While I was rideing a friends new rancher ES (first person to ride it) threw my friends ant's yard a guy rode up to take a look at some cat work they need done. He looked at the rancher and liked the ES shift, he then commeted that the street bike he was rideing was a Hondamatic. This gained my attention big time, It had a large tranny case with a oil cooler on the front bottom. I even got to ride it. It does have a standard shift lever, but this is to get it into the low and high ranges (even on the fly) Super smooth, good power, It reved out at around 30MPH and i upshifted into high range and the engine rpm droped and speed gained to 50MPH easly. I only rode about 1/2 mile but it is the closest to the Rubicon I have gotten. The bike was given to him by a old man.

 

Interesting, JRM; so much for the argument the Rubicon transmission is untried and untested. Mr. Honda came up with many inventions and innovations, and apparently very few mistakes!

Tree Farmer

 

Well, just because it rode the same, doesn't mean it works the same, internally that is. Still, it's interesting to hear that there was actually a motorcycle with an automatic transmission, I had no idea it had ever been done.

 

I'd assume the transmission works fundamentally the same, since the same principle and patent are involved, extending back to the "Honda 90" trail bikes, I understand. Certainly the scale is different for the Rubicon, and additional features may be added; however, the basic concept and practicality of the hydrostatic transmission known as "Hondamatic" remains long validated.

Tree Farmer

 

this thing was a 78, so it was 100% mechanicly controled, flooring it didnt really make it downshift. The rubie's CPU takes the throttle possition, RPM and speed into play before telling the tranny what to do. but the basics are still "hondamatic"

 

Back in the 1970s they had all kinds of weird bikes. Suzuki put a rotary engine on one of their bikes. The rotary engine is what Mazda's first RX-7 cars ran on.

 

actually all the RX-7's are rotary, I rode in a 95' twin turbo rotary talk about a screamer! The Kawasaki KE 100 line uses a rotary induction vavle, the carb is inside the clutch cover.. odd things