spend a lot more than the $20 a Go Cruise and get something that is not worth fiddling with in use. I had the $180 Throttlemeister on my ST1300 and ended up using a GC for a hundred thousand miles.

 

[GregC]

further to Dave's explanation ... a picture (or video) is worth a thousand words. Look at 1:25 on this vid and you see what Dave is talking about:

Go Cruise in Action

 

[MZ5]

^^What Dave said^^
(-:

I have Go Cruise for Wiley, and like it far better than anything that actually locks the throttle in one place.

 

[jknight611]

I bought one when they first came out, found it to be totally worth less on my KLR. The clamping action was so tight in order to keep the silicone (rubber) pad engaged that it distorted the plaster throttle tube. I found this out just several days before an ultra long trip (18,000 miles). I ended up with the big “O” ring technique and that served me well, in fact still does!

 

[ingrammc]

I just bought a knock off on TEMU for $17 Going to see how it goes. it is totally worth $17 to me, Not worth $155.

 

[Dailyridersg]

Well Sir,
This is not meant to sound condescending in any way. Not even close. But, there are logical times when a cruise control should or can be used, and there's times when it shouldn't be used. And in my worthless opinion, using either a throttle lock or cruise control while in the terrain you described, as in mountains and curvy roads is not one of those times. There's way too many variable speed conditions for either of those to work accurately or, even work at all in most cases. Cruise controls can handle STRAIGHT variable hills and some "slight" curves and keep things on an even keel. And there's some cruise controls that can actually hold a set speed while the vehicle is descending long grades. That depends on the engines ECM and how well develpped the cruise control is for that particular vehicle. My old '07 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland with the 5.7 Hemi in it would hold speed down grades. Throttle locks are extremely limited in capability. They only hold the throttle in a set position, not speed. One just happens to engage a throttle lock at any speed. But don't expect it to hold that speed if the motorcycle encounters up or down hills or twisties with either of those. They do fairly well on nice and flat roads. Good enough that it allows for the relaxation of your throttle hand, fingers, wrist and arm for even a short while.
Scott

It all depends on the route. That particular route I took had very very short winding and turns. The cruise control wasn't suitable for that particular route. I have been to other places where mountain passes (it was a huge mountain) is extremely long and the turns were super long but not sharp. Cruise control for this mountain would work.

Anyway, I'll be bringing along my throttle rocker when I go touring next month.

 

[bikemiser]

I bought one when they first came out, found it to be totally worth less on my KLR. The clamping action was so tight in order to keep the silicone (rubber) pad engaged that it distorted the plaster throttle tube. I found this out just several days before an ultra long trip (18,000 miles). I ended up with the big “O” ring technique and that served me well, in fact still does!

Can't get ' Go Cruise' to hold. I went with 'Atlas' knock off. Works great