- This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 3 months ago by SilkRyder.
Automatic and Manual Tranny Bikes
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January 10, 2011 at 4:44 am #4307SilkRyderParticipant
Hey Guys, this WILL sound a little funny.
Whats the difference between automatic and manual bikes. I have never driven a manual car so it kinda goes over my head a little. And don’t laugh lol these questions do pop up.
January 10, 2011 at 6:42 am #29022Gary856ParticipantMy first thought was this is indeed a pretty strange question, but then I remember when I was a kid and had only seen stick-shift cars, I had no idea how a car with automatic transmission worked. I thought you would see the “shift lever” moving thru the gears automatically in a car with auto transmission. So here goes –
In a car with manual transmission, you select the gear manually by using your left foot to operate the clutch pedal, and your right hand to control the shift lever. On a bike with manual transmission, you select the gear manually by using your left hand to control the clutch lever, and your left foot to control the shift lever.
In a car/bike with auto transmission, the transmission does the shifting and gear selection for you, so there is no clutch nor shift lever for the operator to control.
January 10, 2011 at 3:31 pm #29023TrialsRiderParticipantI wrote a lengthy mechanical description of the two, then realized you really care about the result, not the mechanics involved. So here is the most basic of observations for you to consider. If you want the long, technical version just ask
On an automatic motorcycle you are stationary as long as the engine is at idle. To go you speed up the engine and there is a slight lag time or delay before you start to move. The more throttle you apply the faster the engine revs and the faster you go, until you eventually achieve the motorcycles top speed. It’s just like a snowmobile, if you have ever ridden one of those. Now that you are going fast and the engine is spinning like crazy, you might want to slow down, so you let off on the throttle and the motor slows you down rather quickly. If you are not slowing down enough you might even need to additionally apply some brakes. If you want to go faster again you need to get back on that throttle quite hard and eventually things will speed up again. With an automatic motorcycle, you better like the sound of a high revving motor, because you are going to be hearing it a lot. The connection between the engine and the rear wheel is not as positive as in a standard transmission vehicle, almost like having a big spring in there that you have to wind up to make it go.
Both automatics and standards have a clutch that uses friction to couple or decouple the spinning engine from the rear wheel. The clutch in an automatic is engaged by revving up the engine centrifugal force ), where on a standard the clutch is operated by your left hand lever. ( finger force On a motorcycle the automatic transmission has a rubber belt that will eventually need to be replaced, the standard uses gears that run in oil and the oil will need to be changed regularly.
With the Standard transmission you manually select the gear appropriate to the road speed you wish to attain, neutral goes nowhere, first gear to go slow and upwards through the gear ranges to go faster and faster. Within the operating range of each gear selected your engine speed is directly controlled by the throttle, speeding up the engine goes faster, slowing the engine goes slower and the relationship between engine speed and road speed is very direct and positive. Learning to drive a standard is undeniably harder, but there are benefits and once you have been operating standard for a while, you don’t even think about it, all the actions become very natural. ( like breathing ) Having learned to drive a standard you will be able to ride any motorcycle. Standard transmission motorcycles slightly outperform automatics in all aspects including engine longevity and fuel economy. Standards are more fun to ride.
BTW …as you might guess I’m slightly bias, but my wife and daughter both drive standard and prefer them to automatics.
January 10, 2011 at 5:38 pm #29024eonParticipantHere goes my 101 explanation
If you’ve ever ridden a bicycle with gears then you understand how cars and bikes work. On a bicycle you have the option to stop peddling while the chain jumps sprockets (otherwise bad things might happen), on a car/bike this is what the clutch does. It disconnects the power of the engine from the wheels while it changes gear. Trials is right in that it can be a hard skill to learn but it soon becomes 2nd nature and makes the driving/riding much more involved and therefore satisfying.I think his bias is showing though when saying standard is always better. If you think about it, the fact you have 5 or 6 gears means you are almost always in a sub-optimal gear. If you accelerate from 0-60 working through the gears, for each one there is only an instant where it is the perfect gearing ratio. A Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT, or the rubber band Trials mentions) is allegedly always in the perfect gearing ratio. This rubber band sits on a cone and it alters the ratio by moving up and down the cone (the continuously variable part). There are other inefficiencies however that hamper the design. But consider this, in the early 90’s the top team in Formula 1 at the time experimented with a CVT design. Allegedly their number 2 driver was able to knock several seconds off his lap time. Since this wasn’t a Ferrari, the FIA banned it!
Automatic transmissions are making a revival again, even on bikes. Honda seems to be developing at least 3 different types of auto transmissions (not all are CVT) and these bikes are hitting the showrooms today. Time will tell if they take off but I’ve read at least one moto hack ask what’s so great about having to shift.
January 10, 2011 at 7:21 pm #29025Gary856ParticipantI enjoy the manual shifting aspects of driving/riding a lot, but I can see this may have more to do with the present day technology than an intrinsic pleasure. Automatic transmission designs in cars have reached the point of outperforming manual even in race cars. Manual shifting, while vastly satisfying to operate for many performance-minded drivers, is becoming more of a hobby than a necessity. It would be very interesting to see what technology will bring to motorcycle transmissions in the next 20 years.
January 23, 2011 at 5:52 am #29142plasticParticipantI’ve been riding their Mana since August of lst year. Really great bike. Plenty of power, easy to ride, fine pick-up speed, etc, smooth shifts – there’s in fact no shifts, but there are “fake” gear if you want to shift tiptronic style.
Afew downsides; very heavy for a first bike (dropped it a couple of times already), can’t use the clutch for low speed maneuvers, etc. Also, it drops to neutral automatically at low speeds, till you rev up again – I’ve learn to control that but giving it a bit of throttle just to keep it engaged when needed.
Again, I do like it quite a lot. Wished it was a tad lighter and lower, but that’s about it. The only other automatic bike I know of is the honda DN-01 (too expensive) and the VFR(?), which is actually clutchless but not automatic.
Find it hard to think about going standard… But maybe do it sometime for fun.
February 9, 2011 at 5:14 am #29218SilkRyderParticipantBias is ok that I can deal with lol thanks for the laymans edition btw
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