old bikes

[oldbmw]

separated from push starting an efi as roaming off topic

The more I learn about modern bikes the more I like the old triumphs I had back in the sixties and onwards.
In well over 100K Miles I Only once had a flat battery, and it was because I had parked the bike the night before with the lights on. I knew something was up the following morning because the bike did not start first kick. I did try a second kick as I wasn't feeling too bright. When that didn't work I looked around the bike and realised I had left the lights on and had a flat battery. The FIx?
Switch the lights off and turn the ignition switch to EMG instead of IGN. then One kick and it started. After half a minute switched it back to IGN and that was that.
I always felt secure on my old Triumphs. True they need more routine maintenance but because they needed it it was easy to do. Plus nearly any fault came on gradually so you could always fix it before it became a problem. EFI is maintenance free until it suddenly, without warning fails completely. Then it can cost more to fix than a new crank. On my old Triumphs the ignition was one wire taking power to the coil, a wire from the coil to the points and a HT lead. That was the wiring harness. Then there were three componenents. the coil, plug and the points. The points cost less than a gallon of petrol, you still have the coil and the plug.