BMW has announced its new Automated Shift Assistant (ASA) that will eliminate the need for a clutch lever on motorcycles, and make use of the foot-operated shift lever optional.
A trend appears to be developing that manufacturers are offering semi-automatic or fully automatic transmissions on motorcycles (Honda’s new E-Clutch comes to mind), and BMW has announced ASA, which promises to eliminate the need for a clutch lever while still allowing the rider to choose to shift manually with the foot control. A fully automatic mode will eliminate this, as well.
Here is the press release from BMW:
Woodcliff Lake, NJ – May 2, 2024 . . . With the new Automated Shift Assistant (ASA), BMW Motorrad presents an innovative technical solution that makes riding simpler and more comfortable. True to the motto “Simplify your ride”, the riding experience is enhanced by automation of the clutch and gear shifting process, without sacrificing the emotionally important dynamics of shifting.
The Automated Shift Assistant features a clever functional design in which two electromechanical actuators automate the clutch and gearshift of the six-speed transmission, which is the main difference to a conventional shift assistant. There is no need for a hand lever to operate the clutch manually. Starting, stopping, and maneuvering are all made easy with the Automated Shift Assistant.
Riding with the Automated Shift Assistant becomes more enjoyable thanks to fast, precise, rev-and load-adapted gear changes. The rider’s workload is reduced, which makes riding more enjoyable. In addition, the Automated Shift Assistant creates a more direct connection with the powerful boxer engine, as the precise clutch actuation makes it easier to control the riding experience via the throttle and gearshift lever.
In ‘M’ shift mode, gear changes can still be made by foot control, allowing the rider to decide when to change gears.
In ‘D’ shift mode, the Automatic Shift Assistant really comes into its own. Shift points are automatically selected by the engine control unit. In both “M” and “D” modes, the rider benefits from smooth and perfectly executed gear changes, resulting in efficient motorcycle acceleration and increased riding stability.
When shifting up, for example, the possible jolt associated with a classic manual transmission with a manual clutch is largely eliminated, as is the risk of helmet to helmet contact between rider and passenger.
Downshifts are also designed to be as smooth as possible, minimizing chassis disturbances. Specific characteristics of the automated shift function are assigned to the different riding modes to ensure perfect shift behavior in each riding situation. In combination with Active Cruise Control or front collision warning, the networking of functions brings the future of motorcycling to life.
Automated clutch and gear shifting for a new riding experience.
In difficult riding situations, using the clutch and throttle takes a lot of concentration. If you are travelling with luggage and perhaps a passenger, using the clutch and gearshift takes up resources. The rider remains in control and has more freedom in every riding situation with the Automated Shift Assistant. Riding becomes a more relaxed and enjoyable experience.
The torquey boxer engine enables almost effortless starts on uphill gradients, for example, thanks to automated clutch operation, which also pays dividends in terms of better vehicle control off-road or on difficult surfaces.
Riding pleasure takes on a whole new meaning when you choose the automated D mode. Optimally selected gear changes create a new riding sensation. The right gear is automatically selected according to the rider’s individual riding needs, resulting in a harmonious and extremely smooth driving experience.
Electromechanical clutch and gearshift actuators combined with sophisticated electronic controls.
The Automated Shift Assistant is the logical and technical evolution of the BMW Motorrad Shift Assistant Pro. Two electronically controlled electromechanical actuators operate the clutch and gearshift, enabling easy starting and automated gear changes. The rider’s shift request is transmitted to the control unit via a gearshift lever sensor, which is actuated by the conventional foot-operated gearshift lever. Additional sensors determine the revs of the transmission input shaft and the clutch position. These values are transmitted to the TCU (Transmission Control Unit), which is closely linked to the engine control unit, for control of the clutch and shift actuation.
The clutch is operated by an electro-mechanical actuator combined with a hydraulic system with a direct hydraulic connection between the clutch master and slave cylinders. The actuator regulates the required clutch slip, engages the clutch when changing gear and disengages it when stopping.
