[wild]

Autobike have any info on it. The guy down the road put a bike out for sale so I went to look , it is a auto shift bike, it has 3 weights on the rear spokes and a 6 speed setup no way to shift manuale just 2 brake handles. The frame is a heavy steel, aluminum rims flat bar and a seat that looked like the one on my old Huffy, fake leather . So what can you tell me about this bike

 

[PlatyPius]

AutoBike is to bikes as Yugo is to cars.

(ie: junk)

 

[Poolie]

Neither bicycles nor motorcycles are supposed to shift automatically.... it's just wrong.

 

[PlatyPius]

Neither bicycles nor motorcycles are supposed to shift automatically.... it's just wrong.

I've never even understood the want/need/desire for an auto-shifting bike. It isn't like clicking a shifter to make it easier to pedal is difficult, challenging, or confusing. If it IS confusing, then perhaps on the road isn't where that person should be....

Motors/engines don't feel fatigue or pain. People do. Having a machine shift for you when you're the engine is ludicrous.

 

[photosbymark]

Well I personally prefer a stick shift in my car, but does that mean all automatics should be wrong??

Id be curious to see how they got the bike to decide it was time to shift. If it kept people spinning at a higher cadence, and most people tend to mash too much myself included, then it might have merit. Just as in a car with a stick shift, being able to manually select a gear means you can manually select the wrong gear.

The market for this bike is likely for an older crowd that grew up on bikes that were not so easy to shift. Anyone that's ever tried to finesse a friction shifter into gear knows it can take a little practice and isn't as easy as a click of a button. They have no idea about the improvements and you won't get them to learn. They would ride a single speed or not ride at all with the later being more likely. For someone that wants to have a little fun riding a trail or a short loop around the neighborhood, it might be just fine. I don't think I'd want to tour with one, but then again I haven't ridden one either.

 

[Industry_Hack]

I rode a bike with the NuVinci CVT. Good stuff.

 

[PlatyPius]

Well I personally prefer a stick shift in my car, but does that mean all automatics should be wrong??

Id be curious to see how they got the bike to decide it was time to shift. If it kept people spinning at a higher cadence, and most people tend to mash too much myself included, then it might have merit. Just as in a car with a stick shift, being able to manually select a gear means you can manually select the wrong gear.

The market for this bike is likely for an older crowd that grew up on bikes that were not so easy to shift. Anyone that's ever tried to finesse a friction shifter into gear knows it can take a little practice and isn't as easy as a click of a button. They have no idea about the improvements and you won't get them to learn. They would ride a single speed or not ride at all with the later being more likely. For someone that wants to have a little fun riding a trail or a short loop around the neighborhood, it might be just fine. I don't think I'd want to tour with one, but then again I haven't ridden one either.

The problem is, they never ever work right. They usually get stuck in a difficult gear, making the bike essentially unusable for its intended user. So, it never gets ridden and gets sold at a yard sale for $10. Repeat as necessary.

The Shimano Coasting was a much improved (electronic) version. Unfortunately, the people who want auto shifting are also cheap. The Coasting bikes were more than $300, losing the non-cyclist market. That's why there aren't any more Coasting bikes out there. (Trek Lime, Raleigh Coasting, etc.)

 

[DirtyBobbysBikes]

The auto bikes, land riders, etc, are all pretty low quality and don't work very well. I've had quite a few customers bring them in having paid top dollar for them only to find out it wasnt what they thought it was gonna be.

 

[worthlees]

There are good things about both types of trany's!! We the people have become lazy &
didn't want 3 on the tree or 4 on the floor, too much hassle! Too hard to get the right
gear, miss one or grind a gear, how embarissing!! Stick was fun at times, your sweetie
snuggled close to you & your hand slips off the shifter! No seat belts back in those days.
Shift into 2nd to power through a bad mud hole a dirt road, or to high on slick for soft
power, just over stall speed, then gear down to stop without sliding. The good old days? Nah!! Fond memories of an era forever gone!!
Could be that auto shift on bikes may come to the future, again. Took automotive close to 60 yr. to make manual shift special order. Be easy with belt drive that's showing up on some bikes today, CVT , same as on scooters,just lighter.Will I like it?
Most likely won't be ridding by then. Still have very fond memories of the old single speed's before the English invasion!! Now a half centary later trying multi speeds for
the first time!!! Am intreagued by them as my first pick up, '49 Int. KB-1!!!
Platy's statement is most likely right! The first slush-o-matic's in cars were short lived
by today's standard. Will bikes be same way? Who knows?

