Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
P.S. Here's another flats vs clipless experiment I ran across:
https://www.roadbikereview.com/revie...ls-on-the-road
The debate reminds me of the manual transmission vs automatic transmission debates with cars. Some people find extra effort with extra complexity rewarding. They feel more directly connected to the car/bike. But others prefer the simpler and more brainless automatic transmission. I prefer the auto transmission as I just want to get where I'm going with minimum extra work. I like biking, but the less work needed to go biking the better for me.
That's an interesting quote because I see the understanding totally differently.
The manual transaxle is the less complex option as it costs less to build and maintain and is much less hassle to use. The automatic transaxle is often more expensive and requires additional hassle in the form of additional maintenance that isn't required on a manual transaxle.
To drill deeper ... a manual transaxle is like my daily worn shoes and standard pedals. Nothing else is needed. The automatic transaxle requires additional shoes and pedals just like the extra components of an automatic transaxle including a torque converter, extra cooling systems and additional fluid pumps/electronics.
In fact, one can argue that they can "select a specific gear" with an automatic transaxle just like they can ride on the inverse side of the pedal but both are really half-assed solutions.
To me, the automatic transaxle results in worse real-world performance (fuel economy and acceleration) while making something more complex than it needs to be, when directly compared to a manual transaxle.