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What has happened to motorcycling?

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Xdriver

Xdriver

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So, I'm in the process of watching On Any Sunday on Netflix. Haven't finished it yet, but I have to say if someone was to make a similar movie today, it wouldn't be as fun. I see now why most of the people who ride and for that matter on this forum, are in the 50+ age group. You guys grew up in this environment when riding was completely different than today. The bikes were not so specialized or complex, heavy etc, and roads not so crazy with distracted drivers. The different racing and events available to the enthusiast trumped today's rally's and meets by a long shot.

I know it's a movie and probably romanticizes things quite a bit, but still I can see how it really was a different hobby/sport years ago.
 
Well, as a member of that 50+ (58) age group, riding WAS different back in the 60s and 70s, however, if it was THAT different, there wouldn't be that many of us geezers still riding.
It's every bit as enjoyable for me now as it was 40 years ago.
 
Actually you're speaking of the America that we older guys and gals grew up in and see being destroyed
 
Valker said:
Well, as a member of that 50+ (58) age group, riding WAS different back in the 60s and 70s, however, if it was THAT different, there wouldn't be that many of us geezers still riding.
It's every bit as enjoyable for me now as it was 40 years ago.
Click to expand...

Well I didn't start till 2002 so I have no comparison but I would say it is just different. Better? Maybe, but the whole country was different too. I got a smile on my face this morning hopping on the ZZR and riding to work.
 
Thanks for reminding me to put it on my instant queue on Netflix, haven't seen it yet.

I didn't start riding until a year ago. Been driving since '87 (I'm 43 years young). Times change.

I somewhat agree with Kojak on his assessment.
 
The bikes are just light years ahead though. I returned to riding in 08. I remember 3 inches of rear travel and maybe five in front with ignitions that had points.
 
I agree with Kojak. I love vintage bikes and riding my old Norton and RZ. Then I hop on my K1200R and am almost mesmerized at the differences. Not only the mechanical and suspension enhancements, but tires are incredibly better today. It is refreshing, however, to tinker on a bike without a computer.
 
kojack06 said:
The bikes are just light years ahead though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I owned a KZ1000 in the early 80's. I recently got the chance to ride the disco era's "fastest bike on the planet" and was surprised by several things. The engine was anemic by today's standards, the frame has the rigidity of wet noodles and the brakes sucked. I expected all of this but was amazed by the magnitude of the differences.
 
Where to start? Nowadays bikes are much better, gear is much better, availability of both is better, racing and events far exceed what was available back then (rallys and meets aren't about riding), aftermarket bolt on parts makes custom fitting for ergos, power, handling much simpler, etc.

Only thing that has decreased is available riding areas. But now being older with ready transport and more disposable income you greatly broaden your riding area and variety of terrain by out of area riding.

I had a blast riding in the early 70's but like Valker I have just as much fun today riding. Actually more enjoyment today as I ride all types of motorcycles not just off road.

...never slow down...never grow old.

_
 
The big difference to me from then to now is the loss of easy access off pavement riding areas. There were trails in river bottoms, and even well within city limits that we could spend hours or even a full day enjoying without risking unpleasant encounters with officers. Anyone remember 360? or the trails near the old channel 5 tower in east Fort Worth? Urban sprawl has eaten up good off road areas.

Sure the bikes have changed too. My 75 Yamaha DT250 only had a few inches of travel being a twin shock bike. My WR250R has about 11 inches front and rear of travel. Trail running and track jumping the old DT taught me things about bike control that the newer one masks. That can be both good and bad. The good for me is that I can put off the shock re-build that my WR seriously needs (and I am too broke to buy) and get around by using the knee and ankle suspension from the old twin shocker.

I digress though, looking too deep at one aspect of what you are saying. A lot has changed since the 70s in motorcycling. Racing at any level almost needs sponsorship these days while in the time of the movie the top level racers could still function out of their own garage or a small shop.
 
I think Ed (and others) really hit the high points. The biggest difference I see is the lack of places to ride. My cousin's family used to run a motorcycle park up near Bowie. Now that's subdivided. He still has about 30 acres, one partner has about 300, and the other 400 is a housing development. We used to ride where the golf course is on 360, and down in the Trinity river bottoms, and for that matter, where the Bell High School football field is now. Make some of these people go away!
 
