Motorcycle transmission

A motorcycle transmission is a transmission created specifically for motorcycle applications. They may also be found in use on other light vehicles such as motor tricycles and quadbikes, go-karts offroad buggies, auto rickshaws, mowers and other utility vehicles, microcars, and even some superlight racing cars.

Most manual transmission two-wheelers use a sequential gearbox. Most modern motorcycles (except scooters) change gears (of which they increasingly have five or six) by foot lever. On a typical motorcycle either first or second gear can be directly selected from neutral, but higher gears may only be accessed in order – it is not possible to shift from second gear to fourth gear without shifting through third gear. A five-speed of this configuration would be known as "one down, four up" because of the placement of the gears with relation to neutral. Neutral is to be found "half a click" away from first and second gears, so shifting directly between the two gears can be made in a single movement.

Automatic transmissions are less common on motorcycles than manual, and are mostly found only on scooters and some custom cruisers and exotic sports bikes. Types include continuously variable transmission, semi-automatic transmission and dual clutch transmission.

The weight of the largest touring motorcycles (sometimes in excess of 360 kg or 800 lbs) is such that they cannot effectively be pushed backwards by a seated rider, and they are fitted with a reverse gear as standard. In some cases, including the Honda Gold Wing and BMW K1200LT, this is not really a reverse gear, but a feature of the starter motor which when reversed, performs the same function. To avoid accidental operation, reverse is often engaged using an entirely separate control switch - e.g. a pull-toggle at the head of the fuel tank - when the main gearshift is in neutral.

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