Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins
We worked harder for it back then. Motorcycling is kind of a microcosm of the changes, or advancements made in my lifetime. It has become so accessable, so easy, that it has opened it up for those with no more than a cursory interest. It used to be that if you wanted to ride on the weekends, you had to wrench a bit during the week to make sure things were ready. Every week. Not that it took all of our time, but it certainly took enough of it to where a guy had to really want to ride. Not anymore. Now it can be an activity that a guy can just step into on the whim of the moment, with no prior planning or preperation, knowing full well his machine will run just like it did the last time he parked it. Most folks, of course, think that is absolutely wonderful. So do I, as a matter of fact, most of the time. I think guys who didn't go through that "golden era" are, however, missing something. I'm happy that I can now relive all of that, reminding myself of what it was like and, with that, gain an even deeper appreciation of just how good I have it now.
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Jeff, what you wrote is only true if you placed some emotional value over engineering. I ride. I rode since I was 14 on the road. I raced for several years. I have somewhere north of 750,000 miles on motorcycles. I stopped counting 20 years ago.
I picked engineering and quality of construction over emotional attraction to pick my motorcycles. In 1964 I obtained my first Honda. Two Hondas later I was able to obtain a BMW R60/2 (it did not shake above idle and was dead stone reliable). This led to a long line of BMW's and hundreds of thousands of miles with just 4 flat tires, one broken condensor lead, several burned out light bulbs and one carberator float bowl drain plug gone missing.
I was never stuck on the road, never had to do any more than normal maintainace and spent my time actually riding, not wrenching. I used to routinely reel off 1000 mile days and made some very quick point to point rides. I once beat my Father in a Beech Deboniar between airports (about 75 miles). I was there waiting for him when he landed. I did LA to Chicago in 27 hours a couple of times.
I rode rain or shine, winter and summer. I rode when I wanted too, not when the machine was repaired enough to ride.
I abhor badly made or engineered machinery. I refuse to pay the cost in time for such crap.
I really don't think I was a posser just because I didn't have to work on crap machinery.