Originally Posted by
bmthom.gis
It adds a completely different level of "stuff" on your bike that will eventually break and cost a small fortune to either fix or replace. Most likely straight out replace. Sure, it might make the immediate ride your darn bike less complicated, but eventually it will break, or need to be serviced and probably won't be something you can do in your own garage.
Less complicated as long as nothing unanticipated by the system designers occurs.
But what about that nice beginning rider who is riding on a nice flat bike path. The rider slows, how can the system tell the difference between:
The rider is getting tired
There is now a headwind
There are slow riders ahead
The rider is approaching that section where the sand blows over the path.
First 2 a downshift may be reasonable. For number 3 it is horrible and a slightly experienced rider may actually want to upshift in getting ready to accelerate past them when safe. (I'd tend to stay in the same gear but upshift while passing, likely before most automatic systems would.