SUZUKIStratosphere 2005 - 2010

　　The Stratosphere is a concept bike expected to hit the roads in 2009. All that power is delivered to a dual-mode transmission. If you like automatic shifting–or if you are just momentarily tired of rowing the gearbox–this bike will do it for you. But if you require the classic experience, clutch lever and shift lever are there for you. It’s hard to say what’s next, but the work Suzuki undertook toward clutch/throttle/gearchange automation in MotoGP will not just be filed and forgotten. In the 1970s, my own stiff-necked devotion to manual shifting was charmed out of me by 300,000 miles in an automatic van.