[abruzzi]

However in the USA there have been ongoing attempts to sell automatic transmission motorcycles (Honda being the strongest proponent, but others too including Aprilia) All of these attempts have seem very limited success. If I had to guess I would say it is because the MC market in the US is an enthusiast market. There are very limited numbers of people that buy a motorcycle to commute. Enthusiasts are like linux users. They not only don't care that it is more complicated, they prefer the complication and the flexibility it provides. So IMO, for automatic (or in the electric case, no transmission) to become a selling point, you have to start selling to a different group of people, or you have to show some material benefit over the status quo (like for instance on a race bike no shifts means no momentary loss of power during shifts. However that isn't Harley's field.)