Hondamatic?!

[scarboy]

I recently found a hondamatic for sale and I am wondering about something. No clutch? So how do you stop and start? What other lever is in its place?
Thanks in advance, Chris Dill

[ZooTech]

It simply uses a centrifigal clutch like go-carts and mini-bikes use. You still have to shift gears, but you only have to let off the throttle momentarily to do so.

[flynrider]

No clutch. It's a semi-automatic transmission with a huge (for bike purposes) torque converter mounted behind the cylinders. You have two gears. Something like low and high. Start off in low, just as you would in a car with an auto trans. At a specified rpm, your supposed to shift from low to high. That was pretty much it.

Honda sold these things in 400 and 750 sizes, if I recall correctly. They actually weren't bad performers (slightly less performance than the manual geared versions), but the market just wasn't ready for it. No one took the Hondamatic very seriously. Especially in the showroom. Sales were not great.

As for buying one, I wouldn't do it unless you can find a source for transmission parts. They've got to be getting pretty scarce these days. There was a group of riders devoted to this bike (any oddball bike will attract fanatical devotees. Not sure why). You can probably find them without to much trouble by searching the net. Google is your friend.

[gsJack]

I recently found a hondamatic for sale and I am wondering about something. No clutch? So how do you stop and start? What other lever is in its place?
Thanks in advance, Chris Dill

I bought a 81 CM400A (Hondamatic) in 1990 that had only about 2k miles on it and gave it away last year with 98k miles on it. It was badly rusted from using it as a winter bike on the salt laden streets of NE OH in recent years but still ran good as new. Very durable bike.

The Hondamatic is a 2 speed semi-automatic transmission with a torque converter. There is no clutch, the torque converter slips when stopped same as it does in auto tranny car. The shift lever has three positions, neutral, lo, and high and is in the same location as on standard tranny bikes. The lever on the left handlebar is a parking brake, no clutch lever is required. Gears are shifted manually.

Bike engine is started in neutral and then tranny is shifted into gear to move bike. I always started in low and shifted to hi when underway. Would downshift to low at stops to accelerate nicely from stop but it's not necessary. You can leave it in high and stop and start without shifting if you choose, but acceleration is slow.

Bike pulls suprisingly strong thru the mid range and is fun to ride. Top speed is best kept in the 55-65 secondary road range, but you can get it slowly up to 75 or so on freeway. The 750 Hondamatic would provide stronger performance at higher speeds than my 400 did.