Automatic Gearboxes on Bikes

[Biker Biggles]

It might make biking a better option for the disabled,and theres plenty of bikers with wonky knees,arms and wrists out there.

Have you ridden the aprilia Mana... its a cvt but a very good one (continious variable transmision) (sp) works very well and was HUGE fun, i would miss it as part of my daily ride but as a first stab its not half bad at all.

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.p...ighlight=today

heres my linky to when i rode one

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

It might make biking a better option for the disabled,and theres plenty of bikers with wonky knees,arms and wrists out there.

My mate knows someone who lost their leg in a bike accident so now rides lambrettas (obviously they're manual but the gearchange is on your clutch hand.). Same guy once had plaster up to his hip so took to lambrettas also until he'd recovered.

[rictus01]

Originally Posted by Ed

Oh dear. I'm not a 'proper driver' and I use minimum skill and concentration then? .

You probably are ED, no more than myself mind, for most people driving tends to never be an end unto itself these day; but a secondary function in getting somewhere or moving something and done as easily as possible.

The ability and opportunity to fully use a cars potential is extremely limited, that being reflected in the amount of car journeys undertaken just for fun.

On the other hand that still exists for bike riders and pro-rata the journey is the thing of enjoyment more than the destination for bikes.

My point, in a car you need to change gear, on a bike you want the perfect one or a close to it as possible, manual boxes on a car mean holding the clutch in traffic, up and down trundling threw town behind the bus, where an auto just saves effort and concentration, of course on the bike the game of filtering keeps you focused and then you're passed and away so totally different.


Gear changing in a car can be "good enough" and most would be happy with that, on a bike the right gear at the right time is something practised and perfected

Cheers Mark.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by rictus01

You probably are ED, no more than myself mind, for most people driving tends to never be an end unto itself these day; but a secondary function in getting somewhere or moving something and done as easily as possible.

The ability and opportunity to fully use a cars potential is extremely limited, that being reflected in the amount of car journeys undertaken just for fun.

On the other hand that still exists for bike riders and pro-rata the journey is the thing of enjoyment more than the destination for bikes.

My point, in a car you need to change gear, on a bike you want the perfect one or a close to it as possible, manual boxes on a car mean holding the clutch in traffic, up and down trundling threw town behind the bus, where an auto just saves effort and concentration, of course on the bike the game of filtering keeps you focused and then you're passed and away so totally different.


Gear changing in a car can be "good enough" and most would be happy with that, on a bike the right gear at the right time is something practised and perfected

Cheers Mark.

I think you're right I actually put the audi into manual in the end because I felt the auto was hindering my enjoyment. For bombing about on an auto would be okay (just like the 50ccs), but I'm fully behind manuals on the bike enjoyment/control front.

[STRAMASHER]

More crap from Honda that nobody wants.

Originally Posted by Ed

Oh dear. I'm not a 'proper driver' and I use minimum skill and concentration then? I do like my tiptronic gearbox in the Merc, sorry Pencil Shavings I completely disagree with it being slow and uninspiring. It most definitely isn't.

I drove one for a week over christmas in South Africa, and did 2000ish miles, I just found that is was slow to respond when you needed the power. sometimes if you used 1/4 throtle more, nothing would happen, it needed you to be heavy with your foot, which ment sometimes it would drop a gear lower than u wanted and rocket forward.

It never caused a problem as such, I just never knew exactly what was going to happen.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by STRAMASHER

More crap from Honda that nobody wants.

Have you tried their ABS on their 2 2009 Fireblade models (600 &1000)? It was reviwed very positively in the same mag.

The best auto system I've used (and only one I've liked) was in a cage. It was Honda's sports automatic system in a new shape Civic. In one position it was a normal fully automatic box, with all the downsides that entails: It can't read the road ahead, Can't tell when hills are coming up etc. so it is inherently reactive to the road and hence a bit more sluggish than me changing gears ahead of time. In spite of these weaknesses when I suddenly fell ill half way through a trip (and would have struggled to drive home in a manual) it was a Godsend. In the other position, it was better than a geared car for going quick and although I didn't test it off the road, I imagine it'd be faster on track too. Effectively it became a clutchless sequential box, so a lot like a motorbike's with an automatic clutch. You just banged it forwards for up or back for down from the middle position which it returned to after each change (just like a bike's), but there was no momentry loss of drive as the gears shifted. It was like 100% perfect clutchless gearchanges, even on the downchange every time you changed gear.

A bike one implemented the same way would be great provided:
It wasn't cripplingly expensive as a proportion of the bike's cost,
It didn't add a huge amount of weight/size to the bike,
It was at least as reliable as a normal gearbox.

Option of fully automatic for relaxed cruising/touring and "faster than a quickshifter" gearchanged for spirited riding on the same bike? Best of both worlds IMO.

The only grip i would have with an auto transmission on a bike is, as a couple of people have mentioned, slow-speed control. On my scooter, with its CVT transmission, holding in the back brake helped...but there was only so fast one could go like that (not very). Sometimes, when im filtering now, i'll slip the clutch in second gear around vehicles - keeping the engine revs up seems to help with stability.

A big bike like the pan euro with an auto transmission would be great for long journeys (maybe with push-button gear shift if you wanted to control things, but can put it inauto mode too?) but for a bike that I would use around city's and town centres...na, i'll keep my trusty manual box please