What has happened to motorcycling?

[h2000fb]

Man, that pic really brings back memories. Those first bikes, super soft ride - like a cloud. Great rides for the day and its kids.

 

[tshelfer]

To sum it all up:

What was good about motorcycling then:
- There was less traffic overall.
- There were more places to ride dirt.
- Bikes were cheaper.
- Bikes were simpler to work on.
- (Cruisers aside, which look about the same) Bikes were in general better looking.
- I was younger, my back didn't hurt, and I didn't break so easily.

What's good about motorcycling now:
- People are generally more aware of bikes & small vehicles (unless they're messing with cell phones, in which case all bets are off).
- Bikes are vastly better built in all aspects, easily running 5 to 6 times as far without falling apart or engines burning up.
- Bikes go way farther with little or no maintenance other than oil, tires, minor adjustments.
- Brakes actually stop, instead of just suggesting a gradual slowdown.
- Fuel injection, baby!
- Seats are, in general, far more comfortable than the old "slab seats."
- More and better safety gear.
- More and better options to accessorize.
- I'm older, smarter, and less likely to do something totally stupid that will get me killed.

 

[kickstand~prophet]

To sum it all up:

What was good about motorcycling then:
- There was less traffic overall.
- There were more places to ride dirt.
- Bikes were cheaper.
- Bikes were simpler to work on.
- (Cruisers aside, which look about the same) Bikes were in general better looking.
- I was younger, my back didn't hurt, and I didn't break so easily.

What's good about motorcycling now:
- People are generally more aware of bikes & small vehicles (unless they're messing with cell phones, in which case all bets are off).
- Bikes are vastly better built in all aspects, easily running 5 to 6 times as far without falling apart or engines burning up.
- Bikes go way farther with little or no maintenance other than oil, tires, minor adjustments.
- Brakes actually stop, instead of just suggesting a gradual slowdown.
- Fuel injection, baby!
- Seats are, in general, far more comfortable than the old "slab seats."
- More and better safety gear.
- More and better options to accessorize.
- I'm older, smarter, and less likely to do something totally stupid that will get me killed.

Amen brother great list there couldn't of said it better myself! Drew

 

[MPS]

Did you say RZ? Do you have a picture of the RZ? Here a quick One before Santa rode off.

yep...mine's the bumble-bee. I'll take a picture and try to figure out how to post it. It is a blast to ride! I still love the sound and smell of a 2-stroke.

After reading some of the posts, I'm sure some of us crossed paths in our youth. I grew up in the mid-cities and rode Mosier Valley and 360. I'm 57 and still ride with friends that I rode with as a teenager. It's interesting how riding was our common ground then and it still is today.

 

[kickstand~prophet]

yep...mine's the bumble-bee. I'll take a picture and try to figure out how to post it. It is a blast to ride! I still love the sound and smell of a 2-stroke.

After reading some of the posts, I'm sure some of us crossed paths in our youth. I grew up in the mid-cities and rode Mosier Valley and 360. I'm 57 and still ride with friends that I rode with as a teenager. It's interesting how riding was our common ground then and it still is today.

Still holding our collective breaths for those yeller and black RZ pictures. Do not forget the RD. Drew

 

[kickstand~prophet]

Hammond, Louisiana, 1965.

That's right, we're bad...

rt

Had that same caption in high school after riding a rollorcoaster at Six Flags over Texas ,as it used to be called. Think that saying came from Richard Pryor. Drew

 

[kickstand~prophet]

My cousin Redpill made reference to this earlier, so let's see if anybody besides us actually remembers the place. Our uncle was a partner in what, in the early 70s, was called Sundance Cycle Park. It was just outside of Bowie. 720 acres of prime land. A couple of dirt roads to get in and out, but mostly it was just unimproved land. There were meadows, rolling hills, woods, creeks, steep rocky hills, ponds - plenty of terrain varieties to have fun and test your skills with.

The park was open most weekends. For $1 per day per person you could camp on the premises and ride your brains out. And they had several event weekends per year with cross country races, enduros, and the occasional novelty event. My favorite was when they put 20 guys on dirt bikes inside a great big circle. They taped a balloon to every helmet and gave each rider a fly swatter. Last balloon standing won.

That was how Redpill and I learned to ride, back around '71 and '72. I was usually on my uncle's Yamaha 175. In those days, you could learn a lot of riding skills without getting seriously hurt - as long as you didn't fall in prickly pear or mess with the bull who lived on the edge of the property.

