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Mana vs NC700 vs C600

I saw this article and wasn't surprised that a motorcycle magazine liked the automatic motorcycles more than they did the scooter...

Truthfully, I did consider the Mana myself... but Aprilia's miserable reputation for parts availability combined with my inability to put "Italian" and "Reliable" together in the same sentence sort of doomed that choice from the beginning. Cool looking bike, though.
 
Of the three only the BMW and the GT at that, would do a decent job of downsizing and replacing my Goldwing. Neither of the other two bikes give much if any weather protection, as the BMW does. That alone would make the BMW the better traveling or touring machine. To me the perfect combination would be the BMW with a dual clutch transmission.
 
In the review they focused most of price in thier decision, but the undercurrent is that they are "stuck" on Gears. The honda had actual gears to run thru, even in Auto. I don't think they realize that they tried to ride the mana and sport like a motorcycle with gears, and did not like it. When in fact you do have to change your style of preparing for curves differently, you can't just hit a corner and downshift; thier lack of knowledge in this led to thier dislike of the CVT's.
I think any shootout we see where the scooters are compared to geared bikes will result in the same evaluation.
 
Most of purist don't really "get it". Trying to get motorcyclist to understand an automatic on a bike is like trying to explain texting to your grandparents. I do wish the BMW had a DCT like the Honda though. It seems to be a very well designed gearbox.
 
Once again the wannabe canyon racer boys don't get it. When they dismissed the BMW as a "knife" brought to a gunfight without much more discussion I turned off the video. Ask the folks who own, or who have owned a Burgman 650 whether the paddle shifter loses its novelty after playing with it for awhile. Ask someone who has had to have their Burgman transmission fixed how pricey all that technology is. There is beauty in the simplicity of a CVT. If you don't want to shift manually a CVT does it all. Interesting note - at least one of the bike's "gas tank" was really a trunk. Other than the location of this phony gas tank - the bike is kind of on its way to being a scooter since configuration distinguishes motorcycles from the subset of scooters. So, all in all this was a gunfight between bikes for people who don't want to own "real" bikes. I've always believed that being good with a knife is often better than being not so good with a gun.
 
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The engine in the Mana is actually used in a "Big Honkin' Scooter" in Europe. Due to the nature of the V4, however, it's not much of a "Step-thru" design, and the storage compartment is pitiable. It works a whole lot better in the Mana configuration if you ask me. That probably explains why they don't bring that 850cc into the States in anything but the Mana.
 
I don't know what I was thinking about the mana. I think I got doone bad info, it also helped that I've never actually seen one at any of the local dealers, so I just assumed that the shiver was the only standard on offer. But I'm still pleased as punch with my scooter, it was the best all rounder for me.

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