General Cycling Discussion - Manual/auto gear shifting

[FONT=Tahoma][COLOR=RoyalBlue]Hey whatever happened to the AutoBike? Was it one of those invention like the Hoolahoop? Did it just fell out of popularity? For all the reasons that we like driving a manual transmission in a car, do we all like to have to change all our gears in a bike?

I am sure Shimano could have developed something similar whereby the gears shift for you to a larger rear gear, say when you are going up a hill, and then you can shift when you are on flat to go faster...

Eng

Have you actually seen, much less tried to ride an Autobike? I've had the experience of working on a couple. YUCK! I think they have fallen out of style because it was basically an overpriced piece of poop.

Actually, my vote for the next major breakthrough in bicycle drive trains is a continuous variable transmission. A year or so ago I read some posts from a fellow (in Germany I think), who was working on one. His idea was to provide a shift lever so that you could control the effort if you wanted to for hill climbing or sprinting. Otherwise, you'd be at a constant cadence all of the time and the bike speed would increase and decrease according to conditions.

Pfft, automatic gears. Where's the fun in that. Next thing you know you'll be putting a motor on it.

Oh wait.

because it was basically an overpriced piece of poop.

No way!! OPP are the greatest things on earth...(Overpriced Piece(s) of Poop)....right....:-|

That's really neat, kind of like the Audi chaindrive or something...

The Autodrive is an underengineered and overpriced gimmick. It's noisy, like riding with your derailliuer out of adjustment. It doesn't even shift when you want it to.

the problem is you don't shift to pedal faster. you shift to keep the same cadance when going faster. how is something going to know how fast youy want to pedal and how fast you want to go? thats why it will not work.

Autobikes were horrible, the landrider is an improvement but is still ridiculously overpriced and requires shifting the front derailleur on your own. I've had a good many people come into the shop to convert their autobike to a manual shifter.
As to the original poster, Shimano has had an auto nexus hub for a couple years now.

but shifting because of peddling speed is not what you want. the only time you can go faster would be downhill. and if you stop without peddling slower you wil lbe in the wrong gear.

Don't get me started on auto shifting bikes.

The closest I've ever come to a working "auto" shift system
is one by Shimano in the early 80's. This system worked by
keeping the chain always turning allowing you to select
gears while you coasted.

I have this system on my Giant built Schwinn World Tourist
and have become quite fond of the easy shifting I get in
town. I like the fact that I can select a gear before I need
it while I coast. Very handy when approaching stop signs.

From what I've read here and elsewhere this system didn't
sell well. I'd guess that when it was offered everybody
felt like they had to pedal to shift or it wasn't cool.
From where I stand if these same folk's would try it now
they might think differently.