I would have loved to see the fly swatter race/contest. That would have cracked me up. Did you participate? Drew

 

[RedPill]

Another thing they'd do was catch an armadillo or two, and paint an orange spot on it. If you caught an orange armadillo, you won a case of beer.

I actually never rode there during one of the event weekends. I learned to ride at Lake Grapevine before they bought Sundance, and after they had stopped running it as a cycle park. I hunt on the 30 acres that my cousin still owns of the place, and you can still find "motorcycle artifacts" there. Alas, about half of the original place is developed now.

 

[kickstand~prophet]

Another thing they'd do was catch an armadillo or two, and paint an orange spot on it. If you caught an orange armadillo, you won a case of beer.

I actually never rode there during one of the event weekends. I learned to ride at Lake Grapevine before they bought Sundance, and after they had stopped running it as a cycle park. I hunt on the 30 acres that my cousin still owns of the place, and you can still find "motorcycle artifacts" there. Alas, about half of the original place is developed now.

I think I grew up in the wrong area. Drew

 

[kickstand~prophet]

Motorcycling sure has changed over the years. Prices and reliablity are way up. Who would have thought a enduro(old man term) would be 7K or more for the larger ones. Or how about 30K for a new x-large BMW? Its is an expensive sport now. Blue jeans and blue jean jacket and a bell star helmet was our gear back then. I mostly rode around with a t-shirt and maybe a cheap pair of gloves. Bikes were less complicated then. No plastic in the way just aluminum and chrome. I do enjoy riding still even with all the fools jabbering about their day on their cell phones. Be safe. Drew

 

[jbird710]

I remember making the comment to someone back in the late '70s; "How can anybody justify spending $10k on a motorcycle?".

 

[Valker]

I remember making the comment to someone back in the late '70s; "How can anybody justify spending $10k on a motorcycle?".

And I remember in the 60s thinking "How did I fit $1 worth of gas in this thing??"

 

[road_thing]

I remember looking at a slightly used shovelhead FLH in 1986, but I oculdn't bring myself to give $5000 for it!

 

[Deleted member 23845]

Yes, riding was very different. I started riding in 1967 on a Honda MT 50, then got a Scrambler 175. Friends had two stroke Suzukis, various Yamaha single cylinder dirt bikes, and a big bike was the Triumph Bonnieville. Then came the Kawasaki Mach III, and famous Honda 750 four.

In the late seventies the bikes went high tech, and bigger and faster was the norm. In the eighties, nineties and now 21st century I think many SS bikes are basically racing bikes for the street, very extreme, and 99% of riders can and will never use the performance or handling.

Hence, I ride a Moto Guzzi small block: simple, powerful enough, elegant, updated technology, modern brakes, etc. It is reliable, fun, and suits a 59 year old Viejo.

Real motorcycles have finned engines, spoke wheels and no plastic.

 

[road_thing]

Real motorcycles have finned engines, spoke wheels and no plastic.

And no more than two cylinders.

 

[Hail]

I don't think anything has changed. Does technology really change the enjoyment and freedom you feel riding a motorcycle? I don't think so. Not for me.

I think this is the simple musing of someone pining for the "old days" which always seem better in our memories than today. Everyone who ever lived thinks the world was a better place in their youth than they do at any other point in their lives. We are all as unique as a nickel.

 

[1TallTXn]

Has it changed? Absolutely.
For the better? Depends on what element you're looking at.
Tech had made bikes both more reliable and given more areas for failure.
As much as people long for their old bikes, would they really ride them to Alaska like you could with literally any current bike?
Not saying it isn't possible, just much simpler with the more reliable machines now.
But, all that extra tech requires more tools and skills to repair when they break. Trade offs.

 

[kickstand~prophet]

Real motorcycles have finned engines, spoke wheels and no plastic.

And no more than two cylinders.

Your in trouble now!!! Drew

 

[Jack Giesecke]

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.

I'm 60, got started IN the 60s. I saw On Any Sunday when it was at the theater. I was impressionable.

That said, bikes WERE heavy back then. They were all steel, was no carbon fiber, were no titanium bits available to anyone, but billionaires. Your typical steel tube double cradle frame back then had hinges in it. It flexed and wobbled to the point that I couldn't wait to get on GP machinery after racing RD Yamaha street stuff. It weren't all roses, but it was fun. Another thing, when I started road racing again in 1999 after 11 years out of it, I couldn't BELIEVE how much better were the leathers now days with actual ARMOR padding! Back in the day, you'd road rash right through your leathers.

