Perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon drive with your latest squeeze on board. Link.
quote:
Honda leads world with first auto cruiser
I had a W reg CB400A back in the 80s. It was shockingly cr8p but I still managed to clock up nearly 10k miles on it before throwing a rod out the
side of the block on the M5.
Quote from article
Honda says the new box delivers an infinitely variable transmission with stepless shifting that does not deliver any kind of mid-corner shocks.
It's hooked to a 680cc, V-twin engine that, the company believes, will suit the more mature riders that it hopes to attract.
So, this means it's a CVT then, right ?
quote:
Originally posted by zilspeed
Quote from article
Honda says the new box delivers an infinitely variable transmission with stepless shifting that does not deliver any kind of mid-corner shocks. It's hooked to a 680cc, V-twin engine that, the company believes, will suit the more mature riders that it hopes to attract.
So, this means it's a CVT then, right ?
I wondered how long it would be before the Japanese perfected the variable transmission gearbox.
Seams a shame we have to rely on them to put things right. 
Ford experimented with variable transmission box's a few years back, but they were not very reliable. During their electrical blackout years.
It is very strange driving and accelerating at a constant engine speed. You rely on the changing engine noise for so many things.
If they become common (and I believe they will) then we will have to alter the way we drive. We will become more reliant on technology for keeping at
a constant speed, as with the variable drive the engine speed changes a great deal depending on load.
I wonder what effect they have on fuel consumption at different speeds! Presumably at moderate speeds they could improve fuel consumption, but at
higher speeds I wonder!
Terry
In the Jazz Sport I had on loan, in sport mode the engine would run at 500rpm below the read line (at full throttle) and just keep accelerating...
It was weird...
In economy mode, the motor would max at around 4500 rpm until it reached 1:1 in top... then the engine speed would increse...
Ford has a continuoisly variable transmission (CVT)in production right now in North America. Its fitted to the Fivehundred and the Freestyle, and can be fitted along wiht four wheel drive. I was told Ford had used a similar transmission in Europe on a smaller car. I've driven both vehicles and it works quite well. We havn't had any major problems with either of these models so far.
A few years back Ford fitted one to their Fiesta 1.25, which was basically a clone of the Mazda 121. Mazda developed that engine in conjunction with
(I think) Yamaha. My father in law had one, and really rated the combination.
I also seem to remember that Audi had one for the A4/A6 range. It had "preset" ratios allowing you to drive it with paddles etc, but you
could also let it work as a fully variable auto too. Was interesting because it was the first auto box I've seen where the acceleration, top
speed and emmissions were identical to the manual car
Cheers
Richard