Honda – the company that can be given credit for helping to make riding a motorcycle something people other than bikers (as in Hell’s Angels types) did by introducing a line of bikes (the Dream series, back in the ’60s) that appealed to people who weren’t bikers – is in the process of doing something that may end up ending motorcycling.
I refer here to the the company’s “E-Clutch,” which it is installing on the entry-level Rebel 300. This bike has long been the first bike for new riders because it is light and easy to ride. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) which runs new rider courses all over the country uses the Rebel to teach new riders the basics: Keeping a bike upright and – the biggest thing – how to operate the clutch.
The E-Clutch does away with that and thereby arguably does away with the essential thing that makes a motorcycle something different than a Moped or a Scooter (or a car – with an automatic transmission – for that matter).
With the E-Clutch (which does the clutchwork) riding the bike is vastly dumbed-down. Anyone who can hold the bike upright can ride. Honda no doubt thinks this is a good thing because by making it easier for people who are intimidated by vehicles with manual transmissions that require the person who wants to operate them to know how (or learn how) to operate a clutch. More people who do not know how to operate a manual transmission – which is probably 90 percent or more of people under 20 – might be willing to try to learn how to ride a “bike” that isn’t one, really.
New potential customers, in other words. But what about the old ones?
People who know how to ride – and ride because they like motorcycles – are unlikely to be much interested in a bike that is basically a scooter or moped. Honda, of course, is not marketing the E Clutch at such. But what happens – over time – as the “riders” who learn to “ride” without having ever learned to operate a clutch become the primary buyers of bikes?
Assuming this even happens.
What’s more likely to happen is that fewer people overall buy motorcycles as motorcycles fade into extinction, replaced by “bikes” that look like motorcycles. The “riders” Honda hopes to attract are not really motorcycle types and are not likely for that reason to not be committed to the lifestyle. They might learn to ride a glorified scooter or moped that looks like a motorcycle and maybe they’ll buy one. But probably not several, which motorcycle people routinely do – and they will probably not commit to the ride as motorcycle people are. People who are into motorcycles ride whenever they can, because they prefer being on two wheels – even in the rain, even when it’s cold – over being inside a warm and dry car. Implicit in this is that they want to deal with the things that attend riding a motorcycle – including the operation of a clutch. They want, in other words, to be as involved as possible in the activity. Put another way, the idea of being less involved – and the passivity that implies – is exactly what people who love motorcycles do not want.
So, here’s the negative feedback loop that’s developing – and it’s very much of a piece with what happened to cars and clutches:
Fewer people are learning how to ride a motorcycle – just as fewer people are learning how to drive a car with a manual transmission. This decreases the buyer pool of people who want to buy a motorcycle – or a car with a manual transmission. This, in turn, decreases the market demand for either thing and that ends up prompting the manufacturers of these things to manufacture fewer and fewer of them. Today, there are very few new cars or trucks that even offer a manual transmission and the few that do generally do not come standard with one. It is typically an expensive option and usually limited to a high-trim (high cost) iteration of the vehicle that must be bought before the buyer can choose to pay extra for the optional manual transmission.
The same awful – to people who love motorcycles – scenario could easily play out with bikes if the manufacturers decide to appeal en masse to people who cannot ride and are not interested in learning how to. If this occurs, it will be another diminishment egged on by least-common-denominatorism and that will be sad for what ought to be obvious reasons.
Motorcycling isn’t for everyone – and this effort to try to make it that will arguably be the undoing of motorcycling.
. . .
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The proper Libertarian view of clutch or no clutch on motorcycles is that the market should offer what people want and whatever “they” want is fine as long as they are not hurting other people.
Certainly, Kent!
I don’t say bike companies should be be forced to sell manual-only bikes; nor that anyone ought not to be allowed to buy an automatic bike. I merely say that an automatic “motorcycle” is something like a “muscle car” with a six cylinder engine.
If you dislike that Honda, you should look at the 2024 Kawasaki Z7, that one will get your hackles up, it has a 450cc engine and a high voltage battery with motor, and it can operate in performance (little motor on) mode or in EV silent mode. It’s been a big bust in CONUS but it’s taken off in Western Europe where the ubercloveren live. One casualty of going hybrid is the loss of the clutch and the changing of manual shift to a manumatic mode that lets you iterate through the gears with your left hand. Honestly, I think Honda’s moves and this are also a symptom of the greying of this community. Also, I’d rather see more of these on the road than those “trikes” that are the worst of both worlds, which I think are true death traps, no freedom of movement to avoid and no shell of protection to survive. The lack of a foot shifter means those who have limited mobility or peripheral neuropathy to ride for a few more years.
