TK4
Well-known member
I started riding in 1968, when finding a used motorcycle more than say 10 years old that was worth buying and didn't need a ton of work was rare and unusual to say the the least. We had no choice but to learn how to do our own repairs. Work on it for an hour, ride for an hour.
Now here we are a few (ahem) decades later, and people are buying up P.O.S. that are often 40 to 50+ years old and expecting them to run flawlessly and reliably with nothing more than basic maintenance. AND at the same time paying ridiculous amounts of money for them AND taking it personally when a shop refuses to work on it because its going to cost too much or there are no parts .
What's wrong with this picture ? Unrealistic expectations because the Japanese manufacturers (and H-D) did too good a job of building the stuff in the first place, and the sales boom through the 70s, 80s and 90s has this stuff still lingering around peoples' garages and garden sheds instead of being in landfill.
I'm not suggesting that you don't take on a fun project, goodness knows I've had a few over the years, but don't count on them to be your main source of summer transportation. I've seen too many people get caught up in the romance of it all, where maybe if they'd set their sights a little more realistically they'd be having more fun. And learn to do your own work and source your own parts.
End of rant...
Now here we are a few (ahem) decades later, and people are buying up P.O.S. that are often 40 to 50+ years old and expecting them to run flawlessly and reliably with nothing more than basic maintenance. AND at the same time paying ridiculous amounts of money for them AND taking it personally when a shop refuses to work on it because its going to cost too much or there are no parts .
What's wrong with this picture ? Unrealistic expectations because the Japanese manufacturers (and H-D) did too good a job of building the stuff in the first place, and the sales boom through the 70s, 80s and 90s has this stuff still lingering around peoples' garages and garden sheds instead of being in landfill.
I'm not suggesting that you don't take on a fun project, goodness knows I've had a few over the years, but don't count on them to be your main source of summer transportation. I've seen too many people get caught up in the romance of it all, where maybe if they'd set their sights a little more realistically they'd be having more fun. And learn to do your own work and source your own parts.
End of rant...