Honda Rebel 300 Adds E-Clutch, Making The Best Beginner Bike Even More Beginner-Friendly

The Honda Rebel 300 is, in many ways, the perfect beginner bike. It’s light, cheap, and compact; its seat height is approachable and its power is easily metered by even the shakiest of nervous newbie hands. It’s no wonder that motorcycle courses across the country love the little Rebel as a training tool, and as such many new riders will use one as their first-ever bike. But, in a country where driving stick is on the decline, the Rebel 300 has always had one barrier to entry: A manual gearbox. Now, though, that’s going away as the Rebel 300 finally gets Honda’s E-Clutch system. 

Of course, we’re not surprised that the littlest Rebel is getting the E-Clutch. NHTSA records showed the U.S. would get a second variant of the bike way back in February, and those same documents said we’d get the Hornet 750 and CB1000SP. When those two hit our shores, it followed that the Rebel line would get its rumored updates just the same — especially after Honda showed an appetite to put the E-Clutch in compact cruisers, with the Japanese-market Rebel 250 getting the same treatment earlier this year, it’s only natural that we see the tech on our Rebel 300.

I’ve actually ridden Honda’s E-clutch before, on the much larger Honda CB650R naked bike. It’s a weird system to get used to at first, but only at first. You pick it up pretty quickly, remembering not to pull in the clutch at red lights but knowing that it’s an option for tight U-turns. The E-Clutch sounds like an odd middle ground between a full manual transmission and something like Honda’s own dual-clutch gearbox, available on the bigger brother Rebel 1100, but it has its place. It’s easy to pick up, easy to ride around on, but gives you all the precision of a clutch when you need it. 

Motorcycling is a fantastic and efficient way to get around, but its broad appeal has always been limited by how few automatic gearboxes are offered, especially in the U.S. where driving stick is rare and getting rarer. Now, new riders nervous about learning to feather a clutch need not shell out for an NC750X or something electric. A clutch-optional entry-level bike has the possibility to massively expand the reach of motorcycling in the United States, and that’s something we should all celebrate.