In manual shift mode “M”, the rider can move the gearshift lever in the desired direction in the usual way. If the revs in the desired target gear are within the maximum or minimum rev range, the shift is made directly. If the engine revs fall below a gear-dependent minimum speed, downshifts are performed automatically in manual mode. This prevents the engine from stalling.
In shift mode “D” the gears are changed automatically depending on the riding mode, engine revs, throttle position and lean angle parameters. Gears are shifted according to the riding situation and dynamic requirements.
The benefits of the Automatic Shift Assistant (ASA):
➢ Completely eliminates the need for the rider to operate the clutch.
➢ Dynamic and comfortable gear changes for more riding pleasure.
➢ Choice of manual or automatic gear shifting.
➢ Automatically adapts gear shifts to the rider’s dynamic preferences in D mode.
➢ Eliminates the possibility of engine stalling during gear shifts.
So if a computer failure leads to a stuck throttle, what do you do? It’s natural to squeeze the clutch lever in that case. Hopefully, the rider will be able to down shift. If it does happen, let’s hope it does at a convenient time.
Rupp with Tecumseh. Now that was a sweet riding clutch-free bike!
Haha, that was my first ride! First time on it, I was afraid to turn – rode it right off into the field at my Grandmother’s. I still (vaguely) remember, and this was probably 50 years ago…
My first ride, too, ended up with me bouncing straight into a plowed field. Fists clenched to the grips, body rigid, eyesight blurred. Possibly only 15 miles per hour, but it got me hooked as I fell
so can’t just rev the bike at the lights as we do to attract girls, can’t rev the bike to get a fast start. I also think it could be dangerous say at the lights if it engaged drive unexpectedly. Having owned ducati’s most of my life with close ratio gearboxes I can understand the need for some people but for myself I want a bike with a clutch, without traction control and varying power modes. Guess I’m stuck with a 25 year old bike!
It’s an awful trend. The street bike industry is on the “more” kick. At the launch of the new MV they were boasting about the engine weighing “just” 125 pounds. Well, OK fine. But the finished bike weighs about 525 pounds ready to ride. And they are pimping it as a dirt bike. The darn thing is too heavy to be a dirt bike before they even put the engine in it. But it has all this wonderful more.
Spare me. When they destroyed road racing in 2002 they said that it would lead to better street bikes. Since that time the street bikes have only gotten heavier and more complicated. Pure undiluted fail. No preservatives.
Well, back to the bike talk. I have rode and owned several DCT bikes and NO it did NOT take the fun out of riding, quite the contrary, and for us with hand problems it’s a big plus. Also, I would never go back to a car I had to shift either. Think they are boring, don’t buy one and they will never completely replace the manual IMO.
Indeed. Manual shift is on its way out. The next generation will see it as a vestigial nuisance. A distraction from the experience of driving andriding.
Hah! I disagree. I find riding (or driving) an automatic so much less engaging and less enjoyable, downright boring sometimes. I don’t understand why people would want an automatic unless you have some sort of handicap.
I tried to teach a couple of my nephews how to drive my old BMW convertible (E30). One barely managed and the other failed miserably.
Manual transmissions are becoming a theft deterant. I only have one nephew who can even ride a motorcycle at all. The same one is the only one who can waterski. Even though all my brothers have boats. None of them can ride a mountain bike very well at all.
My brothers are all quite successful. What good is having money and kids if you can’t take the time to teach them how to live?
Oh. Mah. Gurd! Clutch your pearls harder, boomer.
What if – and hear me out on this one – what if younger folks enjoy (GASP!) different things than you do?!
Insert Simpsons meme, “No, it’s the children who are wrong.”
I’d tell you to grow up, but you’ve obviously already done too much of that. Please move on to your next stage of life: dead.
While I disagree with Mick a lot, the dead thing is a little too far.
I do agree with you that one should do what they enjoy. I’m just happy I enjoy moving through space and being in nature vs whatever sedentary thing the incredibly obese population are doing these days.
