This excites me but I have a few thoughts about some of the unique constraints that come into play when riding a motorcycle vs driving a car. One big one: tran

This excites me but I have a few thoughts about some of the unique constraints that come into play when riding a motorcycle vs driving a car. One big one: transmission. As an American, I'd had the occasion of driving a manual transmission car a handful of times in my teens. Outside of that, everything has been automatic. The vast majority of motorcycles are manual[0]. A few things become apparent when you start using a motorcycle for a long commute. The first is that you're going to have a few incidents that you can only conclude "you could easily have died if you'd done something differently". You have to be paying attention to escape paths, especially during rush hour, and you're subconsciously focused deeply on what gear you're in and how the bike will respond to the throttle given those conditions. I've found most of the time, choosing acceleration over braking is the safest approach. For the most part, while a bike's stopping power can be less than a car, a bike can out accelerate almost any car on the road and has the advantage of size. One commute home a driver completely blew a red light at a point where braking to avoid him would have been impossible; I hadn't thought to brake, though, because I knew I could accelerate across the road before he could hit me and given the gear I was in, I could tweak my speed in both directions very easily with my right (throttle) hand (ready to brake if needed, but it wasn't). Engine braking to control a turn is kind of how you manage the turn[1]. It becomes muscle memory, including adjusting given the gear/speed. Electric vehicles don't (usually?) have "gears" and I'm guessing those that do wouldn't behave the way that ICE transmissions do owing to the different motor characteristics. Bikers really care about this stuff. I can't think of anything more controversial in the motorcycle world than "ABS" and "Combined Braking" -- both safety features, but both of which take some control away from the driver and alter "how the bike behaves." I found it a little funny that they point out the top speed ... it's far more important to know how well it accelerates (and it seems to handle that just fine). [0] I remember there was one automatic model available (in 2011) "that wasn't a scooter" except it was a scooter. I think it was a BMW bike and I have no idea if it's still made. [1] If you're not a rider and equating it to riding a bike ... you'll get a surprise your first time. Turning, for new riders, is a challenge (with the general rule being "look at the place you want to go, not the ground, dummy!")