I wonder are they ahead of the curve here? Knowing we’ll soon be a 3rd world USA where “motor scooters” will replace and be used like cross-overs and pu’s currently are? Because no one will be able to buy new ones, insure them, and afford the fuel? Seems like that’s coming for us soon. Just my .02
Riding a motorcycle requires both hands and both feet, much like flying a plane or operating an excavator. If you have the desire, it ain’t hard.
Scooters are for the canine people that like the wind in their face; No work, just want to GO somewhere.
Are automatic cars not truly cars?
The idea that an automatic shift (or clutch) motorcycle is not a motorcycle is ridiculous. You may prefer an auto, and you may fear the auto will end up eliminating manuals, but that’s just market demand.
I race formula cars with the old H pattern manual. I prefer an automatic for the street.
HA! “The idea that an automatic shift (or clutch) motorcycle is not a motorcycle is ridiculous.”
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”?
The value of an automatic shift (or clutch) motorcycle is not At All the same.
You may, “race formula cars with the old H pattern manual” but you come across as a girl. Or, an old old woman?
There’s this word, starts with a P.
Also, I doubt, “market demand” has anything to do with it.
Is there, “market demand” for A.S.S. and engine destructive cylinder deactivation?
I love that you included the Yamaha Riva scooter as one of the article photos. LOL – I fondly recall long ago my coworker giving me an old, beat-to-hell Riva 125 for free (they used it for RV’ing) and I tried to keep it running right. It was OK, but never very good. However, it gave me that sweet taste for on-road two-wheelers I badly craved.
Later, I finally got an R6, then a beastly R1. Next (my only brand new vehicle) was a 2017 FZ-09 (MT-09) that I absolutely loved and kept mint. I regret selling all of them. Still have a Suzuki RM Z-450, but really want another purely street bike. Eyeballing the recent CB1100s.
Thanks for that memory jolt. 🙂
My pleasure, Vandall!
I’ve had a lot of bikes over the years and still have one of the weird ones – a ’75 Kaw S250 triple two stroke; I call it Little Stinker…
I say anything that can potentially bring new motorcycle riders is good.
Even if the new riders never learn to manually shift the bike, or a car.
Because operating the clutch is only one part of surviving as a bike rider. The main part is being attentive, aware and proactive. And these are the skills at least 90% of car drivers do not have.
So even a clutch handicapped motorcycle rider will make a vastly better car driver – and by God, we need more of those.
Good points AG. And I guess why roadracers, maybe even off-road racers are not going to be fond of auto anything. I can’t imagine if I was in full lean on a roadrace bike at 100mph, traction at the edge, if the computer decided to ‘shift’ for me…………….. down ya go……………….
Here ya go, Eric… 1977 Chrysler Newport, 0052 original miles, current bid $2500…
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1977-chrysler-newport-3/?utm_source=dm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2025-10-21
It’s beautiful, X – but they want $26k!
Are you sure you read that right? Just looked at it and is says “Current bid $2600 USD No Reserve”
Hi X,
Yes, current bid; I doubt they’d sell it for $2,600.
Just checked the website (2 months later, Dec -vs- Oct).
The car sold for $10.3K. Not bad for a rolling hunk of Detroit iron.
Hi Toxic,
Was this the Cordoba? If so $10k is a steal. By today’s standards. For less than half the cost of a small, FWD appliance such as a Honda Civic sedan you get to drive a full-size (by today’s standards) personal coupe with room for five, RWD and a V8 engine. Today, such a car would cost you six figures new. And it would have all the creepy “tech” and be utterly unserviceable by anyone other than a dealership technician.
“52 miles”
I’ve had it with these auto websites, dealers and sellers implying that this vehicles from the 60’s through the 80’s amazingly have only some ungodly low amount of miles.
The odometer turned over. On this vehicle at least once, possibly twice.
I contacted a dealer for a supposedly low mileage miracle. I asked if he had any mileage log/book or records to verify this claim from a one owner car. His ad stated the title stated the mileage was correct. Bullshit. DMV don’t check the mileage and only go off of what you write or tell them when selling or buying the vehicle.
Auto Selling Internet grifters are always trying their best to fleece their marks.
