Discussion approved

This by no means is a stupid question. Its a good question in fact. The thought didn't cross my mind actually. I am certain there are cost factors associated with it, but I can think of practical reasons. Again, the following are my own assumptions:

Most of the automatic/cvt scooters in India are ridden by women and teenagers. Very, very few men choose to buy these scooters (activa, scooty pep), mostly for the ease of ride and comfort purpose.

Since most of the riders are men, it is easier for them to go for a motorcycle, becuase no scooter can match the mileage of a motorcycle. In households with bikes, these scooters are mostly purchased as a second vehicle, either for the wife or any other younger member in the family.

Another thing I can think of is that scooters fairly lighter than a bike. Maybe not the activa, but others like scooty types are definitely light vehicles. Its easy for women to handle them.

Most importantly now, is the riding comfort. In a country like India, many women ride with saree. Its not possible for a woman wearing saree to assume a bike riding position. Even chudidhar can be a little uncomforable for riding a bike.

As for the teenagers, both boys are girls, when they are young, it is easier for them to handle a light weight scooter and while teenaged boys will eventually graduate to a bike, the girls would still continue using the scooter.

So on the grounds for our indian women's attire, cost, light weight, and comfort, the scooter model is very essential and important that it remains the way it is. From a company's profit making perspective, a CVT bike would not have prospective buyers, esp in india, where factors like mileage and low cost is a very important factor...

These above are strictly my own thoughts....it'd be interesting to note what others have to say. But this is a very good question nonetheless.

Marketing, MBA people, any more thoughts?

Reason 1:

Motorcycles are supposed to be Macho, meant to be ridden by self respecting macho people.

A macho guy wouldnt ride an automatic motorcycle, would he?

And Automatic transmission gives less fuel efficiency.

Not a stupid question & infact I've been thinking on these for quite sometime now & this is the best answer that I could think about. Yes, Scooters can be modified, but in what terms lies the limitation.

First, Scooters, not Scooterets/Step throughs CAN be modified to an extent such as head port, increase compression ratio (little dangerous on air cooled engines), AM air filters, iridium plugs, FFE. But after plonking all these, what's the output? A puny 5-10 bhp increase?

Now let's put it this way, I do all possible mods (taking care of cooling also) & get a 0-100 in 10 seconds, what happens to the puny little tires? The power increases tremendously, however, the small tires aren't that good to handle them all; its unlike motorcycle's big wheels. So probably a scooterette (like TMax) might be of great help here.

Another factor is balance. On a motorcycle, the engine is placed in the mid & by default the left & right side balance is also achieved in addition. But on Scooters, its only the left & right side balance is taken care, otherwise a tremendous increase in power becomes a child's play for wheelie (remember the Rodeo's ad?)

These are few points that I could think about.

Mods - I feel this thread should be renamed to one of the following or better...
1. Why scooters are not modified?
2. Modifying scooters
3. Scooter modification thread

i my view, the auto-transmission engine can make up a nice riding pleasure cruiser bike or even chopper. just imagine.

Dear moderators,
Thank you for approving the thread.
It may be true that macho people prefer to ride bikes, but no one can ignore the ease of an automatic. I think more boys/men are inclined to the bike because of its looks, comfort (suspension), etc. All these years, we have only had automatic in a stepthrough-like frame. If something that comes up in the form of a bike, but does not need shifting, I think people will welcome it. It gives the ease of an automatic scooter but the style of a bike. Searching on the net, I came across the following link. It looks really like a bike, but has a cvt engine:

New 150CC Motorcycle with CVT Motorbike Scooter (150GY-2) - China Motorcycle,Scooter,Motorbike in Motorcycle

Look at the design of Aprilia Mana. It looks exactly like a bike, but has an automatic engine, storage in the place of regular petrol tank, and actual petrol tank is under the rear seat.

@aargee
Personally, Can scooters like Activa or Aviator be modified to look like a bike?

Even the Honda VFR 1200 is an Automatic.

Both the Mana and the VFR 1200 come with a switch that can change them into manual or automatic.

@Rune
But Aprilia manages to deliver only 16 KM/L. We should have something in the range of 125-150 cc so that there is a perfect bridge between mileage and power, which will cut down the price too.

Is it really possible to make a bike out of the automatic engines we have right now in India, or are they are not capable of fit on a bike-like frame?

Lol!!! I can only say one thing...one cannot buy a donkey, feed it like Elephant & expect it to run like Horse . Everything has its own limitations.

Though not official, I just google out quick for the top speed of Yamaha TMax 500 here, that plonks a 500cc motor & tops to 100 mph!!! Now, forget the C5 , do you think any liquid cooled 500cc motorcycle tops only to 100 mph. I personally know Ninja 250R does a top speed of 110 mph. So are you able to see the difference? This is what I'm talking about.

That said I'm not discouraging you from any mods, but trying to say that one cannot expect a performance mod output of a scooter to be like of a motorcycle. Both are two different segments.

Hey look at this:
File:Gilera DNA 180 00.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Gilera DNA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

^^^ Is that a scooter? On the first link it says "NEW MOTORBIKE"

no, in the wikipedia link it says:
The Gilera DNA was a modern hybrid between a scooter and motorcycle.

haha... midget bike.

^^^ Exactly, I'd agree to this. Its not a scooter buddy!!!