I think the booger machine misunderstood me. My dad died when I was three, hunting accident. Mom took to teaching us things normally under the dad taught me heading. She took it very seriously. We learned to do a great many things. We didn’t have to like them. Once we learned, we could quit. That was the deal.
My nephews grew up with dad’s who didn’t teach them that stuff. That’s my younger brother’s fault, or at least mine for living so far away from them. Maybe it is that I am a boomer and my younger brothers are Gen X. Mom plopped out a couple of boomers in rapid succession and went on hiatus for nearly half a decade before launching my little brother.
Whatever, booger machine doesn’t like boomers. I can’t really say that I blame it, I don’t know what it’s pronouns are. I kind of think that us boomers failed to leave a decent society behind us. Hence the existence of booger machine up there who wants us all to die. Sorry Boogs, I got a few more hot laps around the sun left in me. And I don’t have any pearls to clutch. Heck, the only “jewelry” I own is a watch that is strapped to one of my mountain bikes for those times when I care about what time it is while riding, usually in the fall when sunset tends to catch me by surprise. They had to cut my wedding ring off when a dirt bike crash swelled my hand all up. That baby’s toast.
Clutch is good
Glad to see BMW moving to catch up with Honda in this regard. I began to get tired of clutching and shifting five or six years ago, and after recently riding my neighbor’s DCT Africa Twin, I am sold on the automated trans concept. I think an NC750 DCT is soon to be in my garage.
I understand the reluctance to this innovation but the vast majority of first-time users report (via print articles, YouTube entries, etc.) that they have embraced/approve of it. BMW’s decision to retain the shift lever may be a way to differentiate it from the full dual-clutch\paddle shift system of Honda. These automated systems remove what it arguably a most intimidating issue with learning to ride a motorcycle, encouraging more newbies to try it out. I don’t see a downside to this option being available.
But other than starting off you can shift a regular bike without a clutch very easily. This whole thing is pointless especially considering how important good clutch control is for low-speed maneuvering. And that’s the big downside, not having the option (or being capable of using it) when you need it….
Yamaha did that years ago with the FJR1300AE model. It had a computer controlled clutch (no lever), foot shifter or you could use buttons on the left side of the handlebars. It would also downshift to first if you stopped in a higher gear. Fun bike to ride, but it never caught on.
My clutch hand is the only limb that still works. Save the clutch ! Has anybody noticed the Last 4 articles about a motorcycle have fewer and fewer comments as each is a slightly weirder version of bike ?
Save the clutch !
Hi,
do you have an email address I can use in order to contact you? I would like to propose a collaboration.
Thank you,
Andreana
I’ve had at least one auto-clutch dirt bike since 2007. Mine always retain the clutch lever. But I really only use it to slip the clutch out of corners to go faster. That technique is lost on a four stroke and kind of silly on the street. I can see way BMW does not include a clutch lever
But you pay extra for a BMW. They should have included a left hand rear brake. Revlock used to do that before they developed the clutch lever as an option on their automatic clutches.
The van I had when I lived in The Netherlands had a setup like this bike. It didn’t have the sort of automatic transmission common to most cars. It was really a manual with and automatic clutch and some electro-monkey that selected your gears for you. Not a bad idea really. Manual transmissions rob much less power from the little diesel engine that powered the van.
I still have my first automatic clutch bike. We call it The Geezer Pleaser. I tuned it for ease of use. You can plod around on it all day and never know that it has an Eric Gorr 295 kit in it unless you whistle up flank speed from the engine room. I got on the box in the A class the last time I rode an Enduro with it.
You just want them to include a left hand rear brake so you can watch creatures of habit like me lock up the rear tire whenever we’d normally shift.
I can’t say. But I do mean that the bike should be equipped with both and hand a foot rear brake so that you can take your pick.
I do have a little soaped up electric guy with LHRB. I honestly have a bit of more trouble going back to rear foot brake from LHRB than going to than to LHRB. Maybe because I mountain bike fairly often
In the end it’s a weird brain thing. You either brake with one side of your brain or split the job among both sides. I have often thought of installing one of those double lever clutch/brake jobs on the left and have both on a bike for a while to see what happens.
