Originally Posted by well biked

There's more to it than gears, automatic or otherwise. The guy in the article I mentioned above was also unwilling to wear spandex and said bike shops intimidate him. Of course you don't have to wear spandex, but as a non-cyclist I'm sure the adult cyclists the guy sees on the road most often are road riders on expensive bikes wearing spandex, and he doesn't identify with that at all. I suspect he liked this "Coasting" bike because it's as far removed from that as he can get-