Hi sportscarpat,
I like both systems, manual and automatic. Most of my vintage Whizzer collection employs the manual version, and all work perfectly. The vintage Whizzer automatic clutch also uses a way one system to enguage the clutch for starting, and will not freewheel. The vintage clutch system uses "dogs" to allow the pedals to start the motor, whereas the new generation has a "one way needle bearing" to get the job done.
If your motor has a way to start other than pedaling, the one-way system is a problem to ride without the motor running. I once ran out of gas on my wife's 2001 and soon found it necessary to remove the rear belt to allow me to pedal to the gas station. The vintage Sportsman & Ambassador had a kick starter and didn't use the one-way system. My new edition Ambassador, with electric start, has the clutch with the one-way bearing, and is good because the alternator can't keep the battery charged. My Ambassador is the rare version #1 and the headlight is too large and draws more current than the system can supply [can you say dead battery?].
Many don't understand the way the clutches work on a Whizzer. They actually "slide" into lock, and go through the "ticking" process in doing so. If the clutch were to achieve lock suddently, the motor RPMs would drop, dis-enguage the clutch, rev up, achieve lock, etc., making for a "jerky" system. If setup correctly the clutch will start to enguage, slip slightly [called "ticking"], then go into total lock.
When we first designed the Q-Matic drive system, Jim at Max Torque worked with us to bring the same process to the drive. While the Q-Matic has a much shorter "ticking" time, it still makes it the smoothest enguaging drive on the market. We also considered how important the compression braking was and now have the only 4-stroke automatic drive with it built in.
Consider the following when selecting a cent. clutch system.........if you use a one-way bearing, it won't freewheel, if using a freewheel it won't compression brake. By locating the clutch as the final output of the drive, the clutch bell will turn without the motor running [freewheel], and while the motor is running, the clutch won't dis-enguage untill the motor drops below 2500 RPMs [approx.] providing compression braking unit it drops to idle.
If your project has a rope statrter, electric starter, etc. then use a Max Torque clutch, if not then you will need to use the one-way bearing to start the motor [goodbye to freewheel].
One last comment concerning the Whizzer automatic clutch................if setup correctly it will connect the motor to the rear wheel and go into total lock. In fact it lifts the front wheel of my Sportsman racer, rather quickly. It also goes into complete lock to turn high speed numbers when geared for top end on the DYNO test runs.
Hope this information is helpful,
