Driving a scooter for the first time can be quite overwhelming, especially if you haven’t driven any motorized vehicle before. You will have to maintain a good balance, be careful about the other drivers in traffic( who from my experience tend not to be too careful about scooters ), etc. But what about the gears, do you also have to worry about them as well?
Do scooters have automatic transmissions? Yes, most scooters have automatic transmission. The automatic transmission on a scooter is called a CVT, and it works different from a standard automatic transmission, but the result is the same, you don’t have to constantly change gears while you are riding.
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What is a CVT?
CVT stands for Continuous Variable Transmission, and it looks like this:
And as you can see it’s basically made out of an input shaft, an output shaft and a belt that connects them.Because the sheaves have the ability to adjust, the belt acts like a variable gear system. Notice the belt is a fixed length. This means that as you roll back on the scooter’s throttle to go faster, centrifugal force causes the input sheave to narrow forcing the belt to act like a larger gear. This causes the output shaft to automatically adjust and act like a small gear. This basically means that the smaller the output gears diameter, the faster the output shaft spins and the faster the output shaft spins the faster the scooter goes.
The simplicity and easy to use nature of the CVT transmission have made them the perfect transmission for a variety of machines and devices-not only scooters. CVT’s have been used for years in power tools and drill presses-also in tractors and snowmobiles.
Now that we got a little into the technical side let’s talk a little about the way the CVT behaves when you drive the scooter, because based on your experience things might seem really odd.
First Time Riding a Scooter with Automatic Transmission
If you have experienced a more standart type of automatic transmission you might find the CVT a little bit odd, or at least that is how I’ve felt when I first used it, but this is probably because I rode a few motorcycles before trying a scooter.
This odd sensation might be because the CVT doesn’ tely on the motor’s RPM to increase its speed. So when you twist the throttle the engine doesn’t really give you any feedback, there is no sound, no vibration, no anything, but the speed will change.
A lot of people who come from motorcycles to scooters think that there is something wrong with their scooter then they don’t get any feedback from the engine, but it’s just the way the transmission works on a scooter.
If you’ve never driven any motorised vehicle then there is a good chance that you won’t feel that strange sensation that I just mentioned. Instead you will just notice that the scooter will accelerate when you want it to, and it will reduce the speed when you want it to, without any sound or feedback from the engine. And if you have no prior experience with motorized vehicles, this won’t bother you at all.
Maintenance
So let’s speak a little about a very important part, the maintenance.
Maintenance is one of the most important things that you have to do when you own a scooter, or any other kind of vehicle.
More complex vehicles like cars for example will probably need a mechanic for their maintenance, but a scooter is somewhat less complex so there are a few things that you can do yourself.
The two most important things that you can do to maintain the CVT is to change the belt and the oil every 2000 miles, if you drive your scooter a lot, or at least every year if you don’t drive it that much.
Changing the oil is something quite easy to do on your own, but changing the belt can be a little tricky, so in the beginning you should take it to a mechanic.
Also, changing the oil is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to maximize the performance and lifespan of your scooter. Scooters use so little oil that the amount of money that you will spend in a year is so low that it’s not even worth mentioning. And it shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes to do it.
And in the long run those 10 minutes will result in a lot of benefits. First of all the lifespan will increase by at least 6 months if you change the oil regularly. The second benefit is that the oil will clean all the dirt and debris that have gathered over time, which will result in slightly better speed. Another benefit is fuel economy, As you may know, scooters get amazing gas mileage, but if doing something as simple as an oil change gets you even better gas mileage, it’s totally worth it.
One important thing to mention about CVT is that there’s one challenge the CVT presents versus the standard manual transmission – if you’ve got a dead battery you won’t be able to “bump start” your CVT driven motorcycle. Even though scooters are generally equipped with a kick-starter along with its electric ignition, it still won’t help in the case of a truly dead battery. So make sure to check out the battery before going out.
The Difficulty of Driving a Automatic Transmission Scooter
Now that we’ve completely covered the technical part, let’s talk a little about how difficult it is to drive a scooter with automatic transmission.
I’ve driven a lot of different vehicles, vans, cars, ATV-s, motorcycles, scooters, I’ve even driven a monster truck for a few laps. And I have to say that scooters are some of the friendlies and simplest vehicles out there.
When driving a scooter you have just three things to look after: the gas, the brake and the direction. Of course you have to look out after other traffic participants and respect the rules, but those apply to all vehicles.
As one of my friends said when he drove a scooter for the first time: “ It’s just like driving a bicycle”.
Another thing that makes scooters easy to drive is the fact that they are built for efficiency and control, not for sudden bursts of speed. Even is fome scooters can reach impressive speeds, the experience is completely different from a motorcycle. On a scooter you will feel a lot more in control, and a lot safer.
Are There Any Scooters With Manual Transmission?
Yes, there are still a few models of scooters out there that use manual transmission, but they are very rare and they are generally considered vintage models.
So, let us see what manual transmission is. Manual transmission is also known as a manual gearbox, standard transmission, or stick shift. If you hear any of the above, you should know that they are referring to the same thing.
This type of transmission uses a driver-operated clutch that is normally engaged and disengaged by a foot pedal or hand lever. This regulates torque transfer from the engine to the transmission. The gear selector can be operated by either foot or hand, depending on the type of vehicle.
For many drivers there is a slight learning curve when it comes to the manual transmission, which can be a bit intimidating for an inexperienced person. Since the driver needs to develop the feel for accurately engaging the clutch. While this might seem difficult, it really isn’t. Most people are able to learn this during their first driving lesson, whether we’re talking about cars or motorcycles. But learning and mastering are two completely different things, even if you can learn it in a day, it can take you a year or even more to completely master this technique. But the automatic transmission eliminates this learning curve and makes things a lot easier.
When scooters first appeared the majority came with a manual transmission, but as technology evolved so did scooters and their transmissions.
Most people prefer an automatic transmission over a manual one. The reason for this is quite obvious, the automatic one is a lot easier to use. And since scooters are built for efficiency and to be easy to use, there is little to no reason to use a manual transmission.
Conclusion
So that’s it about scooters and their transmission. Here is the recap:
All modern scooters have automatic transmission. The automatic transmission is called Continuous Variable Transmission or CVT. The CVT works in a different way than normal automatic transmissions, but the result is the same. If you used a to drive motorcycles you might think that there is something wrong with your scooter because you don’t get any feedback from the engine, but that is normal, it’s the way the CVT works. If somebody tells you that they have manual transmission on their scooter, it means that they one a vintage model, since no current models ( in the year 2020 ) that are produced with a manual transmission. And of course never forget to do your maintenance every 2000 miles, or every year if you don’t drive that much.
That’s all. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to leave it in the comment section, I will do my best to answer it as soon as possible.