[Closi]

> My argument is nobody wants this

I'm saying I know at least two people in my immediate family who would want this, so I don't think nobody wants it.

It might not be any good, and informed purchasers might not want it after trying it, but I think people want the concept.

[ogre_codes]

These languished on bike shop inventories for 10 years largely unsold. Other automatic bike shifting has been around for even longer than that and they haven't sold well either.

Shifting gears isn't what keeps people off bikes, the average 10 year old figures out shifting gears in about 20 minutes. What keeps people off bikes is the fact that most places in the US are unsafe for cycling.

More or less everywhere it's safe to ride bikes, bike ownership and use increases dramatically using existing shifting technologies.

[Closi]

> What keeps people off bikes is the fact that most places in the US are unsafe for cycling.

This may shock you, but most people don't live in the US, and different people have different motivations for either cycling or not.

Although clearly you represent the everyman and can be the one-person-focus-group for the bike market!

[ogre_codes]

> Although clearly you represent the everyman and can be the one-person-focus-group for the bike market!

The bike market represents the bike market. As I said, these have been around for 10+ years and nobody buys them. It's not my opinion that these are undesirable, we know they are undesirable based on sales numbers.

Bikes with Automatic drive trains aren't popular in the US. ... or Europe. ... or Asia. ... or anywhere.

They are more expensive, heavier, and harder to work on than traditional bikes. Half-assed automatic shifting doesn't make up for those issues.

Maybe I'm off base and people just didn't like them because they are ugly. Who knows, but since it's been 10+ years now I think it's clear they aren't the fix-all for getting people on bikes Shimano designers thought they were. Maybe, just maybe, your mom and your sister aren't the perfect bellwethers of the needs of skittish would-be-bike-riders in the world.

[Closi]

> Maybe, just maybe, your mom and your sister aren't the perfect bellwethers of the needs of skittish would-be-bike-riders in the world

Your claim is that nobody wants them. I know at least two, which is more than 0.

They aren't popular yet, but I'm willing to bet that they will be with further development. Let's not forget that the first automatic gearbox for cars, the 1904 Sturtevant "horseless carriage gearbox", wasn't exactly a market hit - it took until the late 1940's for it to take off as a polished product and longer still to overtake manual transmissions (due to similar cited concerns about maintainability and the level of control).

In fact, I actually drive a manual transmission in my car because of those factors (and manual is still more popular in the UK), but clearly the majority of the market has moved on.