I must admit that experimenting on the street with these sorts of things would feel rather risky to me. I do this stuff off road where things are more predictable and there aren’t random actors throwing dangerous situations at me without notice.
I do feel rather foolish hitting the brake when I try to fan the clutch for a burst of speed.
The brain is nifty. I owned an english and japanese bike at the same time, and was concerned about the oposite foot controls function, when switching bikes. Lo and behold your total adaptive mind set sitting on one bike prevents confusion, with the other bikes set of foot functions. Same thing with flying completely different airplanes, once you sit in the one, your mind ignores the others control positions. Way cool.
Your brain is superior to mine. I daily drove a 944 for about 20 years (~2000-2012) and now have a GTI and Tiguan. I STILL get confused by the wiper control stalk, yet my lady friend’s CR-V, it’s intuitive.
This means something.
If the rider can decide when to shift up or down into the desired gear, and it seems they can, whats to miss? The lever? The clutch side grip would now match the throttle side with both hands always firmly gripping. Gonna cost though, that’s for sure.
“If the rider can decide when to shift up or down into the desired gear, and it seems they can, whats to miss?”
Selective clutch slipping. Even Honda’s DCT can be caught out. And that despite having two gears semiengaged in parallel. Single-clutch schemes like this, and the FJR, will have even more of a struggle.
When humans ride a motorcycle, clutch use is often preemtive: In anticipation of what is to come. All of these schemes, are ultimately either reactive, or speculative. Neither of which will fully match rider intention all the time. Like an occasionally really snatchy throttle, it can be ridden around. But not if one is pushing the bike to ones limits. Then, unexpected and rough clutch use can be quite offputting.
+1000
I tried to teach a girl how to ride one time (I know, I know) and it just didn’t occur to me (since I effectively started driving on a stick) that people Really Might Not Have A Feel For This.
Edit: So the point of this story is “Selective clutch slipping.” – this is what you – or The Magic Computer – must fully understand if Total Control (TM, R etc) is the desired outcome.
Considering the clutch is a fundamental control of not just shifting but low-speed riding of motorcycles, this is just dumber than s–t. (Clue: not “soot”)
Yes, I’m wondering how they can manage the low-speed engagement of drive when only the rider knows exactly what is needed. Is it just no throttle, no drive? It seems this is just automatic transmission with another name.
Thank goodness for this comment, quick, call the BMW engineers, they are so distracted by all those numbers, they must have forgotten to check the function of the clutch!
This is not a problem for auto-shift cars and motor-scooters. Making it work for full-sized motorcycles is a matter of tuning. Lots of dirt bike riders even upgrade their bikes to Rekluse auto-clutches. As Mick mentions above, some opt to use the clutch for manual slip control but many only use it for starting after they become used to it.
Auto-shift cars don’t fall over. Scooters are CVT (as pointed out just below). Rekluse – I can’t comment on that, other than dirt bikes don’t need to maneuver in parking lots or gas stations, so…. Manual slip control – exactly, and those that don’t “opt” to do it are those guys that can’t ride their Hardley slow in the parking lot or gas station, or away from a light for that matter, without duck-waddling.
No clutch…no shifter…this tech has been available for decades, it’s called riding a scooter.
Yeah, but that’s with a CVT belt. 🙁
One of the two bikes I have been riding daily for the last three years is a clutchless Honda NC 750X DCT. The other a Honda CB 1100 retro with 6 speed manual clutch. 75,000 miles now on the CB. 43,000 miles now on the NC. The clutchless DCT trans is brilliant. I don’t miss the clutch lever when riding the DCT equipped bike. Then again, perectly timed up and downshifts while riding the curves on the CB is a tactile pleasure. There is room in motorcycling (and my garage) for both types of motorcycles. Riding either/both gives me great joy.
WOW, you’re taking away the fun of riding a motorcycle. I sold my 2016 Mazda MX-5 (miata) with the 6 speed stick. Love shifting and miss it. My current ride is a 2022 Tesla and it is not the same. Nothing to do in the car but fall asleep. I bought it because of my belief in climate change and it really is the future. Actually it’s one of the best cars in performance and handling that I ever owned. It’s just boring.