The question seems to be what is Honda supposed to do? They aren’t selling as many bikes to older, established riders and those people are aging to the point they may no longer even be able to ride. So they have to find a way to interest new riders. Once you’re a rider you’re going to step up from a Rebel 300 to something else, not replace it with another. If an E-Clutch gets someone on a bike then that’s a win for Honda. If boils down to they can wither and die because they did nothing or they can wither and die for turning off a segment of the market. They’re betting that a Harley rider wasn’t likely to buy a Gold Wing anyway so it’s kind of the same “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” idea. At the time motorcyclists laughed but they turned that Super Cub into 50% market share in just a couple of years.
I think the salient point is that this may trickle up to bigger bikes and spell the doom of a true motorcycle – that is, a manually interactive and (relatively) simple machine. Or just dumb them down to the point where people and manufacturers give up on the original concept en toto.
Those who want them, or don’t care, will buy them. Those who don’t want them will buy something else. ONE DOLLAR equals ONE VOTE in the market…which will ultimately make the decisions. EVs were supposed to be the vehicle of t h e future. The market decided otherwise. Everyone eventually will have to learn for themselves the difference between an EXPERT and an ADVOCATE. Advocates only exist in chaos and survive only as long as the chaos does. When the chaos ends, THEN you get to confirm who the real experts were/are. Personally…neither me nor my HARLEY ROAD KING care what honda does.
I want to buy a true modern musclecar. One that looks good, weighs under 4000 lbs, is powered by a V8, w analog everything, manual transmission and vinyl interior. I don’t get a vote, huh. 🥸
Yeah, there’s a couple of main points you touch on. We don’t live in a perfect market but economically speaking that doesn’t matter. Even if there was no EPA and DOT that prevents this there’s no reason to think every consumer or demand will have a supply to meet it. The muscle car itself met a demand that pent up prior to it. People before the Rocket 88 came out did not get their desired car either.
The economist would say your demand (or identifying the demand) is the signal for you to start a business to fill it. Even with the rules as they are maybe there is a business potential, although one suspects that the work arounds to the fedgov would mean the equally important part of muscles cars, the relatively cheap price, would not be possible on account of the arbitrary fines you’d have pass along to the buyer. We can’t really know if the muscle would have continued in a market without EPA. We assume it would but we don’t know that for sure. It’s like now there’s not really any reason a car has to be a 5 door wagon instead of a sedan but the market seems to prefer them so traditional 4 doors with a trunk are disappearing none-the-less.
I should have said that I really do think there is a viable market for simple cars. Even with all the regulations for airbags and CAFE I bet a compliance vehicle that is otherwise simple would sell like mad. Globally they exist we just don’t get them here in the U.S. or increasingly Europe. Take the Corolla, which is made in several factories and sold everywhere. You can get one that shares the same body and engine as ours but with vinyl seats and floor, crank windows, stick shift, plain old DIN radio if you walk into a dealer in Asia or Africa. I’m sure the car companies have done the calculations and the profit margin isn’t there for the few they’d sell compared to loaded ones. But a whole car company that makes only simple vehicles, what Toyota and Honda and VW were originally in fact, I bet would do fine. Call it No Nonsense Vehicles. The NNV Model 1 could be your modern day muscle car.
Harley Owners Need Dependable Alternatives.
Also, this is the sort of thing that could become mandatory, or pseudo-mandatory.
Also, you can pretty much bet that sooner or later someone’s going to come up with a retrofit.
Maybe they will but I doubt it’s foregone. Honda has offered the dual clutch transmissions on some bikes (sure, very high end) but it’s along side fully manual bikes at similar price and performance.
If new riders who opt to replace their bike, since it’s only on a Rebel 300 right now, then Honda will have a data point. They still offer the manual Rebel 500 that’s like $1k more, still a pretty affordable $6800 (about $1400 more than the Rebel 300).
Does seem Honda is just trying something to open a market. The E-Clutch is complexity but as a learning tool you can decide to use the feature or turn it off. The bike will still work just like a normal manual with it off. Honestly in city traffic the anti-stall function that works like a Rekluse might be nice just to give the left hand a break, at least for states where lane filtering isn’t allowed.
There’s a trick to driving stick in traffic.
Don’t stop. Or, at least, stop as infrequently as possible.
This means when the car in front of you starts to go, don’t stay on his bumper. Let some space open up. Lots of space. Then when he slows down, you let off the gas, maybe downshift, and eat the space back up.