 

[wild]

I can rember when the Powerglide was taken out and throwen away to day it is used in a lot of drag cars, evean in some Fords and Mopars . I my self use a 727 Touqeflite in the N/SS Dodge I have. There are verry fue stick cars used in bracket raceing not verry consistent and that is what you have to be .
Well maybe we will all be around to see the new electric shifter be the new auto shift . It would be easy to do by rpm.

 

[PlatyPius]

I can rember when the Powerglide was taken out and throwen away to day it is used in a lot of drag cars, evean in some Fords and Mopars . I my self use a 727 Touqeflite in the N/SS Dodge I have. There are verry fue stick cars used in bracket raceing not verry consistent and that is what you have to be .
Well maybe we will all be around to see the new electric shifter be the new auto shift . It would be easy to do by rpm.

1) I had a Powerglide in my 1971 Nova w/427. Still have the Nova. PG and 427 grenaded on the drag strip. I loved the Powerglide.

2) That's how Coasting works. The computer reads RPM and shifts when it thinks it needs to. Coasting actually worked well. It was just too much money for its target market.

 

[Industry_Hack]

The Powerglide was fine if you had enough HP and the right gearing. I liked the Doug Nash 5 speed myself. Sickest transmission for drag racing was the TH400 with the converter replaced with a clutch. You only used the clutch to launch it, then shifted manually without it.

 

[SprocketGirl]

how would my bike know when i want to shift?

 

[photosbymark]

could be based on how fast you, dare I say it, spin???

 

[DirtyBobbysBikes]

Ride a track bike. Shifting problem solved.

 

[SprocketGirl]

could be based on how fast you, dare I say it, spin???

of course... but what if i want to up my cadence? or am dropping a gear to sprint?
no thanks, i want to control the bike... it will tell me when to shift. then i will shift.

 

[photosbymark]

Yea but the people that would be at your fitness level and skill are not worried about it in the first place. It's the old geezers that tend to be intimidated by levers, gears and the like.

I learned to drive in a stick, but most these days couldn't smoothly drive a stick if their future depended on it. The automatic transmission has the exact same problems you describe. Less rpm has advantages at times, and so does higher rpm. The automatic transmission has been around long enough to get fairly close, but for a performance car most are still sticks. Mine has a fake stick, or a way to use it either in full automatic or I can shift it myself through computers without a clutch pedal in the car. When pushing a car to the limit, you can't be guessing when it is going to decide to shift. If it shifts at the wrong time and place, it might not work out so well.

Who knows if or how far an auto bike can develop. Can it be built where you can adjust it to the cadence you want? Will it one day be more reliable? Is there a big enough market to even justify development? Can it be made to shift faster and smoother than a human? Can it be made much lighter so a racer has a competitive advantage? Would a small computer give one an infinite level of adjustments?

Most new things have two problems at the beginning. One is people really don't see the need for them. Someone has to have the vision to make it happen for it to succeed. Problem number 2 is almost always in the beginning, they usually suck. Same with the automatic transmission. Yet with time and development, it became the standard. Time will tell how it works out.

 

[wild]

Sickest transmission for drag racing was the TH400 with the converter replaced with a clutch. You only used the clutch to launch it, then shifted manually without it.

The clutch flite was the first to use that setup, I think Linko makes a version now.

One thing with a eletronic shifter you would get the same stroke on the shifter every time, no shifts between gears. I don't see a Dura-Ace Di2 on my bike any time soon, now if thay were 1/2 the price then maybe

 

[Industry_Hack]

Time to unload some trivia on you folks. Google Shimano Airlines.

 

[PlatyPius]

Time to unload some trivia on you folks. Google Shimano Airlines.

Don't need to Google it - I remember that crap.