Ridley Motorcycles

[b4cruz]

They're just as safe as shifting your bike manually without the clutch (and that's safe when done right), just faster.

yeah I figured that,
my friend's dad shocked us all with clutchless shifting in a car.
He works for Nissan and rode motrcycles when he was younger.
It looked pretty easy to do, but impossible for safe fast shifts in a car.
I just could never do it right myself = I was too afraid to practice.

I can kinda do it on the bike, but I'm still pretty slow and clumsly.

Are these kits really worth $200-470 faster than manual power shifting?  
I mean for bikes like the B12 is it really that hard on the clutch if you mess up power shitfting a couple times a year?  I can understand on modified drag bikes but a stock bike with minimal street mods it seems these kits would be overkill. THANKS for posting the BANDIT specific ones though Paul.

AND thanks Herb for the great SUZIMATIC ad
I love old magazine ads. Everything just felt & looked better back then.

[Red01]

If it was worth it to me, I'd have one... but I don't have the need. I can see it being a worthwhile tool for a drag racer and maybe even a roadracer.

[billybandit]

Hmm nice idea for lazy people (or the spazmos who can't actually use gears) but it looks pretty tacky.

My old CZ 125 was a semi automatic - when changing gear, if you kept the gear lever pressed up/down, it held the clutch. Good for one handed wheelies! The gear lever ALSO acted as the kick start. Genius. Pity it was a pile of crap

[mike]

My old Honda 185s three wheeler when I was younger , it had an auto clutch...  Gearup for 1st, then one down for 2nd through 5th. That thing was a total swamp buggy-sealed airbox wih a snorkel.  I drove it off into several deep creek holes, and it would come floating back to the top upside down by it's balloon tires.  Take it to the river bank, tilt it on its rear end, pull a plug to clear the water, and it was good to go for another round around the creek.  



Anyway, the fun transmission part was:  When on a dry trail, if you held the gearshift down when going to second it was like pulling in a clutch, rev the piss out of it and then let the gearshift up, and Wheelie galore.  They were easy and fun to wheelie with a right knee on the seat and foot on the rear bar and left on the foot peg and gear shift.  You could ride that sucker throuh 4th, unless one rear tire was low, then you'd veer off in the direction of the low tire.

That thing was fun and a welcome break from MX 2 strokers with open airboxes, that hated water.

I think the way you shifted was similiar to the old Hnda trail 90's, thugh I never had one of those.