When I was a lot more flexible (and lighter) we could ride our Bultacos and Yahamas and whatever all day long and never see pavement, never cover the same road and never ride where we weren't allowed to ride in the national forest which bordered out property.

Bikes were simpler, lighter on lbs and hp, far less complexed, had crappy brakes, crappy suspension, broke down often and wore out quickly in the environment we rode them in. If we want to ride, we had to scrounge money to buy a worn out bike, scrounge money to buy parts to make it go, learn how to install these parts, then steal grandpas mower gas to ride. Did I enjoy it? **** YEA!!!

Fast forward... Now, I have money to buy decent bikes with better suspension, more hp, better brakes, better handling, more weight, almost require a degree to change the oil and I am the one doing all the wearing out and breaking down. :giveup:

But I still enjoy it.:mrgreen:
 
I think the biggest difference today is how kids can't easily find places to ride with their friends on the cheap.

When I had my first real bike, a TS50 Gaucho, in 1972 near La Porte, I could push (ride when nobody was looking) to the neighborhood park and ride and explore hundreds of acres of undeveloped land, drainages, and adjoining neighborhoods' fields with my friends on their Hodakas, Maicos, Huskys and Jap bikes.

Nobody interfered. There were no signs prohibiting riding there. I could ride through fields to the gas station and fill up on fifty cents. Today, this would have neighbors calling the law, there would be fines, restrictions, etc. Folks were more tolerant back then and encouraged kids to take a few risks and have fun.

Kids nowadays have to overcome a huge investment in time and logistics just to get to the riding area. The parent has to find time to load up bikes, drive to the special place for dirt riding, pay the entry fees or buy state permits, and more. All these additional factors reduce the time a kid can have on their bike. It is rare that they can just say, "Mom, I'm going riding!" and take the bike from the garage and go ride with the other kids on the block.

This logistical aspect, plus the increasing popularity of four wheelers (and video games), have really cut into the available time and the number of new riders in these younger age groups.

I think that today there are more dirt riders that didn't start riding until they are adults, where in the past we grew up riding dirt with neighbor kids.

Those of us who were in this environment got it into our blood at an early age. It was a formative aspect of our development, and those experiences run deep in our psyche to the point that they are still a vital part of our lives.

I think the opportunity for dirt riding to be this big a part of the life of a youth is rare now, and has been fading consistently over the past several decades.
 
I have a copy of On Any Sunday on VHS if that tells you how old I am. Good film, watched it just a month or so ago. I was thinking also a remake would be interesting. I enjoy riding today as much as in the past. Problem is I do not have the same amount of free time to do it. My 2 ton Concours really lets me love riding the KZ250 or GPZ around. I have several classic bikes and they are not modern as the Concours but just as nice or nicer to ride. No motorcycles were hurt during typing of this thread.
 
I have to agree with many, I'm not very nostalgic and don't romanticize the past. Maybe a few life events are special but everything about modern motorcycling except for the modern era of distracted thoughtless cage drivers is 10X better today. Gear is way better, bikes are much safer, faster, turn and stop so much better, and most even look better to my eye. I personally couldn't care less about old obsolete machines or supposedly "the good ole days".
 
By the time On Any Sunday came out in '71 I had already had 4 motorcycles. I had just bought a dual purpose AT1 Yamaha 125 which was a kinda serious dirt bike for the time. I had raced it at Cloverfield MX track. When a group of us saw the movie I had to have a Husqvarna but ended up with a Penton. I was completely hooked on dirts bike for the next 25 years. My first Enduro was Rockne and there were over 500 riders there. I got 4th in my class and was hooked on Enduros for the next 10 years. I agree with all the above comments about bikes light years better. To have one of todays dirt bikes back then would have been an unfair advantage. Add me to the KZ1000 club, had an '80, now I have a '12 Ninja 1000, yea its way better but the dirt bikes to me are just more advanced than the street bikes. If I didn't have bad wrists now I will still be riding dirt bikes. Xdriver you are right about the movie, if I had just watched it for the first time now I wouldn't be as impressed. Watching it back then was actually a life changer for me, it steered my deeper into motorcycling.
 
