Manual transmissions are basically non-existent in the modern auto market, as a percentage of what is available. And on this continent, wagons are also rapidly going the way of the dinosaur. Pete's comment about the market voting with their wallets is valid - nobody is making those vehicles anymore because most people don't want to buy them anymore. Doesn't really matter if they make more sense for most people, if most people don't want them.
As for bikes, your "watered down" analogy is totally available everywhere, except it doesn't come with plus tires. Much as we could all argue that plus tires would benefit many riders, there are still tangible performance drawbacks to all that added heft that will not play well in the vast parts of this country where the riding terrain is suited just fine for the 2.3" reality. Same deal as with manual transmissions and station wagons. We had the opportunity to buy plus bikes, but not enough of us did. There were a ton of reasons why, but the down the line ramification is that the across the board demand did not prove tangible enough to justify continued production.
April 14, 2023, 9:27 a.m. - Mike Ferrentino
Manual transmissions are basically non-existent in the modern auto market, as a percentage of what is available. And on this continent, wagons are also rapidly going the way of the dinosaur. Pete's comment about the market voting with their wallets is valid - nobody is making those vehicles anymore because most people don't want to buy them anymore. Doesn't really matter if they make more sense for most people, if most people don't want them. As for bikes, your "watered down" analogy is totally available everywhere, except it doesn't come with plus tires. Much as we could all argue that plus tires would benefit many riders, there are still tangible performance drawbacks to all that added heft that will not play well in the vast parts of this country where the riding terrain is suited just fine for the 2.3" reality. Same deal as with manual transmissions and station wagons. We had the opportunity to buy plus bikes, but not enough of us did. There were a ton of reasons why, but the down the line ramification is that the across the board demand did not prove tangible enough to justify continued production.