BDN’s Alan Dowds attended the recent press launch for the new Yamaha MT-09 Y-AMT automatic transmission model. While the bike itself was interesting and worked well, the firm’s thinking about the technology was even more thought-provoking
The Y-AMT system is similar in concept to the Honda E-Clutch and BMW ASA Automated Shift Assistant, which have also recently been launched. All three systems use near-standard bike transmission setups – sequential dog gearboxes with selector drums and shift forks – but with computer-controlled actuators on the clutch and gear operating mechanisms. That allows a full- or semi-automatic transmission setup, with the rider either enjoying twist-and-go auto operation or changing gears via an electronic switch on the handlebars or foot lever. KTM is also set to unveil a similar system, and CFMoto and others are also following suit.
But why are so many firms opting for these auto boxes? Yamaha staff from Japan and Europe told me that they think there will be increasing consumer demand for the tech – because there are so few manual transmission cars sold nowadays. With the proliferation of hybrid and fully electric cars, plus the expansion in the dual-clutch and other high-tech auto boxes in the four-wheel world, the thinking is that new riders will be so unused to swapping cogs in a car that they won’t want to do it on two wheels either.
It’s a plausible explanation. I can’t remember the last time I rented a car from an airport with a manual transmission, for example. Also, car sales figures and the number of new drivers taking an auto-only test support this thinking. One industry insider we spoke to did express a more cynical view, though. He thought it’s to help out the increasingly decrepit OAPs who are becoming the majority in the bike world and whose creaking joints are less able to wrangle a clutch and foot lever! A nice easy automatic gearbox will help out at both ends of the two-wheeled demographic…
Effective and well engineered
Yamaha’s Y-AMT is initially being launched on the new MT-09, where it worked very well on the roads of North East Spain, towards the Pyrenees north of Barcelona. It’s an effective, well-engineered setup with fast changes, well-integrated into the bike, and only adds £550 and 2.8kg to the cost and weight, respectively. It offers a full auto ‘D’ mode, with a sportier ‘D+’ function, as well as a push-button semi-automatic mode with push-button gear selection up and down.
Yamaha says the system has been designed to fit other bikes easily, so expect to see Y-AMT spreading across the range, beginning at the EICMA show in Milan next month. We’d expect an automatic Tracer, plus more, over the next 12 months.