Do not buy an automatic motorcycle
What is so great about the automatic motorcycle?
Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda make great bikes. I would own any of them, but as far as automatic motorcycles. They are all the same. This post has nothing to do with any manufacturer.
But my opinion on the automatic bike? Not much. The benefits of an automatic motorcycle are that you do not have to shift.
I am living in Vietnam and everybody drives automatics or what I call semi automatic motorcycles. I thought they were pretty neat until my wife crashed one.
The benefits of the automatic motorcycle are:
- no shifting
- no clutch
- your feet have nothing to do, but hold you up when you are at a stop light.
- Your left hand will not get sore and tired from using the clutch in traffic.
That is it.
What do you lose with an automatic?
You lose a lot of control of the bike.
First, instead of a clutch on the left hand you have a rear brake.
You lose the clutch.
There is also no kill switch.
You also lose power when you are driving from a stand still.
The rear brake on a vehicle only give you about ten percent of your stopping ability compared you your front brake.
Let me describe to you my wife’s crash scenario.
She was sitting still waiting to park next to me. The curb was steep. Since the curb provided a lot of resistance she had to give quite a bit of throttle to get the bike moving up the curb. When the automatic transmission did finally engage, she took off like a rocket. Her first instinct was to hold on tight and she grabbed onto the rear brake as hard as she could. The engine was way more powerful than the rear brake so the bike kept going. Had that been the clutch she would have disengaged engine and the bike would have not gone anywhere. If she had had a clutch the bike would not have crashed.
There is no kill switch on the bike. I don’t think that this feature would have kept here from crashing, but it is a good feature that is not on an automatic motorcycle.
The clutch, the throttle and the rear brake provide a lot of fine adjustment to your speed and balance when turning. The ability to control your bike is greatly minimized in my opinion to almost nothing when turning. The only control I have is using my rear brake and using my throttle when making tight slow turns.
So… don’t buy and automatic motorcycle? Maybe it’s a little harsh.. I don’t mind the automatic bikes, I just think that they are more dangerous to drive that a regular bike.
Misleading post title.
I think you’re a little biased due to the recent crash of a loved one. There’s nothing wrong with autos, and in fact, in some ways they are safer. My auto accelerates faster off the lights than the surrounding manuals, and picks the right gear quickly when I need it, allowing me to accelerate out of danger fast. My brakes are well maintained and very effective. I use the front brake at all times, and the rear for stability and extra power when needed. If you train yourself to think “right-hand stop/go” then you don’t have issues with instinctively accelerating when in trouble.
I’ve seen enough girls struggling with gear changes, all the while reducing their attention to the traffic, to know that a “bike” is dangerous regardless of it’s variety. For many people, having too many things to think about on the road is the real problem. A manual introduces more things. On an auto one can focus on your surroundings, a very important factor in Saigon.
Bottom line – learn how to ride whatever you choose. No disrespect, but your wife’s accident was a result of inexperience, inability or both, not the bike.
I agree , Steve, she is an inexperienced rider and I am a little biased because of the crash. I have owned a few bikes, HD’s, Triumph’s, Over here I have a Honda Sh and she has a Yamaha Nuovo. It sure is tough to watch her drive.
I just hope that people don’t assume that because the bike is an automatic that it is easy to ride. I think that it is easier to start riding, but there is still a great learning curve. While I am in stop and go traffic, I am happy that I don’t have to deal with a clutch. But I sure miss the clutch when I am making tight turns.
Thanks, for you input.
Yep, I think we agree with each other.
I certainly don’t feel stable making tight turns on the auto, but my own personal preference is the trade-offs are worth it. Perhaps I’ll change my mind in the future.
It’s much the same with cars back home. I love manuals dearly because you feel like you’re actually driving, however I had to stick with auto simply because of the sheer tedium of driving in stop-start traffic every day. All about trade-offs.
Hey, sounds like you have some bike experience I could benefit from & I’m in the market to buy a new one. Are you interested in giving me some feedback on a few local models? If so, I’d love if you could contact me through my website (so neither of us have to publish our email address here).
PS – she’ll improve.