Originally Posted by JohnHarris
K

I have two cousins, brothers who were about 5 to 7 years older than myself, one was into BSA the other Truimph, so immense rivalry and batter between them and they had a garage full of part disassembed 50's, 60's bikes, always in a state of disrepair and reassembly ,which was the norm with them. I alway made a point of turning up at their house in the 70's on my Norton 850........needless to say got lots of abuse from both of them......but little things like electric start, would really get their goat going.

I think the issue in part stems from being subjected to oil tight, reliable Japanese bikes from the late 60's onwards, which changed the motorcycling norm of what we can expect from a bike, and focused on the shortfalls of british bikes by comparison. Before Japanese bike, the British bikes set the norm, and oil leaks, unreliability was the then accepted norm. One of my Dad's friemd's was a painter who used to carry all his decorating tools, ladders,etc. in his sidecar.......along with a massive tool kit to keep the bike going. and he only did local trips, but he considered it part of the journey. of ownership. He hardly ever used his cars, would trade them in every 3 years or so for a new one , with hardly any miles on them, but kept the bike going well into his 70's.

Modern bikes do tend to be bland, but are amazingly good at being bland, low maintence, tend to be very reliable, often amazingly fast, brake, go round corners and do everything you want of them amazingly well, but lack the character of machines from the past.

John, I suspect one sets one`s datum in the era of ones formative years in terms of matters automotive...? Perhaps even as in little time as the passage of a decade can make quite a difference in one`s preferences, given the likely speed of progress in the 1900`s ..?
Norton Dominator and Triumph Bonniville, much less so BSA were the top dogs in my era, the plain bearing on the crank in the Beesa was not a favourite, though my uncle (ex racer) being circa 25 years older than I had raced a 500 BSA Gold Star, which he preferred to the Manx Norton... In those times if it did not leak oil it had none left in it... (-:
My Barbour jacket had pockets full of pliers, screw driver, spark plug, various chain links, half links, spring links, even some clutch corks... in it, every time one threw it down the road gravel rash was expected, but the hope was that one did not end up with pliers or screw driver embedded in one`s anatomy... (-:

I guess my "era" spanned the growing domination of Jap bikes, my pal had a Triumph dealership, later Triumph BSA before changing over to Honda... I well remember the brand new oil in frame Bonivilles leaking oil out of their push rod tubes after very few miles..!!! Triumph Twins used external push rod tubes for decades, sigh... Seems that silicone gasket goo arrived just at the right time for Triumphs new Bonny...
I well remember the first Honda Gold Wing in Scotland arriving at his dealership, which he intended to put on track at Knockhill, and asked me to put some miles on it beforehand, which I initially did on the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh back and forth a few times, Once opened up it was a powerful lump at the time but no racer for sure, though I do remember it sliding under power , and the front tyre hopping under heavy braking.... Interesting machine, compared to the 850 Commando he lent me to take to the IOM, which was a whole lot different from my slimline Featherbead Dommi .... I went back to m/cycles in my 50`s and bought a BMW R 80R, still as daft as ever I even rode the thing in the snow... I gave up on bikes when I required to wear glasses..

John that which you applied to bikes in your last paragraph above, is identical to that which I apply to both cars and bikes... and why when the sun is out, my old Mog sees more use than the 991...(-:
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P.S. I have another pal who is still into bikes, and has a collection of old Triumphs, which he restored, even has a modern Harley, though he suffered an episode while trying to kick over one of his old Triumphs and ended up in hospital to have a stent fitted...Fortunately recovered well, now has just completed the restoration of an old dog of a 500 velo, staring that will no doubt be a bit of a health risk...
As ever each to their own.
Hope your "new" bike brings much pleasure.
BTW a local youngster has a imported and EVO Harley from the US, and is currently jumping through hoops in a bid to get it UK registered