In the various bike threads I seem to detect a split in the community between those who want the latest technology and those who view anything more advanced than a Ural as too much. I take a perhaps different view and perhaps people would care to comment?

I like bikes I understand. I can find a bad earth as easily as a holed diaphragm. It therefore really doesn't bother me if a bike has FI or carbs. I can carry a multimeter and some cable as easily as tube patches or a few jets and bits of rubber. There seems to be a lot of talk about obvious technology that really shouldn't worry us. If you've got pushrods they are simple to adjust, if you've DOHC and shims you should never have to touch them away from home. All the talk about the big technologies should be pointless?

What I don't like is big items that I can't carry and won't be available anywhere except a dealer unless they never ever fail. I don't have the skill to strip a gearbox never mind carry the kit to do it. I can't buy the software to talk to the vehicle ECU. I therefore need big items and sealed units to be reliable. This to me is where the less flashy technology comes in. It's not as sexy as the switch from tube tyres to tubeless or carbs to FI, but metal treatments, sintering technology, plastics etc. have really changed over the last 50 years. You can't tell if a 1980's gearbox will fail because they used stamped circlips or a modern one will fail because they replaced a forged item with a cast or sintered one. The only way then is to let people clock up the miles. Same goes for FI maps and ABS fault reactions, a few lines of code should be so simple as to never cause hassle, but they aren't always.

What puts me off old bikes is really the fiddling of previous owners. There is no way to tell if owner number 3 out of 6 bought his oil at Netto and only changed it when it became so thin it was only held inside the gaskets by suspended filth. What puts me off new designs is the fiddling of the manufacturers. They'll change a supplier or simplify a production process and we only find out when a 2009 model has some fault that 2008's didn't.

I guess having new/underdeveloped bikles and old/over used ones has pushed me to the middle ground. The right bike for me is one that's been about for four years and I've had my (greasy) hands on for 18 months



Andy