Practical sportsbike magazine

My dad had a CBX1000, the brakes sucked the tyres sucked, the suspension sucked, the chassis was more flexible than willow... the engine, that was ace! But it was different to anything else around, and still is... its that sort of thing that is missing tbh.

It seems a lot of drive for innovation has been lost, other than the R1's crossplane crank there really isnt anything in the jap 1000 bikes at all, even when compared to back in the day! Even the new BMW is basically a jap replica with some more power shoe horned in, Aprilia at least are making something pretty origional with the RSV4. 600's are perhaps worse still all even have same bore and stroke, why cant they make them at least a little different and exciting, why not a VFR600 to replace the CBR and old VFR400, something to stand out from the crowd? Suppose Triumph are doing something different and thats cool, but its not different enough for me... V4 please

Anyway I been going on a bit there...

The mag I aint read unfortunately.

[yorkie_chris]

Like an aprilia?

What like an Aprilia?

[yorkie_chris]

Modern V4... albeit a big un

Yea I mentioned that But its just no use on the road, I can hardly use all the rev's in 1st gear on the VFR before im breaking the law, on a modern 1000 its just stupid! A 600 would be enough...

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

If they were perfectly good bikes back then there's nowt wrong with them now.

They will only ever be as good as they were new, which isn't good by anyone's standards. Old bikes were dire, they were dire then and the passing of decades hasn't made them any better.

You may have a different view on what is 'good', but I've ridden 'modern good' and I wouldn't want to go back to the crap we were served up back then on a regular basis. Old bikes didn't handle, didn't stop, didn't go and didn't hold themselves together like modern bikes do - no amount of hankering after 'the good old days of motorcycling' will change that.

I've been riding bikes legally since 1978, I've owned hundreds of the things and every time I take a ride on an old bike I'm disappointed by it, which is why I'm quite happy to leave my RD400 in bits. If it was any good and going to excite me every time I rode it I'd have rebuilt the thing 15 years ago, but I know that even when it's on its own totally refurbished wheels with new decent quality tyres and running what is essentially a brand new engine in a completely overhauled chassis with new bodywork and virtually everything surrounding it straight out of a packet, it'll still be pretty crap if I rode it back to back with a modern bike like an ER6N.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

Old bikes didn't handle, didn't stop, didn't go and didn't hold themselves together like modern bikes do

Well OK, I've ridden a couple of modern good bikes too, but given choice of say an EXUP thou or a brand new GSXR1000, I'd take the EXUP at a tenth of the price any day. Bit more spannering when you first get it to iron out the niggles, then you're 9k better off or whatever and having just as much fun.

As for holding themselves together, the old 2 strokes yeah but I've seen GSXR11s with near on 200k on the same engine, or you get new stuff going bang at 10k, the finish of some stuff a few years ago was just as poor as modern finishing. Good and bad from all eras.

[Sid Squid]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

Where people get this misty eyed view that biking was better in the old days is beyond me... if truth be known it was actually pretty crap being stuck at the side of the road every time it rained because the plug leads were arcing out, or you couldn't ride anywhere near fast or safe in the wet because tyres hadn't really been developed past 1955. I didn't enjoy having to rebuild 2-strokes all the time because the oil back then wasn't anywhere near as good quality, and I didn't particularly enjoy having to rebuild Honda top ends because after almost 50 years old Soichiro's mob still couldn't make a bloody camchain tensioner that was worth a squirt.

Biking is better now than it has ever been. It's ok to reminisce about the good times you had as a youth with your biking mates, but in truth the bikes were pretty much all sh1te.

This one. This is the right one. But with one caveat:

I don't think I'd go as far as calling them sh1te, they need to be considered by the standards of the day, which by necessity are not as advanced as those of now. I quite like some old bikes, but this is with the full knowledge that they aren't as 'good' as modern bikes, but then some of that old rubbish provided me with some of the best biking times of my life - that's what I'm really nostalgic for I fully appreciate, but that doesn't mean I either over or underestimate the abilities of those machines of years gone by, considered in the correct light they can still be quite good fun.