I agree, I too had a Miata 97′ M Edition, now own a Tesla MYP, performance it has, character, not as much, still in honeymoon phase, we’ll see how it goes. I have a Zero DSR 14.4 (values have tanked in a bad way on these bikes) and new CFMoto 450NK, so a little diversified. Had the AT Twin DCT and swapped for the 1100 manual, good move imo, never bonded like most with the DCT.
They have us buffaloed into believing EV’s are our salvation in regard to climate change. Your “clean” Tesla is probably coal-powered. Additionally, tons of ore are mined (and probably not by electrically powered equipment) to make even one EV battery. If I win the lottery, one of the first things I would do is to buy a Lucid Sapphire. 1200 HP. Luxury grand touring. 0-100 in fewer than 4 seconds. But it would be a toy, like my motorcycle. Throw my clubs in it and go play golf. But head for Florida in it? No way. And pollution-free? Nah. Pollution relocated.
But you do realize that steps need to be taken to slow and minimize fossil fuel use, don’t you? Sooner rather than later? EV’s are only part of the story, not the absolute solution to all our problems. It just so happens that in my part of the woods, hydroelectric is the major source of our power mix. So, your “pollution relocated” has a different meaning here. Everything we do has consequences. What’s for certain is staying the course will do us all in, maybe not today or tomorrow, but the writing is on the wall.
The greatest trick the devil played is convincing the world that he did not exist.
The greatest trick governments played is convincing the world that EVs are our savior.
Seems the government has out tricked the devil.
It would be interesting to know how much money and how many government types is/are involved in “contributions” from the EV Industrial Complex. I’d bet that it outstrips all other forms of lobbying by a significant margin.
Australians are lamenting the death of the Great Barrier Reef but hey – Drill Baby Drill – Right?
SpeedEasy, Coal accounts for 20% of US power production and falling. Even so, an EV powered by coal fired electricity is cleaner than an ICE vehicle, cradle to grave. The info is out there and easy to find.
Ignoring the “clean” aspect of it, it is one of the biggest things we can do if we care about ever being energy independent, which we will never be as long as our transportation is powered by petroleum.
World population is the biggest threat to the environment and ultimately will be the downfall of social order. In world where people fight over toilet paper how do you think a shortage of food is going to be accepted by the same groups.
Current estimates point to a peak in human population of around 10.4 billion by the year 2100 due to falling fertility rates. It might not seem like it but education level is the driver to this (not money), and the world can easily support this population level. We produce enough food to feed that many people now and waste what is not used. This information is readily available to those who form their opinions with evidence and not conspiracy.
One of the reasons I hate cities is seeming people with three and four child strollers around all of Er the place. That people can live in those overcrowded cesspools and still pump out big litters of children crushes any hope that I have for humanity. Collectively, we’re no better than rats.
On EVs. We’re looking a Model Ts right now. Eventually the batteries won’t be made from such nasty ingredients.
The end of next week will see me bombing 1500 miles to my native soil for a couple of weeks of dirt and mountain biking. I’ll be happy to be rattling away in my Dmax for five or six hundred miles between five minute fills. Once there I can hook up the toy hauler, drive out to a no services forest trail head and drive back in one tank of fuel. It’ll be a while before you can pull stunts like that with an EV.
The population size isn’t a problem so much as how wasteful and careless we are. For all the people in the world, the planet is practically empty. 50% of all species have gone extinct since our arrival and I think it’s because were sloppy, not because we’re numerous.
As I have said many times on this site, my main reason for the Tesla versus other EVs, not brand loyal, is the charging network. I traveled in February to Miami Beach from my current home in Sioux Falls, SD, 1,800 miles one way, with NO range anxiety. Attended the boat show. Tesla has the biggest charging network in the world and now it’s open to almost everyone. When living outside of Boise, Idaho traveled to Minnesota and also Tucson, AZ. Take a look at their charging map.