Some folks just prefer to remember the romanticized version of the past. Yes, I got older, and yes, drivers have more distractions like smartphones, etc. And yes, bikes have gotten more specialized. But the good old days weren't all it's cracked up to be. I started riding in '85 and I also remember:

1. Carburetted engines that don't run worth a crap on cold mornings.
2. Carburetted engines that gummed up and won't start in December, just barely a month after the last ride in the Fall.
3. Tires that were stone-age by today's standard.
4. Changing jet needlles and reeking of gasoline vs. tweaking fuel maps on a laptop.
5. UJMs that can do it all... but does nothing really all that well.
5. National speed limit of 55mph, and getting ticketed for going 58mph.

I can go on and on, but why bother. I just got back to riding 2yrs ago after a 15yr hiatus, and I have been blown away by marvelous machines today. As for other drivers, well... I'd call it a draw, since more dstracted drivers are somewhat offset by far better cars, with better brakes, tires, lights, ABS, TCS and all the new technologies.

The only thing that doesn't work as well these days is... me.
 
I agree with DesertSkies on I am the one breaking down. Those older somewhat less reliable machines is what we older cats cut our teeth(now missing teeth ) on. Now we are able to perform the maintance on them just to darn tired half the time to do it!
 
Sure, urban sprawl has taken away a large portion of available riding but even before that you were trespassing to enjoy those large pieces of land. When all the lawsuits from folks getting injured on private property started happening those trespassing laws started being enforced. I can't blame the land owners for putting a stop to it. It stinks, though.

There's just too many people in the suburbs where it used to be "country". Now, you have to ride for an hour from the city to get to rural areas where there isn't constant traffic. Those rural roads are still a lot of fun to ride, thank goodness.

Luckily, I have family land that my kids will get to ride on if they show interest. Nothing challenging but it's still fun to go ripping across the pasture.
 
I agree with SilverBullet that the equipment is far and away better today than it was in the ‘70s. If I had to attribute my return to riding to any single thing it would be the mesh jacket.

As a kid in the '70s I rode the railroad grades out to pastures that owners had failed to fence, shot up and down the creeks and Trinity river bottoms the police didn't have the resources to patrol and had people shake their fists at me as we rode up and down the alleys of south Fort Worth to get to the Armory or the field behind the S&H Green Stamp distribution building. Riding in Texas then, as it is now, is a matter of finding a place that you're not supposed to be or paying someone to let you ride on their land. We Texans have never had access to public land as the riders in On Any Sunday did.

In visiting Southern California this year, once on business and once for the LAB2LV event, I was impressed with the hundreds of bikes, dune buggies and four wheelers everywhere I went. Going into the desert on the weekend it's easy to find circles of toy haulers flying their club flags. I was impressed with the huge set asides of public land for OHV use and how much of the public land was available for riding in general. What I was most impressed by was the strength of the AMA District 37 group, both in helping to manage access and as riders dedicated to putting on events.

On Any Sunday inspired me as a kid and still does today. Sure the races with 1500 guys going shoulder to shoulder across the desert are gone, but anyone can still ride from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and never touch pavement except to cross it or get gas. Frankly I like having the riding concentrated in OHV areas (some the size of a small county) because it focuses resources in the same place. Imagine going to the convenience store and seeing sprockets and chains for sale along with the chips and soda.

I guess what I’m saying is that it’s not wrong, it’s just different and it won’t stop me or the kid down the street from riding. Now, if I can just get him to quit riding across my lawn. :-)
m
 
MotoTex my first bike was a Kawasaki KE100 in the late 70's. Thanks Dad I miss you. Did video games kill or mame the bike industry? I also miss riding the land and open fields that are now covered with homes. Is this progress or what?
 
My first bike was a 1980 XR80 that I tried to ride into the ground in the early 90's. I would jump anything I could find on that little thing, rode all over town and went wherever I chose. It was a far inferior bike compared to the new models of the 90's but it was all I knew and ignorance was bliss.
 
I guess what I was seeing in the film was simplicity and accessibility. Which is something fading from most aspects of modern life. This is not to say motorcycling now can't be fun. It is indeed a great time. The technology and gear being far advanced in comparison does add in it's own way to the riding experience I'd imagine. I see most things in our world losing more of that simplicity and accessibility as time marches forward. What do they say? These are the good ol days.
 
Until it died a couple months, my cell phone didn't even have a camera.

I miss the good ole days. :lol2:
 
I agree with you riders that the gear is above and beyond yesteryear stuff. Hey my gear was a blue levis jacket,three quarter helmet with a tinted bubble shield,and a wacky pretty much non-protective pair of gloves.
 
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