Automatic gear shifter?

[The Crofted Crest]

Is there a system that automatically shifts gear up or down depending on your speed or pressure on pedals or somesuch?

 

[presta]

Yes there have been some made, but they've not caught on. I recall reading about one, and the reviewer saying it felt pretty weird to ride.

Optimum cadence depends on you power output, which depends on gradient as well as speed, so it would just be a PITA, and rarely optimum.

 

[PaulSB]

Is there a system that automatically shifts gear up or down depending on your speed or pressure on pedals or somesuch?

I've never heard of one but imagine someone, somewhere will have dreamt it up.

One only has to ride di2 with the "auto" setting, I don't know its name, to understand this can never work. Shimano in their wisdom introduced a di2 setting which shifts the rear derailleur when the rider shifts the front. It's dreadful.

Gear selection on a bike is about the rider's feel and intuition. No automatic system could better that.

 

[ColinJ]

A manual 1x setup is a good compromise.

When I ride my 1x bike in Devon it is almost like having automatic gears because I never think about gear shifts, they just get done.

Back on my 2x and 3x bikes, I sometimes hear a funny noise from the chain and then realise that I am crosschaining because I forgot to shift chainrings when I should have done.

 

[Webbo2]

I've never heard of one but imagine someone, somewhere will have dreamt it up.

One only has to ride di2 with the "auto" setting, I don't know its name, to understand this can never work. Shimano in their wisdom introduced a di2 setting which shifts the rear derailleur when the rider shifts the front. It's dreadful.

Gear selection on a bike is about the rider's feel and intuition. No automatic system could better that.

I thought the auto setting was more a case if you were getting towards small and small it would change to the big ring and the appropriate rear sprocket and like wise when getting towards big and big.
I tried it on the turbo in shop when getting my new bike and I didn’t go for it because it felt like someone was changing gear for me.

 

[cyberknight]

Yes there have been some made, but they've not caught on. I recall reading about one, and the reviewer saying it felt pretty weird to ride.

Optimum cadence depends on you power output, which depends on gradient as well as speed, so it would just be a PITA, and rarely optimum.

and also your preferred cadence too , some spin and some like to push bigger gears .

 

[markemark]

My old car was very expensive and had automatic gears. I hated it. Was always in the wrong gear. Was a horrible delay whilst it was working out what I was trying to do. It was always reactive rather than proactive.
The only time it was vaguely useful is slow moving tedious stop-start traffic.

I wouldn’t want to replicate that on a bike.

 

[Drago]

Aye, on a car you need a beefy engine to make a mechanical auto box work proper. Anything 4 cylinder, or below 2.5ish litre is usually horrid.

Electronic automated manual boxes are a different kettle of aquatic wildlife. Sensors, battery, actuators, can be made to work very well on dwrs but that's a lot of hardware and cash to translate it to a bicycle that virtually no one will buy anyway.

 

[Alex321]

I've never heard of one but imagine someone, somewhere will have dreamt it up.

One only has to ride di2 with the "auto" setting, I don't know its name, to understand this can never work. Shimano in their wisdom introduced a di2 setting which shifts the rear derailleur when the rider shifts the front. It's dreadful.

You think it is dreadful. Every review I have seen thinks the opposite.

And while I haven't yet tried a bike with Di2, I can only imagine it being of benefit, since I do what it does almost every time I change rings. The change between rings is always much bigger than the change between two sprockets, so you almost always want to change both together, in the same direction (opposite effect).

And you can always turn it off if you don't like it.

 

[Tigerbiten]

If you go for a hub gear setup then there's the Enviolo CVT hub. Enviolo Automatic is a “set and forget” system that adjusts to you – set your preferred pace and you’re ready to go. Simply set your desired cadence once (how many pedal rotations feel comfortable for you) and the Enviolo Hub will constantly adjust its internal gear ratio to maintain a steady smooth cadence regardless of the speed or riding conditions that you encounter. If you ride uphill it will adjust to a lower gear ratio for you and if you ride downhill it will do the opposite.

 

[TheDoctor]

It's something that gets reinvented every so often, like oval chainrings, L-shaped cranks and indicator / brake light systems.
Like all of the above, it then sinks without trace, because it's a terrible idea.
The latest iteration I can find was this from 2016, but it's like the Deal Drive from the mid-80s.