Unfortunately most of the rest of everyone doesn’t really know what you’re doing & like to cut in front of you, don’t worry about it just do your thing. Semi drivers usually do, though, & will work with you to keep rolling.
And that is how you manage frustration and avoid burning out the clutch.
Here’s another trick: know your exits, and know your surface streets — or at least how to navigate. When traffic gets too bad, you can often get farther faster by getting off the freeway, and either getting around the problem and hopping back on, or taking an alternate route.
Even if it takes a couple minutes longer, and there are stoplights, it’s way more pleasant than stop-and-go.
My counterpoint I am repeating all over this thread: Is the classic and famous and much loved Honda Trail CT90 and CT110 (with a manual low range) any less of a motorcycle because it had an automatic clutch? Did the Trail 90 destroy motorcycling?
Hondamatic anyone?
Beat me to it. Has everyone forgotten the Hondamatic motorcycles sold in 1976–1983? I remember ads for those.
I didn’t forget it, I never knew it existed.
“… none of the Hondamatics had an automatic transmission. The transmission did eliminate the need for a clutch, but did not eliminate the need for manual shifting, though it did reduce it from five or six speeds to only two.”
https://ultimatemotorcycling.com/2014/10/29/honda-cm400a-hondamatic-classic-motorcycle-profile/
A step up, from a moped?
I don’t have any personal stake in the motorcycle world or which direction it is heading. I stopped riding when cell phones became commonplace. I give kudos to anyone who rides in modern traffic today. Ya got balls. Next time you are sitting at a stoplight, watch the traffic going by. A very large percentage of people are not looking ahead, they are looking down. At their phone.
RE: “I stopped riding when cell phones became commonplace.”
Hmm, I stopped when I moved to, ‘The City’, back in the 90’s, before ‘everyone’ had a personal Spice hypnotic device. Even then, it seemed like a death wish to drive in traffic. I’m not so sure cell phones are entirely to blame.
…How-freaking-evah; — The Joy — was always found while driving in the country side. Where other drivers (not just those on bikes) would wave at you.
I wonder: it’s more about a destruction of culture. Idk.
What happens when this becomes the norm? Set some coin aside. In a few years traditional bikes might be in a cratering bear market. Might be able to get something you’ve always wanted at half (or more) off.
Recently visited the Barber motor sports museum in Alabama. What a treat. Never seen so many cool bikes and race cars in one place. They even have an outboard boat motor collection that boggles the mind. Anyone ever in N. Alabama should definitely check it out. The best part, as we spent the afternoon, we went out on the glass bridge with a bike race going on underneath. Takes big brass balls to race others on a bike at those speeds. Pretty sure they haven’t retrofitted these old bikes with speed shifters, let alone E-Clutches. If it has an E-Clutch does it have a governor on it as well?
Learning to clutch is not that difficult. In 1985 I bought a brand new Honda 500 Interceptor. I had only ridden a minibike in my cousin’s yard about ten years earlier. I nearly ran into his mailbox when I shifted from 2nd to 3rd and the bike just took off unexpectedly. The day I bought my bike, the salesman took me out to a big parking lot behind the shop and watched me ride around and shift a few times. Then he turned me loose into rush hour traffic in El Paso, TX. I rode home to Alamogordo, NM, a distance of about 95 miles on two-lane Hwy 54. Most of the ride was at night. That was my first time on a street bike. Somehow, I lived to tell the tale.
The manual transmission on a bike, car, or truck has always been the best deterrent to theft. Then put the shifter on the column and you can leave the keys in all the time. The perps don’t have a clue when they see three pedals, let alone figure out the shift pattern on a two wheeler.
Last winter I finally caved in and got my motorcycle endorsement making myself legal to ride in Orygun. I took all the tests including a day of riding on a course in a large class of around 25 people of all ages.
No one was having trouble shifting gears with their left foot.
I think the new Honda Trail 125 has a 4 spd auto transmission. Some other small bike models like the Navi too. Small beginner bikes are becoming like mopeds. You can see the day the bike is auto stabilized, Ai smart sensors keep you from colliding with anything, WIFied to the rest of traffic.
The more you know the more Luddite you become. If technology does everything for us don’t we risk becoming dangerous clueless twits? Oh yeah, it is already that way.
I think the main issue is city riding vs rural riding. Riding in traffic is tedious with a clutch. Anyone who’s been in stop and go traffic for 15 minutes or more on a motorcycle can testify to this especially without a hydraulic assisted clutch. In the country, a clutch motorcycle is a must have.
