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Question for Americans (I see quite a few around here...)

ugocon

Active Member
You know when suddenly something you never thought about comes to your mind and makes you mumble....

Yesterday, thinking of the dispute in other threads about the possible introduction of a 2011 water cooled Touring, I realized:
In USA cars are more than 90% equipped with an automatic gear.
Why their flagship MoCo, HD, doesn't introduce a bike with an automatic transmission?

You know in Europe, and mostly in Italy, automatic gears for cars are hard to find (they are growing mostly on luxury cars...).
We always looked with sympathy at American cage drivers just pushing on one pedal to make a car move... :)
Now there are some technologically advanced attempts to introduce an automatic gear bike on the market: Aprilia Mana, Yamaha FJR 1300, Honda DN-01 and VFR 1200.
All of of them, after initial doubts by the experienced testers, have proved to be absolutely enjoyable in the test drives!
As a matter of fact, though, so far sales have been poor, but, you know, this happened in Europe, were the mentality is different.

I'm wondering if a HD with an automatic gear wouldn't fit better the American taste for a comfortable and safe ride on long straights or, even better, in the city traffic without the need of pulling the clutch lever....

What do you think??
A serious proposal to do to the MoCo??

Thank you for your response.

Ciao
Ugo
 
think it would be hard on the breaks. this is a guess, but i would say 70% of slowing the bike down comes from dropping gears. An automatic bike seems very strange to me, and i know the first few rides would be very odd. i would give it a shot but dont think i would go out of my way to own one.
 
ive ridden an aprilia mana in full automatc mode and its great, pull away and it just revs with no feeling of going up the box shut the throtle off and the engine breaking is strong
i couild see this being used on harleys or goldwings .its weird sounding till you try it also you have the opition of going semi auto and change gear with foot but no clutch so you can rev it harder for speed.
 
No automatics (or water cooled) for me; if I wanted all that I would ride a BMW or the like.
 
auto gear boxes on bikes have been around since the 70's Honda being one of the 1st with the "hondamatic' CB750A - US only bike

My buddy's dad had one of these b/c he liked riding, but preferred not having to run through all the gears when starting/stopping. I drove it a few times & it was OK, but felt odd not having to shift (kept grabbing for the clutch). There was a bit of added weight for the tranny - otherwise it pretty much rode like any other. Not my perference b/c shifting's the fun part of riding - especially on the scenic runs...
 
No automatic tranny for me. I like playing around in the hills and changing the gears. That what its all about.
 
Not for me, it wouldn't really seem like motorcycle riding, I like going through the gears on acceleration and decel. Just my preference.
 
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