There's more going on out there than "rallies and meets", too. I even contemplated getting into TRIALS again after researching it via search engine. That was 15 years ago, but I found four or five active Texas trials organizations. I wound up getting back into road racing, probably a mistake since I'd been there, done that. The trials thing woulda been fun, but trials bikes ain't cheap. At least you don't have to buy a new one every year to stay competitive, though. The one thing I liked back in the day, you could road race at Aquafest on you modified DT250 one day, run a hare scrambles the next weekend, go MXing the next, run an enduro the next, didn't need, but one motorcycle, maybe different tires, but not motorcycles. Things are a might more sophisticated now days. We even have motard racing, highly modded dirt bikes for street/dirt racing. We've lost some venues, probably. Don't hear much about ISDT anymore, Speedway still exists, but heck, it never was very popular other than in California. Today, we have enduro still, MX still, road racing on the club level is more accessible than it was in 1970 when the movie was made, even have mini road racing on mini bikes. I ran some flat track again in the 2000s, lots of fun, all around Houston area at the time. Drag racing in some areas is still popular. The venues are there, you just have to find 'em. What's great NOW is that we have the net and google to find it all.

 

[GRU]

Biggest difference between then and now........TIRES and BRAKES!

 

[Jack Giesecke]

Biggest difference between then and now........TIRES and BRAKES!

Oh, I'd add horsepower and modern chassis. Yeah, K81 Dunflops were pretty bad.... But, ya know, the old Goodyear slicks weren't too bad, not up to today of course, but they'd go pretty well, enough to overwhelm a street chassis of the day unless it was highly modified with 40 more pounds of bracing welded into the frame and well set up, or there was the aftermarket chassis option, like Rickman or Champion or Rob North.

Ya know, back in the 70s, the TZ750 was the baddest of the bad, the meanest thing on the AMA pro rovals. It dominated Daytona into the 80s. It was about 340 lbs dry weight and made 150 hp at best. A modern literbike would dust it, yet it'll idle, ride down to the store for milk without having to slip the clutch or needing a top end after 300 miles or a crank after 1200 miles. Yeah, bikes have improved. Let's be realistic, don't get carried away with how much better things were in the day. Heck, I was THERE.

But, now days, I'm too old to care. I have enough fun on my KLR blasting around the dirt roads around here on Shinko rubber making the horsepower my RD350 did with a bike that's 100 lbs heavier. Brakes? Heck, KLR brakes are almost as good as those quad leading shoe things I had on the GT550.

 

[Jack Giesecke]

Another observation about the old days. Back then, in the AMA, one had to make it to AMA Pro Expert to get to ride 750 class. As a pro novice, you were restricted to 250s. All fine and good for me, I couldn't afford a 750 and nobody that rode CRRC back then had one to race against, anyway. Imports by Yamaha were 200 each year between 1976 and 1979 for homoligation purposes. Could you imagine a TZ750 at Oak Hill? Ouch, that's gonna hurt.

All this over a 150 horsepower motorcycle. Now days, your average moron kid can go out and, if he has 14K iin his pocket, buy a Kawasaki ZX14 and go out and kill himself. Well, Darwin rules, i guess. Lots of old farts that have never been on a bike got caught up in the cruiser thing and bought and couldn't handle a 650 lb, 60 horsepower Harley, let alone a ZX14.

Yep, things have changed.

 

[GRU]

I was there also, Started in 62, saw the first Suzuka Circuit GP, have ridden most types of bikes, MX when it was a new thing, and Vintage MX (AHRMA)
won lots and lost lots. Agree about kids and sport bikes, But have three sport bikes and like them all, guess I just like to ride. Had a KLR, put over 40,000 miles on it......here to Nova Scotia, and here to Seattle, and back. Modern bikes are soooo much better. Last old bike 79 Ducati GT, wont come close to my wee strom.
Phil

 

[kickstand~prophet]

Still like the shape/style of the older models better. Now brakes with the rotors on most rides,that added alot towards safety. Like JG said the stiffer chassis has helped and FI also a plus. Still an old Kawi KZ or Suzuki GT or Honda turbo still gets me thinking I need one of those. Drew