Hi Walpurgis,
I’ve been riding for decades and own (currently) four bikes, including an ancient ’76 Kz900 I regularly ride. It has a cable clutch as most old bikes have. It doesn’t take much grip strength to pull in the left lever and the progression (upon release) is gentle. It’s nothing like dealing with an old muscle car that has a manual and does not have a slave cylinder/hydraulic assist clutch. In fact, my modern sport bike – with hydraulic clutch – isn’t appreciably more challenging to ride in traffic than my ancient Kaw.
Your mileage may vary, of course!
The KZ? Holy cow, that’s a fast one. Way to much for me. I’ll stick with my Shovelhead.
Thanks, Dan!
I hopped the thing up, too. It has 10.75 CR pistons, cams and tweaked carbs. It’s actually quite modern feeling – except when you forget the tube steel frame, shit bearings in the steering head and the wire wheels… find out at around 126 MPH…
If she’s got crap roller bearings, you can probably upgrade them to cylindrical bearings, way better. There are some companies that kit these for certain bikes. Not the easiest job, but doable.
Morning, Chris!
Yup; it’s a project I’ve been planning on doing. One of these days….
I disagree it will have a major effect based on my experience…the people scared of a manual shifting bike are usually scared of motorcycles in general. Plus there are decades of cool bikes that are manual, so even if you start on this clutch less bike, you’re going to want to learn to shift to get your dream bike that is almost certainly normal. It would be different if there were huge numbers of scooters and hondamatics out there, but I don’t see it for the american market. Cars had decades of automatics as a base, so the shift away was easy. Probably in the indian and chinese markets where 2 wheels are normal family transport, this will sell well. Ive been going to a local motorcycle meet and the young people are still getting 3-600cc sportbikes or goofing around doing wheelies on scooters, dirtbikes, and electric bicycles. I think in the end, it may sell to a niche market, but I dont think it will be a big hit like every other automatic motorcycle attempt Honda has made since the 70s.
That’s an observation I may never forget: “…the people scared of a manual shifting bike are usually scared of motorcycles in general”
A cowardly, timid, fearful nation of individuals, we are surrounded by.
Makes me sick to think about it.
Crank the volume:
‘Bad Motor Scooter (Live)’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPV9M2C0TvA
Eh. Don’t lose sleep over it just yet. WAAAAY back in 1980 or so, Honda made the CM400A — with an automatic transmission. It didn’t kill motorcycling.
Now, it is definitely true that younger kids today DO seem to like electric bikes… I work with a kid who has a KZ 1000 and he can definitely use a clutch, but he seems to like riding his electric dirt bike more.
All depends on the automatic transmission design for the motorcycle.
If it’s the equivalent of a GM 2-speed Powerglide, forget it.
But if it’s much better, like a German designed ZF with foot or/and
paddle shifters, could be faster than a clutch set-up and maybe more
enjoyable to ride. Additional, superior choices always welcomed.
Defective Honda cycle I had would hang up between manual shifts,
sometimes creating dangerous situations. In short order I got rid
of it.
‘maybe they’ll be one’ ==> ‘maybe they’ll buy one’
In an algorithmic world, kids raised with omnipresent ‘devices’ consider a mechanism such as a clutch to be as 19th century as a horse-drawn plow. An analogy for us would be driving a Ford Model T, whose controls are bizarrely unintuitive:
Left pedal: The clutch. Pressing it halfway puts the transmission in neutral; pressing it all the way down engages low gear when the handbrake is in the low-gear position. [WTF??]
Middle pedal: Reverse. This is engaged by putting the handbrake in the middle position and pressing the pedal.
Right pedal: Brake. This operates the rear internal brake band.
Honda is catering to entry level buyers born and raised in the 21st century. They consider touchscreens as primordial an interface as the teat and the nipple. A would-be omnipotent gerontocrat like myself couldn’t fix this, even by sending them to FEMA camps for re-education. 🙁
Well, I don’t want a pickle
Just want to ride my motorsickle
Well, I don’t want to die
Just want to ride my motorcyyyy
— Arlo Guthrie, The Motorcycle Song (1967)
Thanks for the copy edit, Jim – just fixed!
They’re competing with e-bikes, not last year’s motorcycle. And it’s one of those things that is done because it can be done. And it might sell a few bikes too.
