02-12-2014, 03:00 AM
(02-12-2014, 01:58 AM)Capo_imp Wrote: Reputations are easy to get and hard to lose. Which is why people still project '70's perceptions on to current machines.Yes, like some of us "old souls", I, too, yearn for the days of yore, when craftsmen who actually cared about what they were doing lovingly assembled each component into a machine that had "character"...or should I say quality? Yes, that's the word, quality. Back in the 1970's, when men were men and motorcycles were motorcycles, a guy had to know how to adjust his points, dry out his electrics, and replace a tube alongside the roadway, anywhere, any time. You had to carry a full toolkit and a couple of quarts of motor oil with you on a long journey.
Why, I remember when a guy could take satisfaction in just getting there. On one memorable ride through the desert Southwest, three of us got waylaid in the middle of nowhere in a terrific dust storm. We tangled, and without any help for days, managed to sustain ourselves on some dried fruit and a canteen of water whilst we put together a single motorcycle from the wrecks of our three machines. All six of us (we were all riding two-up) piled onto this bastard ride and made it over a hundred miles to a little craphole of a motel. The bike ate a piston just as we rode it straight into the swimming pool.
True story. In fact, I weep as a write this, the nostalgia is so thick. I'm going to go install a set of points and a condenser and a bank of Keihin CV carbs on my CB1100 right now...and I'll remove the oil cooler whilst I'm at it...