Yeah I too shift w/o the clutch ( mostly when I'm trying to smoke my 3 brothers on there Vulcan 900's) I dont think it harms anything, especially if you know what ur doing & are shifting at the right rpm

I have had a Honda 125 Aero and a Honda 250 Helix. I now have a Yamaha 400 Majesty and a Honda Elite 80. All have automatic transmissions. Twist-and-go sure is nice. I have not had the chance to try out one of the 650 Burgman Executives with the six-speed emulating CVT, but my wife's Outback has a CVT with a manual six-speed emulator arrangement. After playing with it for a few minutes, I put it back in automatic and let it do its job. The only time I can see it being of any real value might be on a long down-hill grade.

I will point out that there is a considerable difference in the operation of a centrifugally controlled CVT and an electronically controlled CVT.

Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 10/25/12 at 20:02:15:


At least one NASCAR driver has credited power steering for lengthening his driving career by many years.

I don't really keep current on the rules for racing classes, but I seem to remember reading that Formula 1 forbids automatic transmissions, as does drag racing in the top classes. The reason is that the transmissions don't miss shifts, and always shift at the right time, which takes "driver skill" out of the operation.

I think Formula 1 allows steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters, which do all the work except for making the decisions about when to shift. Wouldn't take much to let the computer operate the switches.