There’s also a pretty good chance that people will come around to having a manual clutch after learning on the Rebel. Back in 2007 the FCC did away with all Morse code requirements in all amateur radio classes. Many said it was the final nail in the coffin for CW operations, yet it is more popular than ever today. More people upgrading their licenses led to more CW operators overall, even though they weren’t required to know morse code anymore.
No reason a touchscreen can’t be upgraded to accept Morse code input, via short and long taps. That would be so steampunk. 🙂
-… . .- — / — . / ..- .–. –..– / … -.-. — – – -.– .-.-.-
https://morsecode.world/international/translator.html
Can’t ride off-road without a clutch.
Hi Stefan,
Well, people can try to! I suppose it’s possible. But why would anyone want to? It feels to me like we’re being gradually eased into a kind of Matrix-like situation in which everything is easy – like Neo downloading Judo – which means anyone can do anything without effort. Which, to me, makes it not worth the effort.
Don’t forget the epic and much loved Honda Trail 90/110 with its automatic clutch! It is my counterpoint to those who are talking down the automatic clutch thing. The Trail 90 is the ultimate in anti-matrix motorcycle that I can think of.
Stefan, I would tend to agree with you, and expert off-road riders/racers would agree with you too. However, there’s been an ‘auto-clutch’ company out there for a long time called Rekluse.
They have a pretty decent following. I’ve tried a few and don’t like them, but many do.
Rekluse makes clutch replacements that make a dirt bike stall proof. They are fantastic for riding in tough single tract trail. You still need to shift gears, but you can concentrate more on riding the difficult terrine. The clutch still works, just like a clutch should. the bike is essentially stall proof, provided everything is setup correctly.
I strongly disagree you cannot ride off road w/o a clutch. You forget the legendary Honda Trail 90 and Trail 110 with an automatic clutch and low range transmission.
It is “compliance” that is doing away with manual transmissions in cars…going all the way back to the Turbo Trans Am, which should have had a stick shift.
Could “compliance” be doing the same with motorcycles?
Actually older turbo setups worked better with turbos. Staying in the boost on an up shift worked better than letting off the throttle for a manual up shift. With a big old laggy turbo bolted on it was really obvious.
I’m not sure this is still the case with the tiny turbos and compound setups, but that wasn’t strictly about compliance.
In other news, Old Man Screams At Clouds.
Hi Nunyo,
Well, to be fair, I’m not an old man . . . yet!
In other news, Nunyo makes a glib comment which has absolutely no value whatsoever.
Oh, it has value. And, relevance. I’m guessing, you’re under 40?
…If so, make the most of it & spend less time online.
…If not, …Psft. …It may very well be the outlook of those younger than 30? Idk.
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2025/11/16/if-demographics-is-destiny-were-screwed/
As a teenager, I got a Honda Trail 70. It was the perfect two-wheeler to learn on. Had the classic shift pattern, was light, and had those forgiving wide tires. Graduated to several other dirt bikes and eventually street bikes.
If the option presented back then was an “eClutch”, I’d probably have passed much like young people now seem to be doing.
was probably a CT70. Honda only made them with a manual 4speed-with manual clutch for two years, I think 70 and 71. It was my first bike. Honda went to auto-clutch, 3speed after that for a long time.
My best friend at the time had one & I got ride it. Thanks for the pleasant flashback guys.
Worlds of Fun.
Eric, I’m sorry to say that IMO, we are not going to win this battle. Even their flagship Goldwing auto-trans outsells the manual version, I think by a lot.
Us 40-50+ types are and will be dying off and the new world wants auto everything.
I recently visited greece, the mainland and some islands, and it 90% scooters vs regular bikes everywhere, and very small cars. Less than 5% two cylinder bikes. Even saw some BIG scooters with big engines. Keep in mind gas is $7-8/gal there. The roads are from a bygone era before cars, that other than main roads (few) are one lane with rock walls on both sides.
Also keep i mind that on higher performance motorcycles, almost all of them have quick-shifters or ‘no clutch shift’ now. Still need to manually operate the clutch to win a race or get over tough obstacles in off-road, but I can see that day coming where the ‘computer’ slips it for you.
Morning, Chris –
You are probably right – and it makes me teeth ache.
Moped world?
The Spice, they love it?
“90% scooters vs regular bikes everywhere, and very small cars. Less than 5% two cylinder bikes.”
I smell goobermint intervention there. But, I dunno, I’ve never been there.
Are All the men there, fearful pussy’s? Idk.